Well, I've gotten some varied opinions on the stall speed of my next converter. I'm getting a real good deal on a 3000 and some people say that is way too high. It will be my first real mod, but i will have headers, 3" flowmaster, and a couple other small things. Is this stall speed going to be a problem at first without having a whole ton of power? this is on an 87 GTA L98. thanks

 

You just want the convertor to be matched with the rest your combination. The convertor should work with the power curve of your engine. I would say 3000 is a little high for a stock setup. You won't have enough power to utilize its potential. At 3000 you will be well into your power curve, instead something like a 2200 or 2400 would be a little better match.

 

I am going to be buying other things as I get the money, in a couple months I am going to be buying the holley stealthram, then after that a few more months I will be buying a decent sized cam with new rockers, lifters, springs, and such. So will it be fine for a daily driver until I do more mods?

 

A cheap 3000 stall converter will jst slow a stock car down and make it no fun to drive.

A good 3000 stall converter is a little overkill for a stock engine, but will work great and make the car infinitialy more fun to drive

 

it is a very good converter from what I have heard, NastyBird90 is getting me a deal from TCS out of Maryland so it should be real nice.

 

So because the guy that is going to sell it to you says it's good, it must be right. You are a pretty trusting person. I have some magic beans in my pocket here.....

 

well, I went over to LS1tech.com, and read a lot of good reviews over there, some guys with pretty fast cars are running them. But yeah, I am extremely trusting, how much for those beans?

 

But fast cars aren't fast just because of the convertor, they have matched the convertor with the cam and gears and the rest of the combination. Thats what makes them fast, but if you said you were getting a deal on it, and someone you trust says that it is a good piece, and you plan on upgrading to more performance parts such as a healthier cam in the future, then maybe you should get the deals while they are there.

 

oh yeah, i know that, but this will be the first thing I do so I was just curious as to how well it will work out

 

It will work just fine. It may generate a little more heat from the higher stall and its probably a smaller convertor with more slipping, but it will be fine. I ran a 3500 stall behind a 305 that had a little work done, nothing crazy, when I was building the 406 that the convertor was matched to, and it ran fine. You will just not be able to see much of a difference in the performance of your car until you upgrade to more power at higher rpm. But as far as running, you shouldn't have any problems running a 3000.

 

alright, thanks a lot, im going to put in a tranny cooler when I put in the new converter so who makes a good one or are they all the same?

 

Sorry, brain fart, i was thinking TCI. They make some big diameter high stalls that are total junk.

As for a cooler, i'm running a 28k lb GVW B&M plate style cooler in my car. IIRC it was about $60. Brand doesn't really matter much, from what i understand, B&M doens't even make the piece i have. The key is to get aplate style cooler. Much more efficient than the tube/fin style.

With this cooler my trans never went over 195' (as measured at the input to the cooler, which is the fluid coming from the converter = hottest part of trans) all through last summer no matter how hard i drove it or traffic i got into. 3k stall vigilante in a heavy full option vert only running 3.23 gears. Basicaly worst case scenario for slipping it.

One of the reasons i decided to take my car out of daily use was because i figured i was just killing the trans pumping cold fluid through it. all the time. In 50' weather in the fall cruise temp on the highway is only 125, and even racing it would only get to 165. If i was smart i'd use the factory cooler as a fluid heater after the big cooler but i'm too lazy to go through all that.