what torque converter to go with????????????

[82355supreme]

No, your engine is not making enough torque. This is why I've been saying all along that a super high stall converter is worthless on a street car that's not making big numbers.

You could put in a 5000 RPM stall & it would MAYBE flash up to 2200-2500 for the simple fact your engine doesn't make enough power to stall it that high.

 

[mebe007]

so even with numbers in the mid fours i dont have enough power?

 

[82355supreme]

You may not like me after this but.... there's no way you have mid 400 horse OR torque. First off your heads are killing you. They don't flow well enough to support those kind of numbers & you have too much cam for them & your compression. Like I said before, with 76cc chambers & .039 head gasket you're lucky to have 9:1 compression.

That cam, with good heads, & 9.5-10:1 CR and you'd likely have 400-410 HP and 425 FT. LBS. torque.

I had my engine dynoed after build with stock heads like yours & it peaked at only 325 horse and 403 FT LBS. This spring I ditched the junker heads in favor of Dart Iron Eagles & a port matched RPM Air-Gap intake. Had it dynoed again, this time the HP peaked at 381 & torque jumped to a peak of 419 FT LBS.

This is with a .480 cam, 9.5:1 CR, a 650 DP Holley.

What I guess I'm gettiong at here is, with your current combo you're loosing ALOT of torque with that cam & not enough compression, along with poor flowing heads you'd gain NOTHING with a converter over 2500 RPM stall rating.

 

[drgrcing]

I would put a 2800-3000 rpm stall in it, look at it this way, if your motor is making peak torque 4500rpm , peak power 6-6200rpm, you want to launch this car close to the peak torque to get it moving and then let the horsepower take over. this is a big cam, and is going to be slugish down low, so putting a 2500 stall in it is not going to help.

 

[mebe007]

ok well i need to figure this out soon, so i can get it back on the road. i might have messed up as in they might not be 992 heads, the machine shop i deal with told me that i have some of the best flowing heads that gm put out. they told me there the only heads they will run on the track (late models), they have been ported and polished, the valves have been relieved, and the intake was portmatched

 

[82355supreme]

They probably are 992 or 882, either way you don't have mid 400 horse or torque. I'm not bashing your combo, you just have way too much camshaft now for the compression you likely have & the so-so flowing heads. 992 or 882 castings were good heads in their day, but not capable of the numbers you're wishing for.

I've given my advise. A 3000 stall will do nothing other than burn up the transmission oil & in turn burn up the trans itself over time in a street car.

I understand you want to get the car back on the road. I don't know your budget, but I'd get the Hughes 2500 & then be looking into some Dart or World heads to go with your cam.

 

[mebe007]

ok so if i get the hughes 2500, and eventually change heads will the stall still be good for the car, or no. my concern is that i just had these heads done a few months ago and the motor is awaiting being put into the car. soon as i get the torque conver i was going to bolt her in. my budget is somewhat limited being that im in college. i still have to get a passenger fender to put it on the road also. another thing if i were to get new heads if i somehow ran into some money what cc chamber should i be looking at?

 

[drgrcing]

just to be on the safe side, give edelbrock a call and ask them for there recomendation for a converter 800-416-8628. as for what kind to buy, Summit sells there own brand of converters, ive used TCI, B&M, ATI, and have had good luck with all of them.

 

[82355supreme]

A 2500 rated converter would be good for a car making 250 hp & 250-300 ft. lbs. all the way to 450 hp & 450+ ft. lbs. Like I said in a previous post, my good friend with a 377 SBC in a Monte making roughly 500/500 & had a 3000 B&M converter and hated it. He now has a 2600-2800 stall and it picked up a couple tenths in the 1/4 and made it much more streetable.

As for head cc, either 64cc or 67cc with a stock .039 gasket would roughly yeild 9.75-9.8:1 OR a 72cc chamber with a .039 will get you 9.5:1 & 9.8-10:1 with a .020 shim gasket.

Stay far away from 76cc chambers anymore. If you want bang for the buck, Dart Iron Eagle SS are the ticket. They can be had in 67 or 72cc "fast burn" chamber, 170cc runners, you choice of valve size, screw in studs & flow like crazy for the price ($625 pair)

 

[mebe007]

are you talking $625 for the bare pair? and whats better the 170cc or the 200cc intake runners? i think im gonna get the 2500 stall and then most likely do the heads in the future. i move back to college in 3 weeks and would like to take a cruise once this summer, the poor car has been sitting since november. gotta slap in my new gears also, nice set of 3.73 should give me some go off the line