[elukas]

Finally drove the Cutlass home yesterday. Had some kinks, but it was fun to drive it for the first time in a year.

I think my Jeg's brand torque converter may be a dud. I'm not an expert so I wanted to tell you the symptoms.

I may also have some tuning problems. It does not take off well from a stop period. Torque converter, carb, or timing, I'm not sure which. It doesn't seem very fast period in drive. From a 5-10 mph roll, if I manually put it in 1st, it moves pretty fast, gets up to 45-55 (50-60 on my incorrect speedo) and brakes the tires loose all over when it shifts into second.

The stall doesn't flash when I floor it from a standstill. The tach just seems to start moving from below 2000 rpms. Very gradual.

If I apply the brakes, and step on the gas, it gets up to 2000 RPMs and won't go any higher. And I don't think the tires are spinning either.

Here's the converter:

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=4746&prmenbr=361

12'', 2300-2700 Stall, 10.75'' Bolt Circle

I figured with the AFR + 383 torque, it would definitely be stalling on the high side of 2700. But my cheaping out probably means another tranny removal.

Being fairly generic in description, I got no custom input on my cam, gear ratio, etc and there doesn't appear to be any info on STR etc.

It's a 72 Cutlass with a 383 with afr 190 heads, 9.1 compression, Comp Cams Magnum Solid Cam 294S Specs: .525/.525, 110 lobe sep, 250/250 duration at .050 , victor jr intake, 2" 4-hole spacer, msd 6al, balanced, holley 750 carb, 3.73 gears, a t400 and 26 inch tires. I had kind of expected it to want to spin the tires a little from a standstill

Thanks in advance for any ideas or things you can think of,

Erik

 

[elukas]

Any ideas on what the culprit might be guys?

 

[56Maynard]

Seems like you're describing front pump problems.

Or, do you have a manual valve body? If you do you are starting out in 3rd and pulling it back into second or first and that would make it accelerate harder. Manual valve bodies put the car in whatever forward gear is seleted. Drive always = 3rd gear, 2nd = second.

If you dont have a manual valve body, I would direct your attention to the front pump.

 

[elukas]

Thanks for the reply, 56Maynard.

To my knowledge, it doesn't have a manual valve body. I got the T400 from an early 80s truck and would be surprised if there was anything special about it.

I'll have someone check out the front pump as soon as I can.

Thanks again,

Erik

 

[firechicken383]

In my opinion, you need more stall, much more I think and more compression. Myself, I would want at least a 3500 stall with a 250 @ .050 cam and victor jr intake. :thumbup:

 

[elukas]

Thanks for the input, firechicken383.

Well, I've gotta get to the bottom of what's wrong right now, but if there's something screwy about the converter, I'll be getting a higher stall one come spring. My only concern is the converter rpm stall being higher than my cruising RPM. I've got a big tranny cooler but being that this was my first real performance buildup (olds 350 was fun cruiser), I didn't know what to expect from the converter and wanted to make sure I didn't fry my tranny. So that's why I went a little conservative.

The engine builder/drag racer who did the bottom end (the only part of my project I didn't have trouble with) told me around a 3.55/3.73 gear and a 3000 rpm converter would be about perfect.

And in retrospect, I see the compression I used was very conservative, especially being that I'll be putting 93 octane in it anyway. I've been told this over and over but at the time was simply blindly following the carcraft article.

- Erik