gears or stall first...

[shiznight]

Dumb newbish title but a more in depth thinking to both. right now i'm jetted for 170 wet kit, vvt1 cam (417/422tq na dyno) with exhaust ect.., i'm guessing i'm around 600hp to the tire.

here's the issue i'm facing. my 60fts are garbage, 2.1-1.9 at best, and since i cant srpay sub 3k rpms i'm playing the waiting game when i launch

i would love to put in a 3600-3800 stall and give it hell but the 6l80e from everything i've researched is limited to 450hp and doesnt live long at anything north of that, i may be wrong but all signs point to this. so i was consdiering saving for a bit and getting a 6l90e and stall, but this would cost a pretty penny. (4kish for everything).

or would 3.91's help my situation for now. i will be getting 3.91s regardless and they are a cheap option.

what do you guys recommend? and is this 450whp limitation have any truth to it?

[white ZL1]

You need to think about where 3.91's will put you at rpm-wise through the traps. Tire size and expected mph will be important.
I'd go converter. But I'd also try and find someone that's got a similar combo to you. A 3200 stall will flash hard enough that you'll be spraying just feet out. At that point, traction may become an issue?

[GretchenGotGrowl]

Originally Posted by shiznight

Dumb newbish title but a more in depth thinking to both. right now i'm jetted for 170 wet kit, vvt1 cam (417/422tq na dyno) with exhaust ect.., i'm guessing i'm around 600hp to the tire.

here's the issue i'm facing. my 60fts are garbage, 2.1-1.9 at best, and since i cant srpay sub 3k rpms i'm playing the waiting game when i launch

i would love to put in a 3600-3800 stall and give it hell but the 6l80e from everything i've researched is limited to 450hp and doesnt live long at anything north of that, i may be wrong but all signs point to this. so i was consdiering saving for a bit and getting a 6l90e and stall, but this would cost a pretty penny. (4kish for everything).

or would 3.91's help my situation for now. i will be getting 3.91s regardless and they are a cheap option.

what do you guys recommend? and is this 450whp limitation have any truth to it?

If you get it tuned properly, then you will probably be fine at that power level. Get a tranny cooler and watch the temps. I recommend GPI for the tuning.

As for gears vs stall, it really depends on your preference. The good stall will help a lot, but it creates a lot of heat in city driving. I would have someone like Circle D look at your dyno graph (both n/a and with your shot) and let them figure how loose it really needs to be for your power curve. Gears will shift the power curve to the left which may be great for the launch but may cause you to shift an extra time at the end. An efficient converter may not.

400+ rwhp should already be letting you cut better 60' times, so you may want to look at traction first. Because getting you deeper in your powerband at launch without traction my lead to worse ETs, not better.

[Pro Stock John]

What are your shift points set at?

[shiznight]

my shift points now are set at 6250, i did spin pretty bad when i made my bottle pass on some nt05rs. i have 28" m&h's now so hopefully traction will not e an issue this tie around. i may hit up gpi to look at my tuning file, the problem i have now is most shops just flat out charge 500-600 to tune the car and wont look at what my setup is vs theirs like it's some damn secret. very frustrating... but we basically copied over the hypertech trans tune to mine because we were having issues with "desired shift point or pressure" i forget which, but we couldn't access it.

my motor passes werent any better, and traction was not an issue. consistent 1.9-2.0 60's. i guess i need to do some troubleshooting

[Pro Stock John]

I've gone 1.60 on my 18" NT05Rs, but the track was also very good. Personally I don't have enough power (at my weight) to want more tire.

My philosophy about nitrous is, basically I like to get the car running as strong as possible on motor so I'm not running mediocre numbers on the gas. Like in your case, what do you run on motor?

I've always evangelized running more converter first in LS cars, but I've had to amend that a bit. These 5th gens are so heavy that I also see the value in more gear. Heck my car picked up 1.5 tenths from the gear (already had a converter).

But I think you might be tight if you run 3.91s and shift at 6250 (which sounds like a low shift point to me).

Why not get HPT and play with your shift points yourself, I do.

[shiznight]

i run 12.40s at 114 with a best of a 1.9 60ft in a 1300da. on a 26" tall tire at the time putting my at a 3.52 gear ratio.

[Pro Stock John]

I don't think you are getting everything out of the cam, folks have gone 113-114 stock internal on stock height tires. I'd try to shift a little higher, what cam do you have?

I could spray 100 on my car right now but I'd run out of gear and it would have to shift into 5th in the 1/4.

[shiznight]

Texas speed vvt-1 cam, Im probably not getting everything compared to what i see posted here. I could have my tune file sent to anyone willing to check it out with my dyno just for curiosity and maybe finding some answers. I'll be going to the track again soon to see about some updated results. These numbers in my Sig were from earlier in spring.

[Camarojt]

I would go converter and see how your current gear works with the combo. If your 60fts ate that bad you are likely spinning so neither converter or gears will solve that issue. You need some tires!

[Jeff_SS]

All you guys talking about spray in here makes me want to get a little shot.
How safe is a 100 shot/150shot honestly? for a cam only setup..
I'm gonna talk to my tuner about it next time I'm at the shop.

Also on topic, do gears first OP.

[VADER SS L99]

I think gears would make the car more fun to drive on a day to day basis but a converter is going to make the car faster at the track especially since its cammed. You would definitely run out of gear with a stock converter, nitrous, and 6200RPM shift points with 3.91 gears. I would think you would want those shift points on a cammed setup to be at least 6600 RPM if not higher. 6L80E can for sure live past 450RWHP if the tuning is correct. I would recommend taking the short drive to GPI in Arkansas for the tuning. I'm sure Rhino knows how to tune the Trans to make it live. Of course the nitrous however is hard on any auto so there may not be any amount of tuning that can save a stock Trans using the juice. Get a good Trans cooler like the ADM unit even if you stick with the stock converter. Keeping a auto Trans cool will really help it live.

[62nalide]

Rated 450rwhp???? Say what?
I pushed a stock one with 817rwhp, now I'm making 510rwhp on my NA VVT setup. I installed the converter when I had 5,000 miles. Now I have 15k miles and all track/racing and my transmission isn't breaking a sweat at all.

[Pro Stock John]

I have two local friends who went 11.7's cam/ converter @ 115-117. I'm thinking you should run similarly with a stall.

In my case the gear is helping because I'm not making that much power stock as compared to someone with a cam or a power adder.