I am looking to get a stall converter but im not sure what stall to get. i have an 87 gta with a 355, stock rear end, which i think has 2.73 gears?? i saw a chart on jeg's that recommended a stall speed no higher than 1800 for stock to 3.23. i was hoping to get one with a 2500 stall... would that work?

 

Alot of things factor in to stall speed: What cam are you running? What is the weight of your car? Is it a daily driver, street strip, or drag car?

In theory match your stall speed to the rpm at which your cam makes peak torque. That way if you ever get the car to hook up you will launch it at peak torque.

 

A 2500 stall would work but the converter stall should match the rest of the car. You probably won't see much if any improvement in performance without doing other changes to compliment the stall speed. You'll probably notice a drop in fuel economy.

A factory stall speed is 1200-1500 rpm. For a basically "stock" non performance car, I wouldn't recommend going above 2200.

 

my car is going to be a street/strip car. right now its bored .30 over, 10:1 compression, cam (.214/.224 dur, .443/.465 lift), edelbrock shorties, and 3" flowmasters. I am planning on getting a bigger cam... not quite sure how big i can go though. I am going to port my heads, so does anyone have any idea how big i can go? I am also looking at getting the holley stealth ram. if im going to get a converter with a 2500 stall, should i look for a cam with a powerband around 2500-6000? will the stealth ram have any influence on what cam or converter i should get even though it helps with high end power? i really appreciate the help!

 

Stall speed should be within a couple of hundred rpm of the engine's peak torque for best performance. To keep the engine in it's best powerband, you'll also need to use deeper gears. There's always going to be a trade off of performance and daily driveability. It's very easy to mismatch parts. Although they'll still work together, they won't be as good as better matched components.

ie: New intake system, new headers, new cam and performance will increase. Until the factory heads are replaced with something much better, you won't realize how good the other parts you put on will really do because the factory heads are so restrictive.

The above engine work, factory or better stall converter and 2.73 gears and they'll work but deeper gears will show more improvement.

I also hate magazine ads showing comparisons. They never or rarely show true 1:1 comparisons. Here's what a car does with a stock converter and 2.73 gears and here's what the car does with brand X higher stall converter and 3.73 gears. Changing 2 or more items isn't a fair comparison so you'll never know what just a converter swap would have done.