WTF??? Torque converter lock up problem
 

I was driving down the highway this weekend and the torque converter wouldn't lock up. the converter is a newly refreshed TCI 3800. I can also hear a whine coming from the transmission any time it is in any gear(R,D,3,2,1) and also in park or neutral when I give it some gas the sound appears to change as engine RPM'S change. I didn't notice the whine until I put in my new TCI flexplate. Fluid was good and didn't smell burnt, the highest my trans temp got was 190. Any ideas what I should check? TIA

Mine has done that 3 times and i've had the converter in for about 3 weeks. What I did was pull over and shut the car off and fire it back up and go and it would lock up just fine, but I have had no tuning done to the car, so it really didn't suprise me that it wasn't perfect, but i've put 1500 miles on and only had lock up issues 3 times, other than that it workes great!

I stopped and got gas on the way home and it still didn't lock up. I have had the TCI converter in it since april. but I recently wrecked the planetaries(i think) in my old tranny so I just put in a used tranny out of a 98 Z28. I sent the converter off to get it refreshed and have had it in for 3 weeks. I have put about 2,000 miles on the tranny and converter until this problem came up. I havent tried driving it since this weekend. I also have a Pro Built Automatics shift kit and it shifts hard at part throttle and slightly less hard at WOT. The car runs great aside from these problems.

if in fact is is the converter pm kevin windstead, he'll probably help you out. i had the same problem with tci converters but kevin (head engineer at tci) made everything good.

if you have the extra cash it is never a bad idea to get a multi-disk lockup clutch converter. im running a tci 3800 with a 5-clutch setup, billet front and all of that good stuff. the upgrade may not be as much as you think...

This makes me not wanna get a stall now..... :confused:

If you set a tranny slip code it will not try to lock up.
The code may set just from TCC slip, or from some
other component but it's only ever been TCC slip for
me, in the heat. I set the slip fail RPM higher and
jacked the force motor current around to suppress
that.

All performance converters have smaller clutches
than stock. In TCI's case, make that "way small".
And stock is the PCM's assumption. You need way
more line pressure especially at low engine loads,
than the stock setup will provide you. I'm waiting
on some additional tuning features to get access
to the line/load or at least line/TCC_locked bumps.

No idea what the whine is, hope to never know....

Ihaven't got that code.
I did before when I tried a Art Carr 3800 converter but I only used that converter for 50 miles(was too tight, felt like a 3200 also wouldn't lock up) and I just put my TCI in when I got it back and like I said it drove fine for the last 2,000 miles. I also swapped my valve body(shift kit installed along with wiring harness) over from my bad tranny.

tci is junk. i got mie and it was pissing out fluid, had to send it back and they give it back to me unblanced. now after 2000 miles when it locks up it back a terrible grinding sound. sounds like it is coming apart inside.

check for false missfire codes, that will keep it from locking