Torque Converter vs Gears

[i2disturbedSS]

My next big mod will be a 3200 torque converter or 3.91 gears. I have not been to a drag strip in over 2years. Don't really go to Mexico either since moving. I do however go to a few AutoX. My car is a daily driver in all kinds of weather.
I know if I get a stall I would need a cooler and a dyno tune also. Having gears I would just need a speedo correction.
What do you guys think I should do, gears or a stall?

[JD_Alaska]

Both and up your stall to 3600

[i2disturbedSS]

I would love to do both and I was but now I can't justify almost 2k going into my car when I can spend the other half on my daughter. This might be my last mod for awhile. So I want it to be worth it.
I'm leaning toward gears - seems like I will have more fun with those.

Inputs/advice?

[SS PANTHER]

I would do gears. A stall is not good for AutoX or canyon cruising. The 3.91's are too steep for a L99 in my opinion. I would go with a 3.70 max. If you go F.I. ever 3.45's would be even better. I am having a used low mile set of 3.45's, which there are tons of, installed next month. I plan on going F.I. in the future and did not want to kill my mileage or have major traction issues with street tires. The 3.91's will take off 2mpg on the highway and dig a hole in many of your climate conditions in the beautiful state of MT.

[VADER SS L99]

Gears will make the car "feel" much faster, torqier and generally more fun on a day to day basis. A converter will actually make the car faster but won't feel faster in day to day driving. If you do some racing and care more about how fast your car really is do the converter. If you just want a mod that makes the car more fun to drive get the gears. Also nothing wrong with the 3.91's in a L99 unless your that concerned with highway MPG. Also in my experience with other cars gears have improved city MPG but hurt highway MPG. A converter has always hurt my city MPG but not affected highway MPG. Also, you should get a good Trans cooler regardless of if you get a converter. I can promise that it will make the Trans more durable and live longer.

[i2disturbedSS]

Thanks guys. If I ever do f.I. it would be way down the road so I'm not worry about that. I didn't think a stall would help too much in a autox race but with the gears I might just have to be in 3rd gear instead of 2nd most of the time now.
You are right Vadar a trans cooler should also be done regardless. At the time being I do about 90% city driving:( if not more. Im not to concern with gas but that is good to know about gears and city driving.

Thanks for the help again, just wanted to bounce those ideas off of somebody besides the other half.

[Pro Stock John]

I have both, I did the gears more recently and I already had a 3200 stall.

Here is how I would describe it.

The stall will help a lot at the drag strip.

The gears will make the car more fun to drive.

This is my opinion for the 5th gen. In my 4th gen days, I was never a fan of doing gears first if at all. But the 5th gen is 600 lbs heavier and the gears help the car move around.

One way to think about this would be, if you are someone who hates those dead spots in the 5th gens power band where the car frankly has no balls, you might want to do gears. Ever raced someone from a 60 roll on the highway and they pulled away like you had an anchor out?

In spring I'm pulling my 3200 and installing a 3800. I'm going for 10.99 with heads and cam. I'll sell my 3200 for a pretty reasonable price, maybe send it back to CD and get it checked just in case.

I am doing 2200 at 70 MPH.

I think the gears for autocross would be more fun, the power would be more linear where a converter will have more of a tendency to have hmmm "flare up" your rpms.

Do you know what I mean?

[i2disturbedSS]

I hear you John, thank you for your insight. I'll pm you later. Right now more fun with the car is what I'm looking for at this time and AutoX is fun too. Most likely I will go with gears.
I'm pretty sure once I moved back to Washington or even Oregon I will be going back to the drags often.