I have been getting two sides of the story, One side claims they gain considerably by locking up as early as second gear during a race. while others claim you will go slower and also wreck your torque converter..

I intend to setup a 4th gear only lockup, is my TC in danger of being destroyed if I raced in OD with it locked up?

 

Thats something you'll have to experiment and find out for yourself.

The whole point of a torque converter is to allow slip, which increases torque multiplication. Thats why you see people on the dyno with high stall converters putting down mad torque figures. Theoreticly, this should get you down the track faster

However, some people claim that locking the converter gives you power transfer of a manual tranny, getting you down the track faster.

I would experiment and see what works better for you. If you find that locking gets you quicker times, then I would invest in an efficient converter that contains a multiple disc converter clutch specifically for WOT lockups.

 

As mentioned above, that's something you'll have to find out for yourself. Every seems to have a different opinion on this matter.

It's just like the thermostat arguement as well as the TPI Vs. Caa(sputter sputter)arb arguement. There will never be a definitive answer... it's all based on how you like it.

 

It is correct that a 'normal' converter will not withstand a WOT pass while locked up?

For now, all I want to do is wire in a 4th gear lockup. However seeing as how my new trans will allow me to go WOT in 4th gear, will my TC get damaged if I decided to do a few highway WOT runs with it locked up?

In other words... do I need to bother wiring in a vaccum switch to kick lockup off when I floor it in OD.

Thanks.

 

Anyone?

 

You "do not" want to lockup the torque converter during a quarter mile run. The purpose of the TC is to multiply torque at all times. If the torque converter is not built properly, you can possibly run slower that if you locked it up. If you lockup the TC, (in 2nd gear) you will cut the life of the transmission dramaticlly. If the torque converter is not built to do a WOT lockup, (such as a Vigilante 5 disc 9.5") you will shorten the TC lockup clutch life dramaticlly. The only gains I have ever seen with locking up a TC is on Gran Nationals, and that was a MPH gain, did nothing for the ET, and this is only occasionally. With the right "torque converter", it will run quicker, faster, and the transmission will live longer.