True, if you want to pussyfoot along. I put my Yank 4k with a TR224 cam and it was beast mode. Far, far better then the 3200 I pulled out of it. I do realize you lose driveability with the bigger converters but they are so worth it. Bottom line is if you arent in it for performance leave it stock. If you are, do it right. There is nothing worse then buying the same part twice.

 

Im using a 5.3L stock to mild Truck engine, single turbo, 4l80e transmission, 3000lb vehicle. Daily driver. I bought a 9.5" Yank 2800 stall, the lowest stall speed they offer.

The converter needs to suit the application. IF the vehicle is a daily, and economy is a requirement, you want the lowest stall speed that the engine will tolerate. Next, a stock camshaft means good low RPM VE which is where the majority of daily drivers spend their time, which is why the factory generally uses that cam profile to begin with and it too helps with economy. A performance daily driver is generally both- economical, and low speed performance requirements, to leave stoplights with both reasonable fuel savings and adequate performance.

Yes going from 2800 to say, 5000rpm of converter might make almost any vehicle faster. But, it will also ruin the economy, and completely bypass the 2000-4000rpm range where the engine you may be using makes really good torque. It would be a complete waste of the cam profile and general overlay of the engine's application, what is the point of having 400 ft*lbs of torque at 2400rpm if you are going to just shoot past it when you put the pedal down? Might as well change the cam profile to skip that 2400rpm region also, and while you are at it open the intake/heads to flow more since we just shifted the power curve up. And all of that costs economy, fuel savings goes down.

 

turbo combo is way different then NA. Way different powerbands. My suggestion would be different then.

 

And we also know that the op does not have some random motor that makes 400 ft/tq at 3,000 rpms. He has a stock ls1 in which we do know what the power band is.

True that not every application needs a massive converter but we do know on a stock ls1 the best performance gains would be between a 3600 - 4200 stall.

Also, just my opinion but I think it was very poor advice for the op to be told the transmission being built would work best with a 2400 stall. Especially, and no offense op, when it seems the op does not have a good grasp on what a converter does.

Will a 3600 - 4000 be a bit sloppy with a 3.08 gear, probably a bit. But if he is reading about guys running deep into the 12's with a nice converter than being steered towards a 2400 he is going to be very disappointed.

 

And you can always swap gears and make it more streetable

 

Well, not really. You are trained to think so because everyone goes far too large on their turbochargers or for other reasons perhaps. A turbo is a compressor and a compressor can work at any RPM You desire, i.e. 500rpm you can have 20psi of boost if you size the compressor right (not suggesting this, just an example).

The so called 'powerband' is traditionally set by the valve timing, and you can also call it a 've curve' for the valve timing sets the volumetric efficiency of an engine through its rpm range, provided the complementary parts (everything else) match well enough to suit. If an engine has a movable camshaft (like a certain well known S2000 HONDA engine) then the 'power band' or 'VE curve' could be essentially a flat line, a perfect VE across the board. Thus installing any size compressor (boost) will supplement the 'power band' at any region for which it is sized.

To put it another way, the atmosphere is a compressor, it provides at sea level approx 14.whatever psi of pressure all the time with 100% adiabatic efficiency. If the atmosphere suddenly tomorrow provided 30.whatever psi of pressure instead, then every engines output on the same altitude would instantly double, regardless of valve timing, and their respective powerbands or 've curves' would remain exactly the same (same effective rpm operating range).

 

the 'guy' in question is Dana from probuilt. When I was 16 years old, Dana had already been building transmissions for perhaps 20+ years, and that was almost 20 years ago today. This is all he does. Dana has been known to fly out to check up on transmissions he has built in order to diagnose issues with them. He will spend the entire day on the phone with you helping you build a transmission using his methods and parts, at his expense. There isn't a single bad word on the internet about Dana from probuilt, not a single person who has purchased one of his transmissions has a bad thing to say. And you know how hard that is?

I would stick to Dana's advice.

 

I know who he is and you don't build a 4l60e to work with a single specific converter as being suggested.

 

For a stock LS1, I disagree entirely. A 3.08 will be nearly identical in road performance to a 3.23, and I can't tell you how disappointed I would have been with such a low stall speed in my 3.23 stock LS1 car. In fact, even 3500 eventually seemed too low.



Yes and yes.

