MustBBrent Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 One or two of you have PMed me asking me to tell you my initial thoughts on the truck after I had the tranny built. Here they are. Wow! it is a different truck. I had a TCSPerformance custom converter supposed to stall at 2800RPM put in along with a miriad of hardened and upgraded parts. Well, the stall actually is around 3200RPM. I am a bit miffed about that and I will be calling Rusty on Monday to discuss it. But, Joe said it looked like a real trick converter. Kinda like the Protuck 3000 that Slimsoftball had installed but with a full sized clutch pack on the back of it (I asked for that since I tow a boat occasionally.) I do have a question for those of you who have stall converters. If I am at a stop light and I mash the brake all the way to the floor and stall it to 3200 and then let off the brake it moves forward quickly and takes off with just a touch of hesitation. However, if I mash the brake and then slightly push the gas and let off the brake and floor it, It takes off like a scalded ape. Is this the way other converters work? Or is the multiplication factor not working on my behalf? By the way, it does appear to be almost 1/2 a second quicker in the 0-60 by a stop watch for how inaccurate that is over the same pavement. It also feels noticably faster for highway passing! Well Wife is calling. I will finish the update later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 BTW, my humble opinion only, I need to have Allen retune the truck to keep it in gear longer before it shifts into a higher gear as it is a bit loose off the line at part throttle. But then again, this is my first automatic in 15 years and certainly my first high stall automatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 One other comment. oh and the wife wanted me to get her something... so I jumped up to go and do it, boy am I whooped. Where was I ... I got my gauges. Well, 2 of the 3... but TByrne shipped me a dual pod, not the tirpple pod I ordered and paid for (they billed me for 3 gauges and a tri pod pillar, but shipped 2 gauges and a dual pod, go figure) so I have to wait till Monday to call and rectify that situation as well. But all in all, while the jury is still out on the Torque converter; I am however, extremely pleased with the crispness of the tranny after the JAG upgrade special. I can definitely feel that the tranny underneath does shift a ton faster both up and down the gears, with NO hesitation anywhere. It was noticable before and I know some of that was the shattered accumulator piston. Note: I am of the opinion that anyone doing a shift kit, should have that piston replaced, see 'Benkey: cracked accumulator piston' stuck at the top of this forum. Last comment for now, I did tell Rusty at TCS Performance when ordering my TC that I would be doing a turbo and would output around 500lb/ft of torque to the tranny; dunno if that will make the stall higher or lower when I get that installed here in 3 weeks or so. Well, that's all for now. Gonna go drive it some more and see what I think and come up with some Ideas for what to do next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 After reading my comments, I forgot to mention. I bought some 43lb injectors, thank you Benkey, you are gentleman and a true help. Joe installed them and Allen did retune the truck to handle those injectors, i think he just forgot to reset how long the tranny stays in each gear before shifting now that it has this higher stall on it. Anyway, I will be calling Allen tomorrow as well to get that process in the works going as well. Thank you Joe owner of JAG Performance, thank you Benkey previous owner of 43lb injectors, thank you Allen for making sure I could drive the truck out of Joe's shop, thank you Rusty of TCS Performance, and thank you TByrne. After I work the bugs out, I will be working a turbo in! Have a great Sunday. Because it must be Brent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02denali Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 man you dont give anyone a chance to answer. hey on the stall. i had my converter made into a 2500 stall. if i try to launch at more than 1500 i get about the same thing. i found that mine launches perfectly when i stall up to around 1000 to 1200. when i do that i launch at 2400 every time. and yes to answer the other question. the converter should be set up for the turbo,so you will have to wait till you get it to feel the real power of the converter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 02denali, you have met me in person, and know that I never take a breath when I start to preach. :D Thanks. I figured and Joe said as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evandostert Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 I find that just mashing it off idle makes the truck take off quicker. I had left some torque mang in still and it gives a better ride. I have the tranny with race shifting and no torque man while in tow mode. At speed accel and highway passing are much better. My gas milage dropped about 1.5 though. I am planning on a cam next week. Take advantage of the converter and really change my shift points around after that one. I will post results from the track this friday I am heading to the new england dragway. Best non converter time 14.8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 with that high of a stall and a stock cam, 02's right your launch should be much better off idle or just above idle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKey Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Brent, how bad was your's cracked? Did it look worse than mine? There is a pic in my thread. I'm assuming the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts are much firmer now with the blue plates in there? I know my tranny feels very tight. I think my truck does better just smashing off of idle. Really though, I have to try and load it up some. It flash stalls right a 3k. Have you already put a larger tranny cooler in? Can't remember if we talked about that on the phone. I'd get the biggest one that would fit - wherever you decide to put it. Big talk on LS1tech about using F-type fluid also. F-type, supposedly makes the clutches grab better/slip less. Sometimes referred to as shift-kit in a bottle. I ran a 50/50 solution before my rebuild and shifting