Just got my car back with the TCI converter put in.

It definitely has a noticeable slip to it. I think a higher
stall would have been pretty aggravating to me. The
behavior is much better for performance. The car
leaps now, where before it had to wait for the kickdown
to pick up torque & RPM. It slides on up to 3000 - 3500
RPM from cruise, downshifts to about 4000 under hard
pedal. I think this is a pretty good place for a car with
no cam or headers, etc. I can foot-stall it to 2500RPM
with the parking brake & foot brake applied before the
tires start to scuff.

Something a little annoying on the 1-2 shift, it shifts, it
bogs momentarily (like a hard coupling without slip) and
then loosens back up into the 3000 range. I don't know
if this is the B&M fluid, TM (took the Predator tune out
before going to the dealership) or what; I've put back
the tune but haven't driven afterward. Will have to see
about trans param tweaking and bed-in.

It seems to have slightly more "push" than before, which
is what I wanted, and the roll acceleration is much better
in the time I would have been waiting for downshift. But
the engine does run a lot higher RPM around town and
I'm glad I've got the "quiet" SS CME exhaust now. I didn't
have any gross increase in traction problems but haven't
really gotten on it hard, yet.

I gave the mechanic two of the O-rings for the nose shaft
and he didn't install one I guess maybe with only
12K miles the original will be OK. Hope so. I did get the deep
pan on, and that sucker is -deep-. It's now the lowest thing
on the car... maybe not such a good thing. Haven't scraped
it yet... but I'm sure it's coming. The tech said he ground
down the pedestals in the pan to get the truck filter to
sit right, so that should be much lower in the juice and
no worries about short fluid or slosh.

 

Hey if you plan on going to the track, post some times up, I am interested in what your mods with that converter will do?

 

I now think that the shift "bog" is lockup being applied
and released. Driving around, it will downshift and the
thing is locked (more pedal =/= more RPM, until the
very evident unlock happens and it runs right up to 3K.

I wonder if this is normal with converters, shouldn't the
unlock be done before shift, & lock well after? The trans
hits its shift-to gear and seems to be applying lock right
away - at least at soft pedal. With the stock
converter this mightn't have been noticeable, but I
have to wonder if the TCI clutches are slow (or don't
let go so easy with B&M Trick Shift 100% as the new
fluid).

I guess with the new pan, I can drain & try DexIII and
see if anything's different....

TCI didn't recommend the B&M juice (no info) but did
have some TCI special fluid that would be just ideal

 

There's nothing wrong with the converter. The lock, unlock, shift, and re-lock is normal. It's not noticed so much with the tight stock converter because the difference in RPM between locked and unlocked is so small with such a tight converter. If it really bothers you then you can do a little programming to get rid of the converter lockup when you don't want it (you could program it to only lockup in 4th gear, for example.)

 

One step forward, one step closer to buying Edit...

 

would ls1edit tuning give better street manners? I'm hoping i'll like the tci ssf 3500 with my mods below. I do ALOT of street driving 90%. It's a rare day i see 3000rpm cause the speed limit was lowered to 30mph (thank god i got the 68mph ticket b4 the change).

You think im gonna hate it? I hope the 3.42's (verus 2.73") help tighten it up along with the shift kit and EXPERT ls1edit tuning from a great local guy.

Cant wait to get her in.

QUESTION:
TCI came with verter only, no accesory parts. Do i reuse the old bolts and was there spose to be any other parts? I got a drop shipped 'verter from tci and it was just that a verter, nothing more.

Someone mentioned using new bolts?

i hope its not as bad as you make it sound, cause im 90% traffic city 30mph limit, 5% freeway (weekends), and the strip every other weekend i hope went the next season opens up.

oh well someday i'll afford a porsche GTR and won't have to worry about this and that But so far i love the car except for the ghey 2.73's and never being able to rev past 4000rpm without breaking a law.

nolo laying drag and 68 in 35 this year, insurance man is gonna be bitchslappin me.

 

Send an message to Kevin about the bolts. My TCI came with new bolts to install it.

And I LOVE the street manners of my 3500. It took a day to get used to it. I spend most of my driving between 30 and 45 every day around town, putting about 250 to 300 miles a week on it, and I don't regret putting it in.

 

I dont think I will regret mine when I get my car back, I drive about 250 miles a week mainly to school/work and on the weekends I have a little fun. I think it will take some time to get used to. I hope this thing will be 1/2 as good as yall make it sound. I cant wait till friday.

 

Aside from a few nits about the lockup behavior
I'm convinced it was the right thing to do. Just
need to smooth out a couple of quirks I think.
Unfortunately it's outside what I'd expect a
Predator custom tune to handle (if I could even
explain to them what I want, it might work, but
it's something that'll be cut-and-try, really a lot
to do with driving profile & style, and maybe
something that just needs a change of habits
to avoid the "funny spots"). On the performance
side it's all good, it's the places where the trans
used to have me lugging in high gear where it
now shows up the "discontinuities".

Fortunately, more gas makes it all go away.

Mine came without bolts, but I've been sitting
on it for a long time (I bought it during the first
TCI GP from Texas Speed). It was set up for the
metric 10x1.5s and I found the holes were fine
when I ran the tap through them ahead of the
install appointment.

 

Jimmy, try doing your low speed driving (maybe under 45 MPH) with the selector in 3rd so that it won't unlock, shift into 4th, and then relock. I think you'll like it better that way.

 

This was good advice, for low speed driving leaving it
in D (3rd) eliminated the lock-unlock on shifts. It isn't
taking too long to get used to the new feel of the car.

But I think there are a few surprises left... like, took a
familiar curve today and stomped on it like before,
expecting it to just roll up second like usual, made a
whole lot of fishtailing as the rear wheels lost it.

It's like, now I have to use finesse. That bites.