I'll only add that I really don't think an SS3600 would be sloppy at all with a 3.08, at least not to me. I've driven a few 2.73 cars with comparable converters and thought they were fine. 3.08 is so close to 3.23 that only the most sensitive individuals would even be able to tell. Granted, some have less tolerance for higher stall speeds, but a 3.08/SS3600 combo with stock internal gearing on the 4L60E should be perfectly streetable for most performance enthusiasts and feel nearly the same as a 3.23/SS3600 combo.

 

Yank/FTI over circle D and ss3600 would be awesome. I had a 3200 on my 160k Bolton z28 and we should have gone 3600 to start.

 

You seem to disagree based on the aspect of performance, which means you may have mis-read what I posted. Higher stall speeds typically increase performance, not always but usually in a modern engine using a modern converter the car will go faster. My recommendation is not based on performance, and neither is Dana's I would have to bet. It is based on economy and drivability. You would be giving up the stock engine's best possible region for economy, where valve timing is ideal for fuel savings, by pushing stall speed up higher and higher into regions of more power to get from stoplight to stoplight when the vehicle isn't racing anything. The car is getting faster and faster, but that is not all that matters.

As soon as you throw daily driver and economy out the window, might as well push stall right into peak torque region. What, SS4000? 4400? I bet she feels even faster.

 

​​​​​​Have you owned an fbody with a stall in the 3k+ range? If not what are you basing ANY opinion on? Most others in this thread actually have this crazy thing called real world experience instead of hypothetical gibberish.

 

Isn't that the entire point of doing a stall speed higher than stock in the first place? The engine is stock, so why not just use a factory converter if absolute best economy is desired? No higher stall speed is required for a stock cam.

Understand that 2800 or even 2400 is not going to deliver best economy, if that's the #1 goal. Better to stick with stock stall speed for a stock engine then.

How about finding a balance? High quality converters in the ~3500 stall speed range tend to best represent said balance for LS1/4L60E combos for most enthusiasts. They certainly won't deliver the best possible performance, and they certainly won't deliver the best possible economy, but they are a better balance of these two aspects than a 2400 OR a 4400. For most of us, myself included, a ~3500 stall speed (LS1/4L60E) feels almost like stock after about a week of driving; totally daily driveable for the average enthusiast (which the OP seems to be as he's interested in improving performance.)

It seems that you're only looking at one aspect - economy. If so, stick with stock for a stock engine and don't worry about anything else.

 

This is NOT a typical small block chevy. Stock heads flow a **** ton (comparitivily) which naturally makes the motor want to rev. Combine that with bolt ons like headers and you have a motor that peak torques at 3500 or higher and loves 6k rpms. You're thinking certainly applies to gen1 engines but is very silly in this application. I have a 3200 in my yukon which tows my camaro and I love it. The bolt on 6.0 would LOVE more stall speed. You're wrong and that's the nicest way I can put it.

 

Another vote for Yank SS3600. To me it drives very similar to stock, will wake the car up, plenty of room to grow, and at lock up (~45-50mph) no different than stock.

 

To be honest, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I want to balance economy with performance. I understand​ that getting a higher stall would wake up the LS1, but at the same time I don't want it to guzzle up gas more frequently. I also understand that by getting a higher stall, I'll have plenty of room to upgrade my motor and not worry about my converter, but for now I'm only using the car mostly for necessity. I also want to have fun sometimes though. Which is why I want a stall that balances between economy and performance, which I hadn't decide till now.

 

So far I'm leaning towards the Yank SS3600. A little out of my price range but I can manage.

How does it go as far as economy? Will I need to tune the car if I installed it? And how?

 

No offense taken. I actually didn't put time into researching torque converters until recently.

I see a lot of praise for the Yank SS3600 around here. Should I go for that? (As long as the economy doesn't take a deep hit).

 

i would definitely recommend a tune, a stall will throw shift points off and can trigger a check engine light. Plenty of people who can do mail or or in person tune if you can't afford downtime. Typically a stall like that will impact around town driving by a few mpg depending on your driving style and won't really impact highway mpg.

 

The yank ss3600 is a very nice all around converter and imo you will be very happy with it.

When cruising on the highway when the converter is locked you will see zero drop in mpg.

In stop and go miserable traffic you will see a slight drop in mpg. You're not going to go from say 25 mpg with the stock converter to 15 mpg with the yank, it's not that drastic. You may see something like 25 mpg dropping to 22 -23 mpg in heavy traffic.