to a racing type fluid. Joe may have already recommended something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vette dude Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Brent, how bad was your's cracked? Did it look worse than mine? There is a pic in my thread. I'm assuming the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts are much firmer now with the blue plates in there? I know my tranny feels very tight. I think my truck does better just smashing off of idle. Really though, I have to try and load it up some. It flash stalls right a 3k. Have you already put a larger tranny cooler in? Can't remember if we talked about that on the phone. I'd get the biggest one that would fit - wherever you decide to put it. Big talk on LS1tech about using F-type fluid also. F-type, supposedly makes the clutches grab better/slip less. Sometimes referred to as shift-kit in a bottle. I ran a 50/50 solution before my rebuild and shifting to a racing type fluid. Joe may have already recommended something. I dunno if m,y opinion is worth a damn, but i woke up this morning thinking about trany coolers, andf as i was doing this i was thinking of places to mount one..... I think maybee someone could run dual cooler behind the scoops, or one big cooler bvehind the center BTW the two scoops. But then again u r getting that new turbo, and u would probably opt for a larger heat exchanger there.... Maybee u coul find an odd oplace, like somewhere close to the trans under the truck, and put a scoop and some fans on the trany cooler... You could get a bigger cooler to compoinsate for the lack of air dutring cruising speeds... Any thoughts on this? Brent i think we should get together again at some time and head out to SRW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 I always thought converters lauch and "hit" harder if they're romped on from idle. If you bring it up to like 1500 and put it down from there, it will be a softer takeoff - it's almost like taking away a bit of stall. So yeah, what you notice is perfectly normal! The best analogy I heard was the boat/skier one. Picture a speedboat with a skier behind it. A stock converter is like the boat pulling the skier out of the water with like 2' of slack in the rope. No big jerk to the skier at all. The higher the stall, and the further away you hit the gas from that stall speed, is like adding slack to that rope. When the boat takes off, the skier gets a serious pull out of the water when that slack is taken up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 Thanks everyone for the replys. After being a bit miffed at that high of a stall when I asked for a 2800RPM stall, I decided to play with it off the line and see what approach works best to get it to move the fastest. Starting with 02Denali's comments, I started meticulously at idle and went up in 250rpm increments. I can tell you that today, the best stall is 1500rpm and it hits like a rock, the truck launches pretty hard, and goes to 3100RPM or so immediately as the speedo climbs quickly. The truck hits 60 in a best of 5.9 where I went back to my notes and saw the previous best was 6.4 on on a cold day. It definitely does the passing thing very nicely now. Benkey, Joe said the piston was shattered on one side, and that when he dropped the pan, it was covered in white flakes. He said, it was good that I took the tranny in when I did, or I would have lost 2nd gear. I was living on borrowed time with it. Joe and I did not talk about the F type fluid... and I have not upgraded the tranny cooler. The meter now goes to the middle notch and kinda sticks there. This is an entire notch above where it was before the new TC. Oh, and the motor temp gauge fluctuates between the 185 and just below 210 where it was 185 solid. vette dude, Yes, let's try to get a group and meet at San Antonio Raceway. I definitely want to do a couple of runs before the turbo... I know what I ran in Feb when it was cold. Be interesting to see if the converter can overcome the warmth of the air now that is 80 + deg in the evenings. My brother is a mechanic and he, Joe, and now 02denali, have all reminded me that this converter was designed for 500lb/ft of torque and that the stall might drop some when the turbo is installed. It should also drive a bit differently when the extra 125 lb/ft of torque are added. I'm just a bit nervous. Also to note, is that with those 43lb injectors, I now see 1MPG all the way through first and second gear when on WOT. I also used to get 17-18 mpg on the highway, and last night on the way home from San Antonio to Austin (75miles) I got 14.2. And around town today, I averaged 7mpg where I was getting 13 or so around town. I thought I shouldn't see any difference in the way the truck uses gasoline until I add the turbo. I mean if the Air fuel ratio was correct previous to the new injectors, I should still have the same air fuel ratio until the Turbo is added right? Is this correct, am I missing something here, or did Allen forget to tune something and I am running so rich that I couldn't pass a smog test? I better get some sleep. I have a ton of calls tomorrow to try to get the mistakes fixed. G'night John boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02denali Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 ha ha ha on the gas mileage. and yay you are right when you get going you get going. that was a nice ride when we met. thanks. oh yay the mpg. i cant seem to get any around town either. i cant seem to wipe the smile off my face and my foot off the floor since i got her running right. lemme know on the san antoinio thing and i will see if i can make. i wanna race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 the stall should go up with a turbo, not down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustBBrent Posted May 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2004 Spoke to Rusty at TCS Performance. He will stand behind his product. He told me to install the turbo. If I don't like the way it runs, He will replace it for me. Whew. That said, I kinda like it... I think. I meet Allen tomorrow during lunch to try to retune it... Rusty said I should have it lock up in 3rd and 4th so we will try that. Allen raised the lock up to over 55mph currently, so MPG went into the tank with all the 50mph speed limits out here in the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.