Perfect street/strip converter

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doogievlg

doogievlg

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What is everyone opinion on the perfect street/strip converter for a car with street gears (3:55/3:73).

No cam has been picked so I am thinking I will pick a cam to suit the car. For power it would be nice to throw a big cam in the car and make tons of power but then I would need a higher stall and I get concerned about building heat. I want to drive the car on some trips over 200 miles but I also would like the car to be deep into the twelves with a stock stroke small block.

.30 over 360 with aluminum heads, flat tops, performer rpm intake and Holley 750. 727 trans with 3:55 gears.
 
Really the cam would reflect what converter to run but if your going backwards, a 2500 stall for a street car is great.
 
19blockhead72 said:
Really the cam would reflect what converter to run but if your going backwards, a 2500 stall for a street car is great.
Click to expand...

That limits my cam by quit a bit though. I don’t want to run something super loose like a 3500 on the street but I don’t want to kill the power with a small cam to run a 2500 converter.
 
I run a 3500 stall Turbo Action "Tight 10" with a Comp XE285XL, 3.23 SG rear and drive it any and everywhere, 200mi round trips sometimes... Very docile in traffic, until I nail it. Runs 207° in 100+° Texas heat with a small plate type trans cooler and dual electric fans. FWIW...
 
KnuckleDuster said:
I run a 3500 stall Turbo Action "Tight 10" with a Comp XE285XL, 3.23 SG rear and drive it any and everywhere, 200mi round trips sometimes... Very docile in traffic, until I nail it. Runs 207° in 100+° Texas heat with a small plate type trans cooler and dual electric fans. FWIW...
Click to expand...
I also run this converter in a stock stroke 340 3.91 lowgear set 904. Drive anywhere and run low 12s with a xs274s comp cam SFT.
 
12.66@ 102mph so far, with a missed shift.
I would say 12.50s should be no issue in good tune.
Car traps 107mph when I don't screw up.
 
dibbons said:
I was just curious how one misses a shift with an automatic?
Click to expand...
Bounce it off the rev limiter shifting manually...


Not proud of it, but still beat an SRT8 Challenger to the stripe in my old junk...

20170609_202244.jpg
 
Perfect...

Something that flashes to 4500, drives like a 1800 stall stocker at part throttle and loose enough to not drag the engine down at idle.

Simple. :)

Good luck finding it!
 
crackedback said:
Perfect...

Something that flashes to 4500, drives like a 1800 stall stocker at part throttle and loose enough to not drag the engine down at idle.

Simple. :)

Good luck finding it!
Click to expand...

Crackedback I’ve been around here long enough to know that you have some valuable input on this topic.
 
Like the OP, I too am on a tight budget. Contacted Hughes and they directed me to a 3500 converter. Too soon to say it rocks, but plan on putting it through it's paces come spring. 340, unknown grind (but appears to have a lot of overlap) 3:23s going to 3:91s.
 
I’m reading a ton of old threads that are saying a 3500 dynamic converter is a great piece for the street.
 
Doogie, I was being honest and sarcastic at the same time. That to me would be the PERFECT converter. You won't find it, but, it's what I'd want.

JMO, Don't cheap out. Same as with my relay kits compared to those $40 chinese set ups, you get what you pay for, QUALITY and TOP Flight Components. I would expect to spend at least 500 for a good converter. I have a couple of 10" hughes 3500 shelf pieces that have worked great. All second hand when buying other stuff. I also know guys that have FTI, Ultimate, Dynamic and Edge converters with great results. I would call them and ask what a 9.5" or 10" 3500 stall that is tight in cruise would run They can build them where it drives very similar too a stock converter, even with less slip at highway speeds than the stock junkers yet get after when you put your foot to it. Your cam choice will make a difference, however, having a little too much stall is better than not enough!

It's not the 80's anymore where a 3000+ converter drove like your were burying your foot in marshmellows. Ask old timers about those hunks o"junk. It's what we had to use. LOL So much better now, tech has come a long way.

I think there are a lot of really good suggestions in here. Cam companies always seem to recommend a stall with a specific camshaft. Lets play the LA mopar game. Say you want a 230-235 @ .050 cam and most of the cam companies will suggest a 3000 converter. Is that in a 273, 318, 318, 340, 360 or 400+ stroker. That cam in 273 is gonna need a ton more stall than in a 408... So the recommendations are rough at best. IMO, always err to the high side of stall if you get a tight on cruise converter.
 
I am going to spend some time tomorrow in front of a computer trying to narrow down the cam the builder will likely use. Then I will call around to a few converter guys and see what they recommend. I don’t plan on going cheap at all here. I am thinking my budget will be around $700 for the converter.
 
You should be able to get a good unit for $500-700.

I think edge racing has a piece for 525ish. I know a couple of guys that have them. Andre is good to work with. Work well.
Lenny at Ultimate is really good, might be the high end of your range.
 
19blockhead72 said:
Really the cam would reflect what converter to run but if your going backwards, a 2500 stall for a street car is great.
Click to expand...

I absolutely disagree and here's why. A 2500 converter is what the factory stock 340 came with. The factory high stall was used behind most if not all 340s and a LOT of other vehicles, too. The factory standard (low) stall rating for Chrysler was around 1200-1500 RPM. Chrysler knew the higher stall would help get the vehicle moving quicker.

The factory high stall was always "around" 1000 RPM higher than the low or standard stall. That's not very much for anything hotter than a stock 340. A 2500 would be the last converter I would ever recommend.

I would recommend something in the neighborhood of 3000-3800 with the gears the OP has suggested, and more with 4 series gears. All this of course is considering a camshaft with the needs of a converter like that. Converter technology has come light years ahead of the muscle car era. You can have a converter custom made to flash to 5000 RPM and yet be tight enough to drive everyday on the street with minimal slippage. Things just ain't how they used to be.
 
