Editing Choosing a stall converter

'''How to choose a stall converter?''' I may be not-the-best person to attempt this, but until someone better takes a stab at it, here I go: If you have an automatic transmission, then you don't have a clutch pedal. You have a torque converter instead. Most of my experience is with V8s, so that's the focus here. Let's start with the "stall". Drive your car to a deserted road, stop, watch the tach, and stand on the gas very abruptly. Assuming everything is functioning normally, the tach will jump, to at least 1200 RPM, before the car actually begins to jump forward. Or the tires go up in smoke, depending on your combo. That is your "flash stall". Now, repeat, but this time keep your left foot on the brake pedal, hard. But don't do it for more than a couple of seconds, then do a gentle drive afterward. Assuming you didn't just shred the tires, that was your "foot-brake stall". Now that I'm started, there's so much to cover that I'm not sure how to proceed without making it confusing. ( I do have A.D.D.) It all inter-relates. I want to make it fascinating and educational. Anyway, back to stall. You can find all sort of descriptions and explanations, but your first interest is in what your stall does for your car. Need mostly centers on your camshaft, heads, compression, gearing, and expectations. Tuning and fuel quality are your responsibility. For this thread we must assume you got the tune right and run enough octane. I guess the best way to proceed is to detail 5 different combos I've owned and driven, that really stand out in my recollections: Trying to keep this in chronological order, the first combo is a '79 Firebird. 150-HP 301 with a slightly leaky Q-Jet hurting MPG but not driveability, backed by a TH350, a 2.73:1 axle, and on new Firestone 215/75R15 tires. I bought it that way, at too high a cost because it was so cherry, and that used up all the money I was hoping to spend on performance mods. So I paid attention to what I had. The converter was an 1800-stall. I could, occasionally, chirp a tire from a dead stop. But i soon got curious about the converter slippage: Cruising along at 55 MPH, lift off the throttle, the RPM instantly dropped 200 RPM. Ease back into it, it came back up by 200 RPM. In later years, I came to learn that this is typical of most stock GM converters, though I doubted, and still doubt, that that converter was stock. But then I tried it the other way: stomping the gas, RPM climbed another 200 RPM. Did that mean a total of 400 RPM of slippage? I lifted off. Yes, a total slip at WOT of 400 RPM. Again, fairly typical it turns out. Lesson learned: normal slip of torque converters. Also applies to lockup style when not locked. Combo 2: '78 Camaro LG3 ( 145-HP 305 ) TH350, swapped stock 1200-stall for B&M TorkMaster 2000 converter, 3.08:1 axle, 235/70R15 tires. I know this converter was stock, I know it was 1200 RPM flash stall, I know the slippage was the same as my 'bird already described above, and I know it drove fine for granny. But I decided to swap it. The B&M gave my combo a 1700 RPM flash stall, the launch felt much better. It felt like I had swapped to a 350, when launching. And by launching, I mean flooring the gas the instant the light went from red to green. It pushed me into the seat noticeably more, and I loved it. I thought I had invested wisely, and I felt I got what I paid for. But I was in for another surprise. I finally stopped playing in traffic and got on the highway. I was so stunned to discover my slippage wasn't 200 RPM. It was just 50 RPM! So I stomped the go pedal, the RPM shot up by another 350, for a total of 400. I didn't bother to check my MPG, this carb was also leaky, and I always did 17 MPG, same as with the 2.41:1 axle it had before. But that aside, I know it would help MPG. After all, my previous '78 / LG3 / TH350 / 1200 / 2.41:1 / 205-75R14 Camaro did 23 MPG with a best of 26. I can't say the 2000-stall drove better than the 1200-stall in the snow, but I can say it wasn't any worse. Combo 3 was a friend's '65 Mustang. It had an 8.3:1 302 with Roush 200 heads, a Comp Magnum 292 cam, headers, intake, carb, 3500-stall, C4, 3.80:1 spool. Tires were 25" diameter. That thing needed 10.5:1 compression, but a full summer of tuning got it driveable. To the point that he swapped street radials for drag tires. Then we went out to the exact center of nowhere, did up the 5-point race harnesses, and he let it fly. If you've ever felt a jet plane on takeoff, this puts them all to shame. Nothing you've ever experienced at any amusement park even comes close, either. This was like God's own pillow-covered sledgehammer to the heiney. First experiences are always more vivid than follow-ups, and that's the case here. This wasn't to be my last experience with race converters, but it was an