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I had a transmission failure recently, the larger bearing in the front planetary came apart and the material contaminated the transmission ruining the soft parts as well as the pump. I had a been running TCI 3600 stall pt# 242932 that did great for me, I had it tuned properly for the smaller fragile converter clutch and my old setup lasted almost 7 trouble free years with lots of good dragstrip abuse. This time around though my budget was more of a concern and I decided to buy a rebuilt 245mm converter, built with a sonnax kit from an online dealer for considerably less than the TCI converter I was running cost new, however I still plan to send the TCI back later and have it redone for another project. I took some pictures of the converters Side by side to show some of the differences between them, the Tci front cover is much thicker and the mounting ring is welded to it at six points versus the budget converters that's bolted to the ring at the three standard bolt holes, however these bolts each have one small weld keeping them in place. My 60' with the TCI was consistent 1.64-1.65 hopefully this little guy can do a little better as it feels a bit lighter than the Tci thought I still need to weight them
So here we go, budget 35-3800 rebuild vs. TCI 3600, I should have it together again and sorted out soon with new track results!
I forgot to upload a picture of the bearing that failed in the front planetary of my 2002 Z28, it was still holding and shifting between first and second gear and reverse though it slipped badly in three and four right away when it broke and I would imagine that the bearing roller bits damaged the converter clutch lining of my old tci converter as well.
I got the converter installed and the trans filled with fluid last night, so I drove it around the block a few times to check for leaks, it feels pretty tight but I also have 4.10:1 gears spinning 26" tires behind it. I'll need to finish tuning on it before I can take it to the track though, stay tuned
I know this is an old thread but based on the welds on the pump on the gray converter it’s a positive fin pump. Plus it’s 300mm. How the heck could it stall to 3500-3800? I bet it’s very tight.
The TCI unit has a negative fin angle pump and only 245mm. I bet it felt a whole lot faster.
I know this is an old thread but based on the welds on the pump on the gray converter it’s a positive fin pump. Plus it’s 300mm. How the heck could it stall to 3500-3800? I bet it’s very tight.
The TCI unit has a negative fin angle pump and only 245mm. I bet it felt a whole lot faster.
what did you end up doing?
you can tell by looking at the size of the adapter ring vs the pump on the converter that it's not a 300mm core referring to the diameter of the converter
it's referring to the input shaft on the 4l60e
The early shaft is called a "298mm" and the later *LS* style is called 300mm
Because of their measurements
So...it's simply referring to which input shaft it will work with
I know this is an old thread but based on the welds on the pump on the gray converter it’s a positive fin pump. Plus it’s 300mm. How the heck could it stall to 3500-3800? I bet it’s very tight.
The TCI unit has a negative fin angle pump and only 245mm. I bet it felt a whole lot faster.
what did you end up doing?
The converter was very tight, It only stalled to about 2,500 RPM or so and it was definitely slower than the TCI unit. Like I lost a 10th and a half in my 60 ft alone.
That being said the transmission didn't last very long anyways as I did not have the servo set up correctly. I've made a lot of mistakes with these transmissions learning but I'm not going to give up anytime soon.
I'm in the process of rebuilding the transmission now, and I'll be using the TCI converter again. My first rebuild did not work out well and I'm still trying to get it right (there's a threat about it I'm going to update) however I learned a lot from my mistakes and I'm getting better with these transmissions.
From now on I'll only get converters from reputable companies. I just put an FTI SB 2600 in my other Camaro and it's awesome, perfect match for 2.73 years
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Converter comparison, 4L60e 
