I have a stout ~370 HP 360 infront of my A833OD and have been driving it hard for the past 22k miles with no issues. There is an issue with the counter shaft hole in the aluminum case getting egg shapped resulting in the gears seperating and failure but that takes some real abuse from a high torque motor. Plus its easily fixed bybushing the case.
Everyone talks about how bad the gear spread in these trannies are but for me its a non issue, they may not be ideal for a race car but for a street car I wouldn't worry about it. My car has run a best 1/4 of 13.7 at 102 mph with the OD tranny and its not the tranny that is holding the car back from potentially getting to the 12's. That 13.7 was obtained with a very traction limited and miserable 2.2 sec 60' time, get the chassis and traction issues sorted out and I am right at the 12's.
Plus with 3.55 gears and the 27" diameter tire I am running right at 2000 rpm at 65 on the hiway, this is getting me 21-22 mpg.
