Rob 98GT, I just got off the phone with Darrin from BCA. We are good friends and work together on developing transmissions and building projects. He said you contacted him last night and he’s setting you up with a TC. You’re in good hands; we both offer the same products and stand behind our products. Also to answer your question about needing a tune for a higher stall. Yes it is recommended that you have a custom program build for it.
Dalamar, I like your avatar by the way. I had some info for and artist that you send in a pic of your vehicle and they then come up with a drawing similar to your avatar. I lost the contact info though.
The higher stall converters only affects your take off (launch) or if you are at a low enough mph say 25 – 30 and kick it down to first, have enough rpm range and are blow the TC stall speed. The TC will then flash to the stall speed. The second one I don’t recommend unless you have a good built transmission. During cruising or highway speeds the TC is locked so there are no adverse effects to running a higher stall. With proper tuning these cars can run much higher stall converters than back in the old days. This is because of the 4R70W electronic controls and lockup abilities. Cruising is going to be just like it was when it was stock.
Voidfinger, Ford doesn’t lock up the TC completely during WOT. It does lock up for your Mustang but not 100%. Some vehicles Ford doesn’t allow them to lock up at all during WOT. Ford has what is called Torque Modulation that is used in conjunction with Torque Reduction to protect the drive train and ensure it lasts 100K miles. Some call it Spark Retard also. This most people are familiar with happening during and between the shifts where the EEC pulls out timing. But most don’t realize that this part of the Torque Reduction and so it also modulates the TC to not fully apply to save the Trans also. The EEC calculates the slippage and can adjust the modulation so that nothing burns up. Now depending on if your tuner has the access to all the parameters he can remove this and make the TC fully apply and the amount of apply pressure. Your stock TC if opened up I can guaranty has some wear, burned friction or damage in it if you’ve been doing a lot of WOT shifts.
After the second PI failure I sent the TC back to PI for a relining and re-stall. I had it back for about 3 months but knew that it wasn’t going to hold up. Then I was talked into trying one of Dirtydog’s TCs. He wanted to break into the multiple disc territory. He wanted my PI triple disc and guaranteed that his TC would out perform the PI unit I had. I installed it along with one of my built transmissions. Backed it out of the shop, drove it down the street where I found that it seemed like I was starting out in 3rd gear or something. The stall was supposed to be 3600 but the car wasn’t moving like it should. I then nailed it and the TC gave out. I can drive the car about 4 blocks and the Trans temp will hit will over 200 degrees. The TC is slipping so bad that I can’t even drive it. And it has never locked up. When he was informed of this he blamed it on my tuning. For well over a year and a half we had discussion over this with him blaming everything but the TC. Then once it was proven that it was the TC he said that it was given to me so he’s not responsible. When in fact he got a 3 month old triple disc in exchange for this TC then doesn’t work at all. After some persuasion from others he finally sent me a replacement. I’m not about to put that one in though. You see I also was selling his TCs but after experiencing first hand how he treats his customers and his business practices I dropped him. During all this I also sold one of his triple disc to a very loyal customer and had a catastrophic failure that took out not only the trans like mine but also the engine since it balloon and forced itself against the crank taking out the thrust bearing and oil pump. He wouldn’t take responsibility for this one either. I know of 2 others and have pics so even though these two are second hand I have proof on one of them. There was a big fight on the Crown Vic site over this. The owners of his TCs came in after he started denying everything. He’s also started building transmission and I know of 6 people that have had problems with them and he wouldn’t support them. In this thread you can see where one of his transmission customers asked him for help and he went off on the customer telling him he wasn’t going to help him since he posted he was having a problem.
http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1350164&fpart=1 So it’s up to you on whether you want to do business with someone like this or not.
After all that insanity I found another company that has been building TCs for over 60 years and will stand behind their products. Since I’ve been using them I haven’t had a single failure or complaint from any of my customers. I work directly with the owner and we discuss each build to come up with the correct setup for each customer.
I can’t beat that price he is offering you. But here’s my thought on your comment. If he’s willing to sell you a TC at that price it either shows that he’s desperate for business and is willing the slash his prices. In doing so you have to wonder what good parts he has taking out of that TC in order to give you a price like that. You get what you pay for with TCs. And if he’s is desperate enough to sell at that low of a price than is he going to be around when or if it fails to help you out.
I can set you up with a good billet 11 inch TC with a stall of 3000 for $625 plus shipping. You’re looking at a billet front cover, steel dampener, 11 inch piston with high carbon friction lining for a total of 30 square inches of friction material over the stock 18 inches of thin paper material. I’m working on another setup right now that will be in the $500 range but that’s still a few weeks away. These are not up on my website yet so you have to call to order them.
http://www.blueovalchips.com
