I have an L05 with the "383 truck" cam and 3.42 gears. I also have the "S-10" converter that was rated to stall at 2025 rpm on the 4.3. It stalls out ~2100-2200 rpm.

I'm still learning the specifics on what things complement each other the best.

Do you think I'd be better off with 3.23 gears? Or would that raise the stall speed too much?

 

Your gears don't effect stall speed. So go with them or some 3.42's.

Steve

 

Gears will affect RPM that the converter will let the engine flash up to when you just stab the pedal, 3.23 gears will load the converter more than 3.42 gears will and so 3.23 gears will cause a slightly higher flash RPM which could improve your times if that little extra RPM get's the engine into it's torque range better.

 

BUT at the same time you are losing the torque multiplication the higher rear gears would give for the entire quarter and probably keep you below your powerband at finish line. Id keep the gears and if you want more stall get a looser converter. Also, since you powerbrake at the track i bet the difference in stall speed would be almost immesurable what with the brakes loading up the converter I imagine the only time it would be different would be once they were released and i wonder if it would stay loaded up or if the converter would tighten up that much sooner. At any rate i dont think it would make a good difference.

 

having less gear won't help at all. the rpm to which you can flare a convertor has more to do with traction, engine power, and vehicle weight than it would such a minor change in gearing.
to figure out gears for performance you have to look at the whoel track. you need to figure out the basic power band that the engien runs in and try to use the whole thing through every gear when going down track. for example, if your engien makes peak power at 5000rpm, and you shift at 5000rpm too, then you want to reach 5000rpms in the highest gear you use before you get to the speed trap at the end of the track.
that way you are using every efficiant piece of power that the engien has as much as possible, come throughthe traps below that rpm and the car will still have more in it, come thourgh teh traps more than 500rpm above that and the car will not be accelerating through the traps.
the idea in drag racing is to accelerate as much as you can from teh starting line through the finish line, any engien rpm not used in that space is et you are leaving on the track.

later
tim

 

i thought that that converter was supposed to stall between 2600-3000 behind a healthy V8???

 

i think your talking about the 4 cylinder s10.. which will have ahigher stall then 2200rpm.. whihc i want to throw in my car with my mods when they are all done...:lala:

hey astro did you put the stall converter in yourself was it straight foward or did you take it to a shop?