5500 Stall Converter Cruising (Video)

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clinteg

clinteg

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Today was a nice day and since that's rare in winter, I headed for a quick turn around the block. I mostly just wanted to post this up for educational purposes because I know some folks wonder how an 8" converter acts on the street. Several guys here run them but I had a hard time finding a video showing it before I bought mine. Unfortunately the car is sort of in "don't go far from home" mode since I have no alternator on it (cross threaded bolt in my block) and everything that keeps the motor fed and cooled is electric. This was a last minute thought so it starts at cruise speed. I couldn't get too crazy with acceleration since I had a phone and steering wheel in one hand and the other on the shifter. And disregard the fuel pressure drop. That was due to slosh on an almost empty fuel cell. I'll get a better vid later but this is the last time I'll probably have it out for the next few months getting everything finished out.

 
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Looks good, I have no doubts with today's converter tech. I vote to take some hills and see how far it slips once you get a couple hundred miles on it. My 3800 got better with time. Love it now!
 
Ha here in Kansas there are no hills. Only straight roads with left and right turns!. Hills are non existent in this area.
 
Nice Job Clint. Car sounds great. Would love to see how it sounds and acts taking off normal from a stop sign. Maybe a thought for your next vid
 
fishy68 said:
Nice Job Clint. Car sounds great. Would love to see how it sounds and acts taking off normal from a stop sign. Maybe a thought for your next vid
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Very true, Tracy. Sounds light years above, the 10 " 3500 TCI that was 1000 rpm flash, at freeway speeds for me.
 
No problem guys. Like I said, it was a last minute thought as I was already almost back home. Next time I'll be hands free with the GoPro and I'll do more take off, cruising at different speeds, etc. Making videos is something that I've found that I actually enjoy doing so definitely expect more!
 
clinteg said:
No problem guys. Like I said, it was a last minute thought as I was already almost back home. Next time I'll be hands free with the GoPro and I'll do more take off, cruising at different speeds, etc. Making videos is something that I've found that I actually enjoy doing so definitely expect more!
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Cool! I like doing videos too. Right now all I have is a decent camera. Hoping to get a GoPro also.
 
You needed to be holding the camera, a cup of coffee, eating danish and driving at the same time to achieve pro status... :)

Cool video.
 
OK OK Clint. the next time you come by my house making that kind of noise again. you BETTER stop and give me a ride. its way to long since i have had a good ride. LOL LOL
 
crackedback said:
You needed to be holding the camera, a cup of coffee, eating danish and driving at the same time to achieve pro status... :)

Cool video.
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I'm gonna have to plan that one out! lol :coffee2:


moe7404 said:
OK OK Clint. the next time you come by my house making that kind of noise again. you BETTER stop and give me a ride. its way to long since i have had a good ride. LOL LOL
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Let me know where you live man! I'll gladly stop by next time.
 
Yup the converters, well at least good quality converters being made now are way better than older ones. I have a PTC 9.5 inch 4000 stall in my 440 Duster and love it. Drove it plenty including to and from the track 110 miles each way. I live in New England and we have plenty of hills. Mine acts like a tight converter under part throttle then delivers crazy torque when I nail it. My advice to anyone buying a new converter is to avoid el cheapos out of the warehouses. Buy from a good reputable converter builder and don't buy it until you know for sure what the rest of the combo will be, I.E. engine combo, cam, compression, intake. Rear gears, vehicle weight. The more info the better. If the person you are talking to does not ask for as much info as possible, I would buy from someone else. The torque converter is one of the most important parts in your car. clinteg your car sounds great. What engine are you running?
 
Doosterfy said:
Yup the converters, well at least good quality converters being made now are way better than older ones. I have a PTC 9.5 inch 4000 stall in my 440 Duster and love it. Drove it plenty including to and from the track 110 miles each way. I live in New England and we have plenty of hills. Mine acts like a tight converter under part throttle then delivers crazy torque when I nail it. My advice to anyone buying a new converter is to avoid el cheapos out of the warehouses. Buy from a good reputable converter builder and don't buy it until you know for sure what the rest of the combo will be, I.E. engine combo, cam, compression, intake. Rear gears, vehicle weight. The more info the better. If the person you are talking to does not ask for as much info as possible, I would buy from someone else. The torque converter is one of the most important parts in your car. clinteg your car sounds great. What engine are you running?
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I agree. Don't cheap out on a converter! The motor is a typical 416/340 stroker build except that it's now a 417 and it has the good 'ol W2's. Has some custom made internals such as pistons, roller cam, valves (made by Rev), and pushrods. I hated going the more expensive custom route but that's what had to be done to make everything correct. 11:1 CR (8:1 Dynamic) to run on 91.
 
