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Advice for fellow TR owners from Tom Shea Racing
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Component Matching #6
Sequence of Upgrades
In the last article in this series we looked at traction and suspension. That was items 12 and 13.
#14, Torque converters. Why should we be talking about this before turbos? Is this item in the proper place in the sequence? These are valid questions and is the kind of thinking I encourage. Since this is my article I get to choose and I do have my reasons.
When we get to this point we have a generally good running healthy stock engine car, with maybe some minor upgrades. Without opening the engine prematurely except for maybe the replacement of the valve springs. (Don’t worry we will get to that soon.) This involves only R&R of the valve covers and is not really opening the engine, at least in my opinion.
We see that the engine puts out some good power but only at certain times. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that power on tap instantly and at any time? That was what it was like in the old days of the big blocks. Unfortunately those days are gone forever.
We prefer to avoid the constant fuel consumption and other negative things associated with Big Block power. It sure would be nice to have our cake and eat it too. Wait a minute, we can! Well maybe not totally, but certainly much better than the way the stock TR delivers.
Remember all things are a compromise. Generally, this compromise consists of more than a couple of considerations. The stock torque converter is no exception. The compromise here was the low stall and lock-up clutch were, designed mostly for CAFÉ compliance. CAFÉ stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. This was and still is a major consideration for OEM engineers. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturers.
We as enthusiasts are not quite as concerned as the GM engineers were about fuel economy. We do like the idea of getting great gas mileage when compared to other personal luxury and high performance cars. We have the ability to give a little to gain a lot when it comes to gas mileage as opposed to performance.
A higher stall torque converter will not allow your engine to make any more power. It will allow your engine to operate in the range where it does make the best power more of the time. A properly chosen converter will drive well in normal use but allow your car to spring to life with throttle input that otherwise would not be responded to if using a stock converter.
I have heard many concerns, even from some who I thought should know better about the negatives of high stall converters. Before deciding for yourself, why not take a ride in a car that has a high stall converter. See if the concerns are real or just unfounded hearsay.
I have a very high stall converter in both of my cars. I have had many different converters over the years. I know from experience what is fact and what is not. I would not hesitate to use my car normally due to concerns involving the converter. It is capable of a cross-country drive at any time. I have made believers out of several fellow club members that couldn’t believe how well behaved it actually was compared to the totally distorted and incorrect assumptions they had been lead to by ignorance and assumptions. This is truly a shame since there is such a great performance gain.
There may have been a time when some of these negative things were true. They may be remembering someone’s racecar that had a converter designed for 5000 to 6000 rpm launches. I don’t know how these myths and assumptions turn into urban legends. I shouldn’t really care except I would like to understand how otherwise intelligent, reasonable people could possibly be misinformed to such an extent.
I invite anybody to take a ride in my Limited or any other customer’s car of mine that has the proper converter in it. This will make a believer out of you as well.
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