how to pick a stall converter?

i imagine its alot like picking a camshaft....
pretty much everything about a specific setup comes into play here?

what are the basics of doing it?
how do i know what rpm is good for me and whether or not i want it loose or tight?

Well its not really that hard. If you plan on camming it later i would say check and see how big of a stall the cam you are looking at needs and go from there. also depends on if its a street car or a track. the stock stall is 1500 i beleive

Well its not really that hard. If you plan on camming it later i would say check and see how big of a stall the cam you are looking at needs and go from there. also depends on if its a street car or a track. the stock stall is 1500 i beleive

lol, i'm a little bit beyond that, checl sig ;)

You need to decide if you are optimizing the car for the street or the track as well as consider where your cam makes power. The ideal stall for maximum performance is a few hundred rpm lower than peak torque. But that may be too high to be of much use in a street car, primarily due to the lack of traction with street tires on an unprepped surface. Also, a stall much over ~3,500 can be pretty annoying in daily driving. As a rule of thumb, most heads and cam type cars will do fine with ~3,000rpm.

Rich

well Rich, i am a pretty tolerable person when it comes to driving this car (some mods done to it that most would have changed by now for a driver ie: 117decibals at WOT :D ) and i do drive it everyday

how does the higher stall speed affect daily driving?
i'm guessing that my cam has peak TQ in the 4300-4600 rpm range (not sure tho have always had opti probs when dynoed)

i can handle alot daily driving it, i'm really looking to go the track and get almost maximum performance out of my setup (which i dont think I can achieve with the M6), i will take a hit on driveability if needed to get the ET's that i want

Steve

I have a converter that stalls at 4,200 in the car now and there are a few things that are really pretty annoying. For one thing, it's LOUD. Anytime the car is under much load, it's at least 3,000 rpm and usually more, and that makes a lot of noise. There is some difficulty driving in heavy traffic. It's hard to modulate the rate of acceleration and avoid lagging behind the traffic or surging forward and getting too close to the car in front of you. And it's very difficult to avoid wheel spin in 1st or 2nd. Gas mileage absolutely sucks, though that is partially a function of the lack of OD (TH400) or a lock-up function in the converter as the stall speed per se.

But if you can tolerate a lot and want to optimize for the track it sounds like you need a converter that stalls in the 4,000rpm range. A good one won't be cheap. Expect to pay $600+ for it.

Rich