How much is too much for the street? I'm having a new glide built and my cam card calls for a 3000 stall converter, and I know that higher stalls will slip some during regular driving and I want to balance hard acceleration with decent driveabilty, not so much mileage.
Torque Converters are a FUNNY thing. The same converter will stall at different rates ... depending on the engine it is installed behind. Big Block = more torque so it will stall at a different rate than a small block. ( General rule ) The torque converter Does not go to 3000 RPMs and then take off ... The car will move long before 3 grand. Weight of the car is also a factor. Like said before ... get a good cooler ... to keep from toasting the converter/transmission.
If your car is heavy and you have tall rear end gears, it'll feel kind of mushy like a slipping clutch when you're driving around town in high gear or going up hills in high gear. But if you have a light weight car and a rear end ratio like 3.5:1 or 4.11:1, it won't be so bad. Since a powerglide is a two speed, it might feel a little more mushy taking off from a stop at light throttle or when it first shifts into 2nd than it would with a 3 speed like a TH350 or TH400. What ****s is when you need to cruise at only about 35 or 40 mph in high gear for an extended time. The transmission will get hotter and hotter, and it'll feel mushy and crummy. If you have a transmission temp gauge, you'll see it climb up to 190 - 195 - 200 and it'll just keep climbing if the cooler isn't big enough, so you'll have to downshift it a while to cool it back down. But if you're cruising at 75 mph on the freeway, you'll be running nice and cool with no problems. If you've got a big heavy car with some tall rear end gears and you do a lot of cruising, I wouldn't recommend it. Heat is the enemy of transmissions, so a big transmission cooler will make your transmission last longer.
High temps kill transmissions. A guy I know with a blown bbc in a 70's Z28 ran a 5K converter. Maiden run, he drove down the hill to a freeway ramp and got on it. Drove home, UP the hill, pulled into the driveway and the trans was fried. Now runs a 3K converter with an extra large cooler and a dedicated fan. If your cars a cruiser, every think think about the old Buick switch pitch converters. Uses an electric switch to change stall.
My car runs a 3k converter, 3:42's, weighs in at around 3 grand...and freakin HATES that converter at anything less than 3500 r.p.m. I also have a big block. it's a lightswitch-you can "sneak" away from a redlight, but it still sounds like you're running the indy 500. on a typical drive to work, I spend around 90 percent of it in SECOND. and on the highway- to get it out of the "slip", I have to be running 75-80. which is fine, unless you have to drive through Williamson county (or any other speed trap towns) I'm installing a 4 speed, so it will have any damn stall speed I want.
I run a TCI 9" convertor in my Coupe for 8 years , 355 Chevy and 3.55 gears and 30" Hurst slicks.... driven all the time.......car weighs in at 2050 lbs. Talk to Stan at TCI and tell him exactly what you want to be able to do, and they can make it happen.
www.edgeracingconverters.com Andre at EDGE is arguably the BEST converter guy on the planet. One of the 9,5" Street Edge's is what I would run. Do NOT cheap out on a converter. "You get what you pay for" is more true with converters than any other speed part. Chat with Andre a bit, he will set up the PERFECT converter for your car.
Good converters work fine on the street. i run a 3800 Dynamic. other than the fact my car will idle and give you a neck spasm if i boot it you would never know it had a converter in it. Good converters do not have that charcteristic rubber band feel. They actually drive like a stock one. They are also very efficient. Poor converters or cheap converters are made by opening up the clearances on a stock converter so it slips and couples poorly. Good converters are made by taking a smaller core converter and making it bullet proof or super strong . Because of this smaller size the stall comes because the converter is small and can be overdriven when it is at standstill with the stator locked but when it begins to roll and the stator begins to move (no longer locked) it becomes a normal converter and does not have that characteristic slop the poor converters have. I and all my motor custmers use Frank Lupos Dynamic converters . They are built this way DOn
Damn i wish there was some way i could have known you were having that trans built.. I want to pull the built glide and 10" converter out of my truck and put in a 700R4.. I had it listed in the cl***ified's last month for 450 complete with shifer.. I'd still sell it if you know of anyone who want's another one.. Anyway, i've had two car's with 3000,3500 stahl's in them. Both driven on the street. As was said, a BIG, quality cooler is a must..Stahl's create slippage which creates heat which will kill the trans. But otherwise, never had a problem with either. One is the truck the glide is in now. I've put over 200 mile's on it in less than a week and a half, in traffic and out on the open road and it's fine in both places. My only ***** is the 4.10 gear's in it. Low end is wild, but kinda low for highway use with a 10" converter, you can tell it's not 'locked' for lack of a better word. There's slippage so the rpm's are up there. Tony
So it sounds like it's doable. Tony I'm sorry I missed the ad... Sounds like I need an addtional cooler to run, now I have one built inot the bottom of the 36 radiator, but would I be good with that and one of those B&M stacked jobs as well? of course I need to find a converter, anyone use ACC converters? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GM-P...020QQitemZ300156152118QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
I like to use the factory Ford F-150/Explorer optional transmission cooler. All over eBay for 5 to 10 dollars ... Has inverted flare fittings, well made and very efficent. Easy to mount in line also ... with the brackets that are already on the cooler from Ford.
well i run a 3500 stall behind my bbc, cam range starts about 4000 and i run 4.11 gears. I dont have alot of power until like 25 mph in first. if you run a high stall speed and tall gears you wont be able to jaunt around town that easily. if you run a high stall and lower gears you wont get power as quickly as it takes more time to build rpm to get into your cam range. depending on your gears if you want to run a low gear 3.92 or lower run a 2500 stall you will make power enough to scoot around town and not make a whole bunch of heat. If you run high gears 4.10 or higher go with the 3000 stall. just do whats going to be healthier for the motor. nobody likes to turn 3 grand to go 25, it may sound cool but its going to end up costing you cash when you burn something up.
The Jalopy Journal
