Hello all,

I have been scoping this website for help and used it a lot on building my 84 Firebird. This place rocks!

Alright, down to the questions:

I am swapping in a 700R4 and a 350 into my Firebird in place of it's former 2.8 and 700R4 which have been since removed. I have a couple of questions.

1) What is a good stall speed for a converter for this car to keep it streetable and having the trans slip all the time? It is simply a base Firebird with a 350 that has a very mild cam, Edelbrock performer intake and holley 650 carb.

2)Did these vehicles come with lockup converters from the factory? Would I want a lockup converter?

2) The 700R4 is from a TPI Firebird and has the TV Cable. I want to know how to get this to work properly on a carbed engine and have the trans kick down when it is supposed to.

Thanks all!

 

Would this be the kit I would want to get the 700r4 working with the carb?

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...erm=555-157300

 

The cable alignment bracket is correct, the throttle cable bracket looks weak - I'd find a heftier piece - I'm using a nice chrome piece from Edelbrock - got it at summit about $40.

You'll need a TV cable from a carbed or TBI car - the TPI cables are too long from what I read.

The 700R4's all came with a lockup converter. Don't know about installing a non-lockup converter. If you use a lockup converter, you'll definitely need a lockup kit to manually lock it, since this is a computer controlled function and you no longer have a computer.

I installed a converter from a S-10 - it was a cheap way of getting a slightly higher stall - it stalls at about 2300rpms behind my 350 - several years ago there were many threads on the S-10 converter, do a search and you'll find them. Think I paid $125 shipped from GMpartsdirect.com for mine - 1/2 the price of most aftermarket ones.

 

Thanks so much! Well another thing is that the transmission was from an 84 Firebird and I don't recall if he said the motor was TBI or TPI. I would believe if it was the stock motor it would be TBI and I would be ok. We will just have to wait and see.

Is there any benefit to a higher stall converter? This thing is going to be a weekend cruise car and not raced, so would I be better off with a 1800-2000 rpm converter? I don't want to be slipping it all the time and have it burn up.

 

If it is indeed a 350, then it would have been TPI - the TBI cars never had 350's in them (but it could have been a TBI 350 swap). I also dont think TBI was out until later years - the TBI basically replaced the carbs - I think 1988 was the first TBI.

But a new TV cable isn't much.

To put it in layman's terms (since I'm an idiot myself )... a higher rpm stall just means that it takes a higher rpm to get the tranny half of the converter to start spinning, so it takes a higher rpm before the car starts to really go (any car at idle will roll forward in gear regardless of the stall). Racers use very high stalls, so that when they take off the engine is already in it's "powerband" (where it makes the most power). Us street folks usually like to have a bit higher than stock - stock is about 1300rpm - it saves a bit on gas I suppose. That S-10 converter I used stalled lower in the stock S-10 V6 setup, but it stalls higher behind a 350 at about 2300rpms (as I understand it). Regardless of any advertised stall, it's going to vary depending on the motor a bit.

My intake's powerband starts at about 1500 I think (it's ab Edelbrock Performer RPM), I have no specs for my cam - but since my powerband doesn't even start until 1500, I decided to do that S-10 converter - it was cheap, served the purpose well for me, and the easiest time to change is before install of the motor/tranny.

If you have money for a slightly higher stall converter, you might want to look into it - I wouldn't go crazy wil any 3000 stall on a weekend cruiser - but having one stall closer to 2000 would be a good choice. See if there's any stickies on converters in the tranny forum, or the tech articles, and post a question about it in the tranny section if you don't find any answers. I think there's also a good description of converters if you ask a question at www.ask.com, or google it to see.

Like I said I'm no expert - I just built what I could afford based largely on what I read here and elsewhere (it's a blessing that I don't have to fully understand it all in order for it to work, or I'd be walking )