Good friday is transmission day

[Andypot1985]

Well the one in my car works, but the transmission only has two gears so who knows what can be in that converter. Is there a simple way to drain it? I was told that i would need to drill a hole in it to drain it out.

[86VickyLX]

Well the one in my car works, but the transmission only has two gears so who knows what can be in that converter. Is there a simple way to drain it? I was told that i would need to drill a hole in it to drain it out.

Whoever told you that, you need to punch him straight in the dick. The AODs have drain plugs in the converter, you should see it next to one of the flexplate studs.

[1987cp]

Well, maybe a factory-original converter has a drain plug ......

[gadget73]

well, put it this way: if its got a drain plug, use it. If it doesn't have a drain plug already there, drilling a hole is a pretty good way to destroy the converter. If you don't hit something inside that ruins it, how do you plug the hole back up? There won't be enough metal to thread a plug into, and a rubber one won't seal. If there is no drain, the best you can do is turn the converter over and dump the fluid out of it.

[P72Ford]

I have heard of folks drilling holes in converters, tapping them, and adding a plug.

Its a good way to ruin the balance, though, in my opinion.

You can have a torque converter cleaned. This involves putting it in a lathe, cutting it open, and cleaning the inside. Then they weld it back up, balance it, and send it back.

I just had this done with a converter from a transmission that died.

I personally would buy a new converter. They are really pretty cheap, and I wouldn't want to find out there was a bunch of junk in there, and push it through a new (used) transmission. Changing a transmission is an ass ache in the first place...

If the TC you have has a drain plug (and it should, if its original), you could try flushing it. But then you have to get all the solvent out.

Maybe use transmission oil to flush it...

[Andypot1985]

I think what i am going to do is price out a new converter first. If its not expensive i'll buy a new one. If it is expensive i'll see if it has a drain plug to flush it. Probably the best way to flush it would be to pour kerosene in it to get all the gunk out. I'm going to call the auto parts store today.

[1987cp]

Aren't stock-replacement converters usually about $100? For that matter, sources like DirtyDog offer restalled stock-ish converters for well under $200.

[johnunit]

that's what I'd do for a souped up daily driver is get a re-stalled stock style converter from dirty dog or similar with a 2000ish stall. A nice performance gain and probably more reliable quality than a strictly oem replacement from a parts store.

[Andypot1985]

I dont know too much about torque converters, is it better to get one with a higher stall? and what does the stall do?

[P72Ford]

Is the car stock?

Do you plan on racing or modifying the car to go faster?

[johnunit]

I'll preface this by saying this is my unprofessional and fairl unexperienced explanation, and others will probably have things to add/change;




Stall basically is the RPM at which the engine will rise when you floor it with no tire slip from a stop. If you accelerate an automatic transmission car, you'll notice that the rpms don't rise for the first second or two. that's when it's at it's stall speed. You will also have a similar effect if you hold the gas and brake.

By raising the stall speed, the engine is at a higher rpm (stock is 1500ishrpm) when you floor it from a stop or at low speed, and since to a point you will make more horsepower at higher rpms, you get a performance gain because the engine is making more power when it's at the "stall" speed.

For instance, if you have an engine that makes 100hp at 1300rpm but 170hp at 1700rpm, you'll be getting more power for the first second or two with a 1700rpm stall speed because the engine is allowed to rev to a speed where it makes more power.

The tradeoff is driveability (ie the engine has to rev a bit higher before full power is applied to the wheels) and gas mileage (again, engine revs slightly higher at low speeds).

Extreme dragrace setups will have 4500rpm or higher, but in a stockish engine you could probably run a 2000-2500rpm nominal stall converter (advertised stall isn't always the same as what it'll stall at in your car) with minimal driveability and fuel economy changes and a significant boost in acceleration off the line.

[1987cp]

I've read that a bone-stock 5.0 Mustang could pick up a good deal of ET just by tossing in a 3000-stall converter. One thing to keep in mind if running a completely stock Crown Vic engine is that its max power is produced at something like 3500rpm, so if your car is all-original underhood I'd *guess* that there would be less point in a high stall RPM than with something that winds higher than 4000-4500rpm.

[johnunit]

the simulator I use that has as scienced out a simulation of my stock engine combo (including caliper measurements of the exhaust ports and that sort of thing) shows significant gains up to about 2500rpm of stall. it doesn't take into account changes in torque multiplication (which I don't fully understand) though.

For instance, using a simulation of my car with 4-barrel and truck intake (and shortie headers) I get a gain of about 3 tenths of a second going from the stock guesstimate 1300 rpm stall to a 2000rpm stall. obviously that's a simulation, but I've seen similar claims for real-life vehicles.

[Andypot1985]

Thank you for the explainations. I'm not really going to track this car so I'm sticking with a stock converter. I'm going to upgrade to a 5.0 HO someday but it won't be too crazy. I ordered a converter with the local parts store and it it comming in tomorrow for $100.

So far investment:

Transmission: $82 ( I can take my old one back for a $20 core)
Case of trans fluid: $28
filter: $15
Main Seal: $12
Converter: $100
My pain and suffering: Free

Total cost: $237

[86VickyLX]

What fluid are you putting in it? Mercon V I hope.