I had a Midwest 3400 2.0 STR torque converter installed last Friday and want to post about my initial impressions:

When I went to pick it up at the tranny place the guy told me to take it for a drive and see how I liked it. While backing up out of the parking space I realized exactly what "loose" meant. The car needed a little more throttle to get moving, even in reverse. Then when I put it in drive and started to pull out of the parking lot, it also required more gas then I was used to giving it. But when I pulled out of the parking lot and punched it, man did it take off!!

The acceleration was just what I was looking for and the "dead spots" where the stock tranny seemed to lag or get hung up were gone. I pulled into another parking lot to turn around and go back and when I pulled back into traffic I floored it and the car spun the tires like crazy and started to go sideways until I let off of it. I was definitely ear to ear smile at that point.

I went back to the tranny place told him that it would be fun but would take a while to get used to it. I then went home and installed a tranny cooler to keep the temps down and then began the process of trying to adjust to the new stall. I couldn't adjust to it right away and was planning on getting the car tuned so figured why not do it now. Slowhawk was kind enough to make himself available to tune the car with LS1edit 2 days after install of the converter. The car definitely felt better afterwards, but still takes some getting used to.

The car is my daily driver and I drive about 10 miles on back roads with lights and about 25 miles on the highway for work everyday. I really don't know how long it will take to get used to the higher stall speed, but I feel like I am giving it entirely too much gas to get moving in city traffic and at stop lights. I talked with Slowhawk and he assured me that I am not hurting the car, but giving it so much gas makes the exhaust from the car so much louder which in turn makes me feel like I am driving it incorrectly or damaging it. The way the car feels to me, when I am accelerating from a stop light or driving at less than 40 MPH, is like I am driving a manual transmission and haven't taken my foot off of the clutch all the way while I am giving it gas at the same time. I track all of my gas mileage at every fill up, and was averaging 21.5 MPG before the converter (since I bought the car in Nov. 2003) and I have only had 1 fill up since the converter and I got 18.5 MPH on that tank, so I lost 3 MPG. However, I usually do 75% highway and 25% city driving. On the 18.5 MPG fill up I probably did just the opposite (25% highway and 75% city) since it was over a 3 day week-end and I did a lot of driving around in town. I figure I will lose 1-2 MPG with the converter but hopefully will get it back after installing LT headers and an underdrive pulley.

So far I am not 100% pleased with my new converter. At above 40 MPH, and while accelerating the car feels amazing now, no dead spots at all. But the in traffic and below 40 MPH manners aren't what I want them to be. I hope I get used to it. Once I have given it a month I will post my follow up opinion. I don't want to say I am disappointed, but I don't love it (right away)as much as I thought I would. Maybe some 3.42 gears will tighten it up a little more?

I paid $300 for the converter used, $350 for the install, $75 for a tranny fluid and filter change, $50 for a tranny cooler to give other A4 guys an idea of the price.

 

Very interesting write-up. Thanks for giving an honest impression. FWIW, I feel the same way about TCs. Kinda torn between strip performance vs. street driving. Decisions, decisions.....

 

Good review!!!! Thanks

 

Good review, I have been thinking about buying one within the next couple of weeks and this was nice to have read before I do.

 

3.42 Gears won't help much, especially if you have 3.23s now. You won't even notice the difference.

Suggestion. Put a QUIET exhaust on. You'll be amazed at what this does to your senses. You can install an electric cuttout for those "special" occasions. Get your converter lockup and part throttle shift points tweaked out too.

What can you footstall that converter to in 2nd gear? Just wondering if the 3400 rating is accurate.

 

Give yourself some time you will get use to it a little.But can I add I think you'll never really get used to it cause you know you have a stall in there and thats exactly what its going to feel like.Ive had mine for 3 weeks now and I still can't get use to it not that I don't like it its hard to explain.......Don't dispare keep it and enjoy....3.42's I heard will tighten it up.
I did drop my ET's to 12.9 from an avg of 13.5's.
Biggest problem still is no traction.
Coming home from the track I street raced a zo6 (405hp) and he got the jump but it felt good running right with him, he'd shift, Id catch him,kind of back and forth.

 

3.23s to 3.42s is less than a 6% change. It won't help the feel much at all. If you have 2.73s then you will notice some difference since that would be a 25% change.

 

i have the same converter and i like it alot.


car is alot more responsive and i lost very little streetability.no more deadspots was well worth the slight change in gas mileage.



will i still benefit from going to 3.73s?

 

I have the same verter and i love the looseness feeling it gives. I will go bigger later on when i get some more money and some other mods on the car. Maybe in the area of a 4000-4400 is possible.

Why don't you like the looseness feeling below 40mph??

 

"Why don't you like the looseness feeling below 40mph??"

Because...

"giving it so much gas makes the exhaust from the car so much louder which in turn makes me feel like I am driving it incorrectly or damaging it. The way the car feels to me, when I am accelerating from a stop light or driving at less than 40 MPH, is like I am driving a manual transmission and haven't taken my foot off of the clutch all the way while I am giving it gas at the same time."

 

my current gears are 2.73.

It has been almost a month since I had it installed now. I do like it a lot more than I did at first. It took a while, but now it feels normal to me. The car is still 100% streetable. At no point in time have I felt like I could lose control of the car. But then again I do not mash the pedal every chance I get. The gas mileage is 18.5 over the first 3 fill ups since the install, down from 21.5 MPG before install. No big deal, just want to relay the info for other people.

I had the car tuned, but think I may have to have it "fine" tuned to alleviate a few problems. I just got back from vacation and after not driving it for a week it felt a little strange on the way to work this morning. It felt like the tranny wasn't shifting gears right away. Even after pushing the gas down further and further, the car still did not shift gears. It was up to 4500-5000 rpm one time before it shifted. Kinda had me wondering, but on the way home from work the car felt like it was back to normal. The car sounds especially loud first thing in the morning. Overall a good mod, but not as great as I had hoped for. I will be installing 3.42 gears sometime soon and hope that that will tighten the feel up a little more. I will repost then as well.

thanks for reading

 

I just got a Vig 3200 installed and I'm a little disapointed as well for basically the same reasons. I guess I was just expecting more. The car sounds ricey now thru open borla and that's annoying. I've got basically the same HP mods as you.

I will say that the car is more fun to drive now but the freakin exhaust sounds like it's coming out of a coffee can. I guess I'll be in with the Vtech crowd now.