Torque converters are the most important and least understood piece of a car. I'll attempt a long winded, bouncing around, gross oversimplification.

First off, take 90% of what you read on the internet and throw it out. Most people regurgitate crap they read somewhere else and have never even driven a car with a non-stock converter. A small number have driven cars with crap performance converters. Few have actually driven a car with the proper converter.

Buying a converter with an advertised stall speed is a joke. That "3500" converter is going to perform differently based on application. The converter basically tries to balance two forces...power applied and resistance. The resistance is the force required to move the car. Weight, aerodynamics, rolling resistance, frictional loss, gearing advantage, ect all factor in on the load the converter feels. A converter will slip more and stall higher if either of these two forces increases. A converter that stalls at 3000rpm in a 3000lb 400hp car may stall at 4000+rpm in a 4000lb 600hp car.

A properly designed converter for your cars power and resistance will act like a stock converter when you drive the car normally. You don't have to rev it to 4000 to get the car moving, and it won't be slipping any more than a stock stall during normal driving. The only time extra slippage occurs is when you apply enough power to overcome the coupling ability of the converter. To help visualize the balancing effect the converter has between force and resistance, lets picture a launch. When you leave off the line at 4000 you don't instantly scream to 7000 and have to shift. The converter allowed the engine to hit 4000, now the resistance (the car) has to catch up. As the car accelerates the resistance lessens and the engine is allowed to apply more power and rev further. Watch some in car videos of properly setup cars launching. You will see the car accelerating way out of proportion with the movement of the tach needle.

You certainly can luck out with an off the shelf converter. It's been stated many times by very experienced guys...buy a good converter! It's the absolute best money you can spend. People will spend hundreds or thousands on wheels, valve covers, ect, and ***** about the price for a quality torque converter.
 
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doogievlg said:
What is everyone opinion on the perfect street/strip converter for a car with street gears (3:55/3:73).
No cam has been picked so I am thinking I will pick a cam to suit the car. For power it would be nice to throw a big cam in the car and make tons of power but then I would need a higher stall and I get concerned about building heat. I want to drive the car on some trips over 200 miles but I also would like the car to be deep into the twelves with a stock stroke small block.
.30 over 360 with aluminum heads, flat tops,
performer rpm intake and Holley 750. 727 trans with 3:55 gears.
Click to expand...

My Eddies like lotsa pressure 185 or more. 200psi even. If you crank it up, a 223* will get you 106s, and that's 12s for sure.. At least it got my 3650 pound slug there. If you don't crank it up............well, I can't say. That 223 peaked around 5000/5200. I shifted the A833 at 7000,lol. I guess she mighta had a bit more in her,lol.
The next bigger cam 230/237/110,went 93 in the 1/8th, but I whittled her down to 3467 for that run, me in it. Hyup, still at 7000. That's just how she rolls
 
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The builder mentioned a 10" 3500 Street Fighter converter but after reading about TCI's reputation now I am a bit concerned about that also.
 
Doogie I'm running a 9-1/2" PTC behind my 408 and it flash stalls 4000 when I nail it yet is very street friendly. In the summer me and the Mrs. hit at least 1 cruise in a week and we're out in the boonies so it's almost always at least a 45 min drive. I ran it when I had a 727 with a 3500 stall PTC in it and it ran a traction limited 12.24 and I'm sure it's faster now with the 904 and 4k converter. BTW: on cruise nights if I don't get too crazy it usually gets 13-14 mpg. For normal street driving it shows very little slippage. The only time the converter isn't real friendly is when we cruise hilly terrain. It slips going up steep hills at low speeds so I usually just run it in 2nd gear but even then the temp has never gone above 170. I love it
 
Also happy, same results mentioned by others, with the Turbo Action 17805ST 10" 3500 Tight on my 410 stroker w/[email protected] cam and 3.73 gear. I had called Ultimate with my setup, Lenny recommended a 9.5" 3800/4200 and really wanted to go with them but the cost was just too prohibitive, almost $900. Got the T-A from Mazzolini through his eBay listing for $529 ( was drop shipped directly from T-A)
 
The perfect street strip converter is whatever you want your driving habits to be. I think for most people, something between 3000-4000 stall is a "typical" street/strip converter. Some like less stall, some (like me) go to the extreme and throw in some stupid crazy high stall and street drive it. I ended up with an 8" 5500 stall from Dynamic. It's really not as bad as you'd think. But for my new transmission, Dynamic blew me off and didn't want to take on my project so I went with FTI this time with their 9.5" 4500 stall lockup converter (not a 727 build). But I did make a video of me cruising around town. It shows the RPM I run at the different speeds. Most of the time it stays around 2.5K-3K rpm. You can see the Tach on the left and speedo on the right. I sped up a lot of the video just so you know it's not playing wrong.

 
clinteg said:
The perfect street strip converter is whatever you want your driving habits to be. I think for most people, something between 3000-4000 stall is a "typical" street/strip converter. Some like less stall, some (like me) go to the extreme and throw in some stupid crazy high stall and street drive it. I ended up with an 8" 5500 stall from Dynamic. It's really not as bad as you'd think. But for my new transmission, Dynamic blew me off and didn't want to take on my project so I went with FTI this time with their 9.5" 4500 stall lockup converter (not a 727 build). But I did make a video of me cruising around town. It shows the RPM I run at the different speeds. Most of the time it stays around 2.5K-3K rpm. You can see the Tach on the left and speedo on the right. I sped up a lot of the video just so you know it's not playing wrong.

Click to expand...


What gears?
 
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