i have no idea how they work and am intrested in one. my idea is it holds the car from moving to a certain rpm. but dosent the tpi make its torque at real low rpms anyway??? help pls and whats a good converter for my fairly stock 305 i have headers, straight pipe into flowmaster 80,s. full ram air set up. and 3.73 gears

 

http://www.hardtail.com/techtips/torqueconverters.html

http://www.hardtail.com/techtips/sel...converter.html

 

just think of a torque converter as two fans; one fan is plugged in to power (engine), the other hooked to your transmission. As engine speed increases, that fan affects the other fan set right in front of it. Eventually, the other starts moving, right? The pitch of the blades (of each fan) affects when and how fast one fan moves the other. Ditto with a torque converter. There's 12" converters out there (very inexpensive, too) that will help get your car into your power band sooner. Sure, your engine probably does make it's grunt down low, especially if it's stock. BUT, your power band isn't starting at 1200 rpm. Or 1400 rpm. A Jegs converter ($99) will yield a stall of 1800-2200. If you've ever driven a car with a higher-than-stock converter, you would know the benefits, and fun, of driving with one. Hope this helps

 

Yes you're making good torque down low but you still accelerate UP to a torque peak. A 2400-2800 rpm converter will "flash" up to that point instantly and accelerate accordingly. The time it used to take to go from 1200-2800 is pretty much eliminated.

Another way of thinking. It would be like dropping a clutch at 2800 rpm instead of 1200. Less bog. NO BOG, if you get aggressive with the converter build. I've been through a few with different engines and because I want it to be best at the drag strip, my converter is built to flash to a specific point in the powerband(roughly 4500 N/A and 5000'ish with nitrous).

If you don't have traction problems now...this will put more power to the tires from a dead stop. Drag Radials and Torque converters should come as a package deal. Goodluck!

 

My converter stalls at 6000 rpm. I can transbrake it to 6000 if I want. When I launch from a lower rpm, it jumps to 6000 rpm. The rpm climbs to 7400 where I shift then the rpm drops back to 6400. It then climbs back up to 7400 where I cross the finish line. Powerglide, only one shift point.

The 6000 stall, keeps my engine at or near it's peak HP curve all the way down the track.

The engine idles at 1000 rpm and I can drive around the pits at just over an idle. Operating below the stall speed means the converter is slipping to maintain the lower rpm. All that slipping creates a lot of heat so any converter with a more than stock speed should use an aftermarket oil cooler.