Well after a week of calls, debating and discussion with friends and family, I elected to go with David Husek's TBP transmission. The 4 builders recommended from the board, Century Automotive, Extreme Transmissions, Jimmy's and Turbo Buick Performance. What I found is all 4 of these guys know each other and respect each other greatly. They are all good guys, you can't go wrong with any of them.
My transmission decision:
Husek TBP 200r4 with Husek 3021 3500rpm stall
Why: David was incredibly professional, quick to spend time with me to explain everything about everything. Diagnose what was the most likely root cause (RCA) of the failure and make professional recommendations. Finally David was able to deliver a solution very quickly and provide input on fixing some other problems. My feeling was, David was going to be available and easily accessible when I went to install the transmission and if I had any questions as we went forward. Everything so far has been great working with him and I would recommend him as a 1st choice of the 4 very competent builders listed in this thread.
All 4 vendors are best in class Turbo Buick transmission builders with great reputations and solid followings. My dead transmission was a Stage I from Jimmy's in Chicago which means it was essentially stock with a shift kit and it survived 600 rwtq for 2.5 years, no service and a improperly designed cooling system in HOT as hell Texas. Jimmy makes a FINE box, the reason it failed:
1) Cooling System:
The Cooling system was CRAP as the 3rd Gen F-body radiator cooler was bypassed and transmission cooler lines were routed to an undersized B&M cooler, with no air-flow and no auxiliary fan. Although I had no trans temp gauge or logs, I do have a cup of absolutely burnt trans fluid, the trans cooked.
2) Improper Maintenance:
Had I actually been doing transmission fluid changes I would have known my fluid was burning, and probably done some research to discovered issue #1. I've had my Turbo Buick for 3 years, it has had about 600 rwtq for 2.5 of those and I've never changed the fluid and only checked it once. This will never happen again, but it was an expensive lesson. All of my fast cars have been Standards, needless to say the CTS-V got a full Dextron 6 fluid flush last week.
3) Inadequate Transmission Internals:
On top of an improperly designed cooling system & Improper Maintenance, my transmission wasn't really built for what I was doing with it. That being said, I'm not sure I would have proactively done much about that but the Jimmy's stage I trans, like all the builders stage I trans is just not built for that type of power.
4) TV Cable improperly adjusted:
The TV Cable adjustment on the Turbo Buick (given all the factory parts are there) is pretty easy, but leaving it loose and thus not increasing line pressure at heavy throttle applications was not smart. I'm not sure this should be on this list because it is hard to misadjust. I'm not 100% sure mine was ever off but I never really checked it until I lost 1st gear so I have to put it on here and maybe it should fall under #2.
Well guys, I've learned a LOT of lessons on the Turbo Buick Transmissions. 1, they are pretty weak compared to say a 6L90 but going to a 4L80 (after doing the Math) was $1200 or so more than going with a "Stage 2.5 or 3 2004R". Plus fabrication time and crap that I just don't want to do on this car. 2, you should match your converter with the Turbo, I think the Husek 3021 is going to be the right fit for a car that sees only the street and gets raced from a slow role to the 100 mph range every once in a while. I'm going to post a thread on my transmission cooling system build and install just to share later today.
Thanks again everyone.
