How do these affect performance? How much would one cost?

 

This will help a bunch.
Ralph or Beach Bum are the L98 EXPERTS I'm sure they will post the correct combo.

 

Im planning on getting a LPE 74219 camshaft and AFR 190 heads right now and later get the Super Ram, Dana 44 with 3.07 to 3.54 gears, and headers due to costs. Whats a real good converter but isn't too much? This car will be a daily driver that may see occasional drag races at the strip.

 

Look up Vigilanty/protorq/artcarr. My 3000 stall 9.5 3 clutch is about $1000 from Art. They have a good warranty. 5 and 7 clutch are @ 1.1 and 1.3K.

 

A torque converter can help in a couple of ways. First a looser (higher stall) converter will get you engine to higher rpms quicker and most engines will make more torque and HP in that range. Second, good quality converters usually have a higher torque multiplier...in other words more torque output for the same input...good deal right?

There are generally two levels of quality here (i know this is over simplying but...). you can buy a decent converter that will raise your stall and maybe increase the torque multiple a little for about $300 (TCI, B&M, SLP, etc). OR you can get a top of the line converter that will increase your torque multiple, give you a range of stalls and provide good drivability and track performance for $600-800 (ok Gkull $1000 for you...lol) (Protorque, Vigilante, Art Car, etc). These higher priced converters will generally also be built stronger to with stand more HP & TQ. The amount of stall is a difficult thing to recommend or even specify. torque converters are rated based on a set of parameters, but that rating can vary greatly depending on the HP & TQ of your engine, the weight of your car, the gears, the size of your tires, yada, yada, yada. For a race only combo you would probably want a converter that would stall up near your torque peak, however that would probably be too high for a street car, so you have to compromise and get a stall that is comfortable for you. The other thing to consider is that higher stalls will generally generate more heat, raising the temp of you tranny fuild which is a bad thing. To compensate for this, an addtional tranny fuild cooler should be considered for stalls above stock. Confused yet???

I suggest you check out protorque's website (protorque.com). they have some informative articles there that might help.

let me also recommend the following: If you are on a tight budget and are just looking for an improvement over stock...go for one of the less expensive converters...maybe someone here can recomend the best one (i can't). However if you have the feeling that you might get hooked on racing it once you add your go fast stuff and you want the best...go for the vigilante or the protorque. both are excellent and the companies stand behind products. They also seem to have found a nice compromise between drivability and track performance. Most of us in the street/strip gang have been using stalls from 2600 to 3500. You you might want to start with a 2600-2800 stall and if you think you want more both protoque and vigilante will loosen it for free within a certain time period.

Good luck with your choice.


[Modified by ralph, 10:09 PM 9/4/2001]

 

I agree with the above posts... and to go one step further... with your planned modifications, get a Pro-Torque or Vigalante 3000 rpm lock-up converter.

At 3000 rpm you will still have excellent street driveability with good gas mileage and your vette with its planned modifications will launch real hard to the tune of solid 1.6x 60 foots, and maybe even slip into the 1.5's...

good luck
Beach Bum

 

A 3000 vigilante is what I'm using and it is very driveable. :blueangel: