64nailhead I must've missed it. You had to replace your converter before you did Sick week. Now you have to do it again?
On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0___
- Thread starter 64nailhead
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A least I got them - only 2 months or so of waiting for the back order to fill. I ordered them last year twice and was unable to get Street R’s. I decided to not cancel my order this time even if they didn’t show up until Christmas haha.
It should work about right if I can get to the track enough before Summit MWD in July - I’ll need tires by then
I sent it in to be ‘adjusted’ in an attempt lessen the amount of RPM drop on the shifts. I’ve had a couple of eyebrow raising conversations with the Circle D people.
We’ll see how it turns out. I don’t want to say anything good or bad - the proof will be in the puddin’
I'm disappointed with your experience with your Circle D converter. I hope they get it figured out.
It’s not a bad experience in full. It has potential to be, but I find it hard to believe that it will turn out that way.
In a nutshell, I spoke to another guy at Circle D and he lead me to believe that I need more power to push through the shifts in order to lessen the rpm drop. But also, I’m about at the HP limit of the converter. That immediately prompted a question from me consisting of ‘that’s somewhat of paradox, eh?’
Whatever.
There is one more stator change that they can do to loosen this size converter. I spoke to Pete Nichols before I sent it in, and was upfront with him that I was more conservative than I usually am with timing and AFR because of what the big rpm drop created - a lean spot (by a full point of AFR) when the converter grabbed when shifting.
Considering a couple of the things : I was very conservative with the tune, and I ran it past the rpm range, which is where the power is dropping. Hopefully with converter being a little looser and me being able to get more aggressive with timing and AFR and lowering the shift point 3-400 rpm’s it will make enough power to loosen it a reasonable amount.
In defense of Circle D, Pete was clear that this converter would be all done by 8.7 at my weight - which should be about 1200whp (I think). It just seems odd that another guy at Circle D tells me I bought the wrong converter and the right one was the $2100 unit. SMH lol.
It sounds like the other guy shouldn't be listened to. I love my Circle D converter, but I'm in a different world than Monte Alban. I'm surprised. When I was given the tour at Circle D, it seemed full of knowledgeable car guys. The parking lot was full of hot rods. We have a 1/4 mile track in this town, as well as a few of the big name LS builders. Thus shouldn't be uncharted territory for them. I hope second time is the charm.
Like I said, time will tell - so I can’t say anything good or bad.
Being in the service business, I have employees that have talked customers to the edge of the cliff, and then later I have to talk them out of jumping lol.
I’m sure the big dollar converter with much more adjustability would be easier to dial in, but………for almost double the price it should be asking me when I would like dessert with my meal 😉
I’m sure it will out OK.
With the calling around I've been doing I was told to avoid the TCI converters, luckily we have a local TLC that seems to have a good hold of what should be going on that I am going to try
I've also heard from multiple places CircleD stuff is always tighter than you want first time around. It seems they might have gotten burned years ago with people saying they want a full race converter and then getting it and it's slushy and people get mad. I bet they get more returns on loose stuff than tight stuff so they error toward making it tight.
Is restalling a CircleD affordable? I know some places offer, or have offered, free restall service, didn't know if they are one.
Is restalling a CircleD affordable? I know some places offer, or have offered, free restall service, didn't know if they are one.
Free, and they pay the return trip shipping.
What you described Jake makes sense. It’s not uncommon for people to think that they have more motor than what they claim for a lot of reasons. One visit to an open dyno day will find half of the people there leaving disappointed. And the more the internet takes over engine building, the worse it gets imo.
First road trip since Sick Week. After plenty of changes, converter, fuel system, turbo hot side, solid pinion spacer.
Of course I fubar’d and forgot to change the shock settings from track settings to street settings. That gave me a couple of moments of concern until I remembered lol. It is a very unfriendly ride in the street with the track settings. Made it to local convenience store and changed them in the parking lot.
The only thing I couldn’t test was the re-wire of the TB to see if it will bump at full load, but that test will happen soon enough 😉.
Certainly was nice to go for cruise though. And todays crazy 80 degree weather in early April allowed for windows down cruising.
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