How much TQ can 4l60E handle?
input shaft torque rating. This being the engine
output (flywheel) torque times whatever torque
multiplication you are getting off the converter
at any given time.
With the stock engine (say, <300lb-ft down low where
the converter is swinging through stall / Tq mult) and
converter (1800/1.8 STR) you're likely OK forever -
and GM engineering is clean from a warranty odds
point of view.
Now throw a 2.5:1 STR, 3500 RPM stall converter
on there and run the engine up to its torque peak
(maybe over 350lb-ft on a healthy car) and you
are well over the design rating, well into whatever
design margin might still not have been "value
engineered" out of the system - 800-900lb ft
onto a 600 lb-ft rated design - "do I feel lucky"?
This is where the super-duty input-end components
come in, on a well-built performance transmission.
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