How did your torque converter perform at the track?

[Juice2SS]

Post up pre-TC track times. Then tell us which converter you went with, stall speed, and specifics on the converter. Let us know how it performed at the track and any gains you saw from the swap. Help your fellow board members make informed decisions on a good converter to get.

[white ZL1]

Kinda depends on your mods, what you're looking for, and how you want the car to drive.

ADM did everything in my sig (other than the converter) and the best the car went on an 18" drag radial was 1.97 - 8.04@90.3mph - 12.35@112.8mph at a DA of 2474'.
I asked Andy to do the SS3600 as I'm used to big converters and love how they drive and on the same 18" drag radial went the time in my sig with a DA of -288'.
No other changes to parts.

[SGOS252382]

To be accurate, the higher stall converter would need to be added with no additional mods (no wheel/tire change - already ran drag radials with previous times).

Because most guys put a different wheel/tire combination on when they add a converter.

[Camarojt]

Also need to consider what your future plans are? Which cam that you are thinking of getting? Are you staying NA? What kind of driving characteristics are you expecting?

[Juice2SS]

OK well based on all that, tell us what you have and why you did it. Then tell us what it did for you.

[white ZL1]

I think you're going about this kinda backwards?

Camarojt is all bolt-ons and is using a 3600 triple disc and I'm pretty sure he loves it.
I've got the GT11 and a 3600 single disc and it works great too.
If you're staying N/A, it's really up to you as you can do a 2800 that will drive great and still give you and improvement in your 60' time on a tire. If you can deal with the extra "slip" of a looser converter, you can go 3600 even on the stock cam and it'll still work later should you do a cam swap.
Then the only thing you need to decide is if you'll be happy with a single disc or if you want a triple so that you can lock it at wot at the track.
If you're going FI, you can get away with less converter on a top mount because of the torque at lower rpm. If you go centri, a looser converter will probably be better.
The most important thing is the tune though. These A6's are a PWM lockup and if the tune isn't right.....you're asking for trouble.

FTI, PI, Circle D, and Yank all make good converters and they're all going to perform fairly similar at the track.......what converter is right for you depends on your combo and goals.

[Rhino79]

Id say a Circle D 3200-3600 on a bolt on setup. On a cammed setup, Id say 3600 minimum. Also gearing will change the feel of the converter. The more aggressive the gearing, the tighter the converter will feel as it is not having to work as hard to pull the car.

[Camarojt]

What Dan and Ryan said in a nutshell!
I'm curious to see what your car would do
With a 3200 Circle D being that mine and your dyno numbers match almost perfectly.

Might be a good way to compare performance to see which converter works the best.

[SC2150]

With the FTI triple disc billet we see.5-.7 sec reduction on average in the 1/4 mile and the V6 version .3-.4.

All good advice above and depending on the power, hard to beat the ET reduction for the $.

[Camarojt]

Or Juice do ^^ this, I'd love to see if changing ONLY the converter would net you .5 to .7 on your car!! I'm not saying that it wouldn't or can't, but I find that a tad on the high side. Just my opinion. I'd say more like about .3-.4 tenths with just the converter.

If you run 12.20's you will probably see 11.90's with the same DA and traction being the same.

[SGOS252382]

Originally Posted by Camarojt

Or Juice do ^^ this, I'd love to see if changing ONLY the converter would net you .5 to .7 on your car!! I'm not saying that it wouldn't or can't, but I find that a tad on the high side. Just my opinion. I'd say more like about .3-.4 tenths with just the converter.

If you run 12.20's you will probably see 11.90's with the same DA and traction being the same.

You're right. In most cases you will not see .5 - .7 sec improvement (with no other changes). What happens is guys get a higher stall converter and they also add a better wheel/tire setup to match it.

I ran 12.16 (stock converter and 20" drag radials). There's no way my car is going to run .7 faster with my FTI 3200 stall. If it did, I'd be looking at 11.4s - 11.5s and the fastest full weight bolt ons 5th gen in the country.

Your estimates seem realistic. I expect to pull 11.8s - 11.9s in excellent air with the addition of my FTI 3200. So about a .2-.3 sec improvement.

But a higher HP application (turbo, supercharged, etc) might see bigger gains (but traction wheel/tire setup is critical).

[Camarojt]

Originally Posted by SGOS252382

You're right. In most cases you will not see .5 - .7 sec improvement (with no other changes). What happens is guys get a higher stall converter and they also add a better wheel/tire setup to match it.

I ran 12.16 (stock converter and 20" drag radials). There's no way my car is going to run .7 faster with my FTI 3200 stall. If it did, I'd be looking at 11.4s - 11.5s and the fastest full weight bolt ons 5th gen in the country.

Your estimates seem realistic. I expect to pull 11.8s - 11.9s in excellent air with the addition of my FTI 3200. So about a .2-.3 sec improvement.

But a higher HP application (turbo, supercharged, etc) might see bigger gains (but traction wheel/tire setup is critical).

I agree 100% with this. If you had stock wheels and tires and a stock converter, and then switched to a FTI 3200 stall and drag radials I can easily see .5-.7 improvements!!
But an 11.30 bolt on only car ain't gonna happen! Lol I'd be cool as sh!t if it could tho. FTI would have those converters flying off the shelf!! I'd sell mine today!! Haha!

[Rhino79]

Gains aren't as large on the 6l80 vs the 4 speed autos, we already have aggressive gearing and most all the gain is in the 60 on a bolt on car. The trick is having the right converter to help launch and shift drop without sacrificing mph

[SC2150]

Originally Posted by Camarojt

Or Juice do ^^ this, I'd love to see if changing ONLY the converter would net you .5 to .7 on your car!! I'm not saying that it wouldn't or can't, but I find that a tad on the high side. Just my opinion. I'd say more like about .3-.4 tenths with just the converter.

If you run 12.20's you will probably see 11.90's with the same DA and traction being the same.

We have seen it time and again, but the key IS traction dependent. You must have the tires to put the tq to the ground. And this is with the FTI 3600 billet. We raced the entire country with our footbrake cars, and had run most well known brand at one time or another (many sponsoring us with free product) and at the time, nothing equaled the FTI in the 4L60E cars. The 6L80e's we see .5-.7 traction dependent all the time. And this is from a group of professional drag racers here...not the occasional T&T driver.

Originally Posted by Rhino79

Gains aren't as large on the 6l80 vs the 4 speed autos, we already have aggressive gearing and most all the gain is in the 60 on a bolt on car. The trick is having the right converter to help launch and shift drop without sacrificing mph

Well put. The 6L80E has more mass to turn, so more parasitic loss.

My C5 corvette bracket car ran 11.50's all day long with 346 rwhp with a FTI 4200 stall on M/T drag radials,

and the BatCar in my sig runs mid 10's daily driver.