Which converter would you use on a high 11 second car (before the 150 shot), for the money? PTC 10" spragless converter, stall about 3K or little more, anti balloon, ~$440 Hughes 10" GM30BPO-HD, upgrade sprag & stator, stall about 3K or little more, anti balloon, ~$400 Any experience with these converters or others? I'm running 1/4 mile with street/strip toy with 3.42 gear, soft tires, maybe a small shot of nitrous.
I'm interested to see what everyone's input is, as well. I was about to make a similar post. I'll be more in the mid-low 11 range on motor, but the car used to be a nitrous'd small block... you think I'd DE-plumb it? Naaaaaaaaaah :bglasses: I know I need something with a tight converter, but I'm not sure what stall to go with. I have 3.31's and a locker.
I agree Ed, my old converter was just too loose in the upper rpm ranges. My plan for nitrous will only make this situation worse! I'm looking for 3000 to 3200 stall that gets tight from 4000 rpm's. My old TCI Breakaway was great with the 350 and did fine with the 455 for a good year or so. It got to the point that I could cruise at 4000 rpm's in a given gear and floor it and the rpm's would immediately jump to 5100 or so.
I used a 10" TCI converter for a couple of years, then it balloned and took out my crank. It was a $300 converter (cost me an engine rebuild with a new crank, also messed up the front bearing in the transmission that the snout of the converter rides on). I then decided that a $700 dollar converter was pretty cheap compared to rebuilding the whole engine, so I bought a 9" coan converter. I did not realize how sorry my old converter was until I experienced what a good converter was like. The coan would stall at 4400 RPM I was shifting at 5800 and with a 3.42 gear I could cruise around town and the converter would tighten up to 1800 RPM at about 50 MPH. Not to mention it picked up .2 and 2 MPH in the quarter mile. I have no experience with any of the other converters you have listed. I would caution you that sometimes you get what you pay for, so don't skimp on the converter. P.S. I will never use a cheap TCI (sloshverter) on any type of performance vehicle again. :Smarty:
Spend the extra dough, it's worth it or all of the reasons Kelly said. Coan, ATI, both good converters.
Unless your Buick is a dedicated 1/8th mile racer or a tractor puller do not use a spragless converter! Way too inefficient for high mph & cruising. Without the sprag (one-way clutch), the stator cannot get out of the way so it interrupts the toroidal flow path between the turbine and the impeller. You're left with a lot of fluid shearing, heat generation & wasted energy. Be sure to discuss your particular application directly with the converter manufacturers. Warehouse distributors and speed shops are good at selling converters but the manufacturer will do the best job of setting you up with what you need.
Thanks for your input Greg. Had no idea about the spragless deal. Anyone had specific experience with this Hughes Converter?
