Civic owners never cease to amaze me

To make a long story short, the little RS ate a '99 or '00 Civic Si by a good car length 0-55 or so. Chalk up another car that should have eaten me (his 0-60 is about 7 flat, believe it or not!!), but didn't

1 thing I wanted to ask you guys about was torque converters. I'm gonna be getting new tires in the spring (BFG Comp T/As), so I won't be traction limited anymore (the existing Firehawk GTA's are just about on wear bars!). This is gonna sound ignorant, but what exactly does a torque converter in an automatic do, what is stall speed, and what's a good choice for a 2.8? I've heard a "better" converter will give me a harder launch. Keep in mind that within the next 2 years or so, the 2.8 will get an overhaul and will have the Crane cam, etc. Therefore, I'd like to plan ahead.

My tranny is in perfect shape, and by no means needs an overhaul anytime soon. Is this is a big job I should wait on? How hard is it? Does the tranny need to be taken out? I've got basic mechanics skills, but I am learning!

Thanks for anyones help.

[This message has been edited by Jason E (edited November 30, 2000).]

 

Stall speed is kind of a dark magic; someone on the trans board could help more with that. I can tell you tho that stall varies with the HP of a motor. A TC that would stall at 2000 RPM might stall at 3000 rpm with a higher HP motor. Stall gets increased as the TC gets smaller... the unit gets more "loose". Too high of a stall would cause you to have to rev the motor higher to make the car move from a stop. Grossly overstated, your car might move from a stop with barely any gas now, but if you got a TC way out of your motor's range, you might have to rev to 1000 RPM to get the car to move forward. (Again, that's an over-inflated view; but it'll do the trick.)

But you do need to drop the tranny down to replace the TC. The trans doesn't need to be taken apart.. the torque convertor is a slip-fit on the input shaft of the trans. All you'd have to do is fill the TC with a quart or two of trans fluid.. you fill it from the trans side; it slowly gets sucked inside by gravity.

If you can find it, look for the Haynes GM Transmission Overhaul book. It's usually by the normal Haynes books. It gives a picture by picture rebuild of the TH-200-4R, TH-350, TH-400, and TH-700-R4. Granted you won't have to rebuild your trans, but it's got a nice "how it works" chapter in the beginning. I think it goes into the basic op of torque convertors.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
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