eye-opener. Following that, I was playing with an '85 Camaro with a mildly modified L69, 700R-4, 3.42:1, and sticky 215/60R15s. I decided on a B&M TorkMaster 2400. It drove pretty stock, until I swapped the heads. Finally it all came together: No traction in first gear, very very fun! Driveability? Not annoying, not irritating, not aggravating. Snow? no clue. Rain? easy to drive, but stomp the fun pedal, and no traction in first or second gears. But I took the car apart, saved some parts, and a year later I was putting that converter in a '95 Z28 convertible with the LT1, 4L60E, 2.73:1, and 235/55R16s. How to describe this? My flash stall was now 2400, twin black stripes became effortless, from a rolling 5 MPH start, and even starting with the 4-wheel-disc-brakes applied enough to keep the car stopped, getting both tires turning took like half throttle. But the driveability? It was hell. My slippage was always 1200, maybe because someone or something had caused it to fall off a workbench some weeks prior. But no denting was found. Still, lockup no longer worked. I replaced the trans, and still no lockup. One late night, taking dad home, I was at a light, and along came a Porsche Boxster. Killed his fool junk! Great converter for playing, needs some rear gear. Great tragedy I never tried it in any snow, in either car. So, the combo is everything. If you're studying the COMP CAMS catalog, for example, you'll note that once you look past the smallest cams, they begin noting stall speeds. But as with all things camshaft, these are for the popular engine. If you're gonna pick a cam for a lesser-displacement version, read the notes for the next larger cam. For racing, you want a stall about 500 RPM below the RPM at which your engine makes peak torque. For most mild SBC 350s, torque peak is typically 3500 RPM. With Vortec heads and such, 4000 is more like it. AFR heads should raise that to 4500. Choosing converters is also about size. Stock SBC converters are about 300 MM, which is nearly 12". They're referring to the outer diameter of the whole converter. Why it matters? My TM2400, above, was a loose 12". That looseness is most of why it was able to slip 1200 RPM all the time. Had it been a tight 10.5", still 2400 flash stall, it would have been much less slip, and much less irritating. So, this bit about loose or tight: Loose converters are great when your static compression is way low, or way high. Way high, a loose converter helps reduce detonation. Way low, it covers the soggy off-idle. And a cam that's way too big is the same soggy feel as way low compression. Efficiency: This is difficult to discuss. Look back at my '78 Camaro. The TM2k was much more efficient than the stock converter it replaced, and was also more efficient than what was in my '79 Firebird. But how to tell, the reduced slip at cruise? Partly. That it had that plus the better launch? Mostly. So my TM2400 wasn't efficient? Correct. Are all converters rated by the same standards? NO! Watch some vids on You-Tube where guys have recorded their gauges while driving around. I watched mostly LS1 F-car guys' vids, but that's enough to illustrate the point. Yes, their results are combination-dependant, but I watched a 4000-stall drive tighter than my 2400 stall. And at 4000 stall, it's not just the smaller diameter. Gas mileage: My 2400 most definitely did hurt my LT1's MPG, in town and on the highway. But would that 2000 have helped my '78 in town, had I fixed the carb, and acted mature when lights went green? Probably. It's not as simple as less stall = more MPG. Engines can lug to the point it's un-mistakeable, but like detonation, there are lesser levels where the driver really can't tell. And if your converter is too tight, it will hurt your MPG. Performance: Is it all in the launch? Nope. The instant after an upshift is called the shift recovery. And with an automatic, how much the RPM drops from the upshift isn't controlled by gear ratios alone. Yep, we're back to the converter. And it's effect on performance after the upshift is more pronounced with a wide-ratio 700R-4 than with a close-ratio TH350. With the TH350, the launch is what the converter helps most. But with more gear, you need more stall. Torque converters are much more sensitive to load than to engine torque. More gear reduces the load that the converter feels. Same with taking weight out of the car. But not only that, having more gear also takes load off the transmission, helping it survive stoplight antics. When to buy what? Should this be an early mod? Or later, after everything else? The first mod in the drivetrain should be making sure you're not running a 2.73:1 axle ratio with 26" tires. With taller tires, a bit more than 2.73. [[Category:Transmission]] [[Category:Undeveloped articles]]

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