Finally got around to doing a quick cruise. I took my neighbor for his first ride in this video. He always talks about how fast his Nova was back in the day and how NOBODY ever beat him. Well you can hear what he says in the end of the video lol.

The car was running FAT as hell so I dropped the jets down to 77 in the front and 80 in the rear just before this ride. I also installed my 1" carb spacer that I completely forgot to install when I put it back together last year. I was probably losing a few ponies and torque with that alone. But now she runs oh so much better! Normal acceleration has smoothed out completely from what it was doing. Before it was TAT TAT TAT TAT TAT TAT until I got it up to higher rpm. I thought that was the cam but apparently that was from the carb feeding it way too much fuel. I'm much happier with the way it cruises around town now. Of course I have a heavy foot so there's plenty of tire shredding and fuel consumption in this video. PRIUS OWNERS BEWARE!

And yes I know I was bouncing the rev limiter at times (which I don't like to do at all). The new tune is putting down more power and I wasn't used to the rpm's getting there so quickly. Anyhow, sit back, turn up the volume, watch the rpm/mph gauges and how it reacts on the street and enjoy!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxxMShVTXrs"]5500 Stall Around Town - YouTube[/ame]
 
I don't know if it's something screwy on my end but it kept switching to fast forward mode and the audio would cut out sometimes for seconds at a time. Still an awesome ride though. Looks like you might be just a little lean now at WOT. If your running straight gas WOT is generally best in the mid to high 12's, E-10 needs to be richer yet, although there is some variance in engine builds. Get it to hook up good and you'll really lay down a good number and probably make the Chevy guy poop his pants, lol
 
fishy68 said:
I don't know if it's something screwy on my end but it kept switching to fast forward mode and the audio would cut out sometimes for seconds at a time. Still an awesome ride though. Looks like you might be just a little lean now at WOT. If your running straight gas WOT is generally best in the mid to high 12's, E-10 needs to be richer yet, although there is some variance in engine builds. Get it to hook up good and you'll really lay down a good number and probably make the Chevy guy poop his pants, lol
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Nope that was just me fast forwarding the video at cruise so it also cuts out the audio. Didn't think anyone wanted to watch the entire thing in real time since the gauges could be watched in fast forward easily. Thanks for the tip on the AF ratio. I wasn't sure what the optimal number should be yet. It's pure gas no ethanol. I can't imagine trying to jet it back up though. Ran like crap compared to what it does now on normal acceleration..
 
80/84 to 77/82. I had a local shop take a look at my plugs and he said I'd need to go down at least 2 jet sizes because it looked so rich on the plugs so I did. I wanted 78/80 but they didn't have the 78's in stock at the time.
 
are you running a manual VB? One thing I noticed was the rpm drops between shifts(it appears), when not nailing it, looked like no rpm change. Do you feel positive shifts driving normal?
 
FredS said:
are you running a manual VB? One thing I noticed was the rpm drops between shifts(it appears), when not nailing it, looked like no rpm change. Do you feel positive shifts driving normal?
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Yes it's a manual VB and I do feel more positive shifts at higher rpm (3000 ish) vs softer shifts at around 2000 rpm. Towards the end of the video where I put the caption "2nd", you could barely tell it really shifted at that rpm but the rpm stays about constant and the mph will go up typically. The higher the rpm, the more positive the shift, which is what I would expect with this high of a stall converter. I personally like the softer shifts at low rpm. I don't know why people want to feel a hard shift at low rpm, jerking every time. That seems like it would get annoying, but that's just me. I wanted a car that felt docile cruising town and then becomes an animal on the throttle.

But I really just wanted to show folks that these newer high stall converters really aren't bad at all driving on the street (plus the spool). With the trans cooler, temps haven't been a problem yet either.
 
Have you ever ran this motor with a lower stall converter? Just curious. Stroker's make so much torque, they can deal with a lower stall quite well.
Not trying to take anything away from your observations. I think it's helpful for people to see how a high stall behaves too.
 
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