TCI Lockup Clutches Suck
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,649
Likes: 9
From: Warr Acres, OK
TCI Lockup Clutches Suck Getting ready to pull a TCI SSF3500 out again because the lock up clutch is slipping AGAIN This is number 2 in the same car. The first one lasted less than 1K miles before it started slipping. This one has around 4K miles on it. Setting P1870 AGAIN. Number 3 will be a Yank.
Just was waundering if you upgraded to the billet cover on the second convertor? It has a larger apply area and is a much better piece as I was told, more money also?! 
Traver
Traver Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,649
Likes: 9
From: Warr Acres, OK
First one was sent back to TCI and was replaced with the same kind. If it takes an upgrade to make it reliable, they should not sell the original. This is not in my car, but a friends who has to pay for R&R each time also.
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,649
Likes: 9
From: Warr Acres, OK
It's an occasional driver. Never been to the track. Converters have never been manually locked on dyno or otherwise. #1 went in a fresh rebuilt tranny. After talking to the tranny builder today, he said he has seen 4 other TCIs in just the last month with the same problem. He will no longer recomend them either. The owner of the car is a cop so he doesn't even street race. What pisses me off is I have only ever run Yanks in my cars with good results and I'm the one that recomended he go with a TCI to save him a little money. He's spent more than the Yank would have cost in R&R costs.
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sorry to hear about your troubles..... if it makes you feel any better i have/had 3 TCI's when i was still in the 4L60E's. the first one made it 2 days, second one made it about 3 months, the last one had the billet cover and all upgrades (they are excellent people to deal with, just a flaw with these converters) and it slipped worse/faster than the first two did. i was pissed so i just kept driving it. it was so bad with the cruise set at about 75 on the I-state (3.73's) it would jerk the car going up an incline. after that i toasted the max evil stg. III and went to a th350. tci swapped out the converter for a transbrake valvebody for it.
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Originally Posted by 2002_Z28_Six_Speed
TCI uses paper clutch in many converter models. I am not sure if they use anything else at all. Get a converter with a real carbon cermanic clutch instead of paper.
My TCI is doing the same thing. Proablly going with a Yank.. I have good luck with them in the past and my wifes TA has one with zero problems..
Question, If I keep driving the car like this will it damage my tranny?
Question, If I keep driving the car like this will it damage my tranny?
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,649
Likes: 9
From: Warr Acres, OK
Originally Posted by Joel_SS
Question, If I keep driving the car like this will it damage my tranny?
12 Second Club
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 371
Likes: 0
From: Imperial, CA
i remember when everyone was on tci's nuts. i bought a ssf 3500 because of all the great things people said about them, but that being said i too had problems with the tc locking up, then the prolem just went away, i have taken my car to the strip many times and have not had a problem yet. but i will probably buy a yank once this one goes.
Originally Posted by 2xLS1
At speeds where the converter should be locked and it is slipping, the trans fluid temp will get real high. On the car I'm talking about, on about a 40 mile interstate trip to my house, by the time the car got here the trans fluid temps got to 250* and the coolant temps were over 230*. It was a 100* day here though.
Well good luck with what ever you do. O by they way i have the top of the line PY3600 YANK the converter clutch went out in less than 1k miles I have it for sale as soon as Yank gets it back to me I'm going back to a TCI
I was able to gimp along for a couple of years by upping
the line pressure at lower throttle areas, to give the
small clutch more to work with. Latest version of HPTuners
adds several "General Pressure" handles that directly bump
line when TCC is applied, a more sophisticated way to get
holding power. The clutch just is what it is, and is not the
same size as stock tune assumes for pressure needs.
Hard friction slip is the deadly heat maker, way worse than
fluidic losses in the converter hydrodynamic part (and also
not carried off to the cooler, so efficiently as fluid-heating
processes). When the trans slips up grade, consider yourself
fukt very shortly. Glazing becomes very likely, if that is the
material system's response to overtemp (here, ceramics are
your buddy, they're much higher temperature-stable).
A larger, stronger clutch -can- be built into a 10" converter
and this is what made me dollar up for the Fuddle middle-
grade ("High Performance Street") model. TCC qualities are
usually given little weight in converter mfrs' specs / mktg
material, though. You have to dig for it in most cases and
sometimes it just comes up mud.
the line pressure at lower throttle areas, to give the
small clutch more to work with. Latest version of HPTuners
adds several "General Pressure" handles that directly bump
line when TCC is applied, a more sophisticated way to get
holding power. The clutch just is what it is, and is not the
same size as stock tune assumes for pressure needs.
Hard friction slip is the deadly heat maker, way worse than
fluidic losses in the converter hydrodynamic part (and also
not carried off to the cooler, so efficiently as fluid-heating
processes). When the trans slips up grade, consider yourself
fukt very shortly. Glazing becomes very likely, if that is the
material system's response to overtemp (here, ceramics are
your buddy, they're much higher temperature-stable).
A larger, stronger clutch -can- be built into a 10" converter
and this is what made me dollar up for the Fuddle middle-
grade ("High Performance Street") model. TCC qualities are
usually given little weight in converter mfrs' specs / mktg
material, though. You have to dig for it in most cases and
sometimes it just comes up mud.
Clutch slippage seems to be the most common problem I read about in this forum. I'm wondering if it's just the byproduct of using 10" and smaller converters. For that reason I've considered backing down on the stall speed and getting an 11" converter like the TCI breakaway. Hughes also has a 10" converter with a 12" clutch. The only drawback is the total mass and inertia of the converter, but it may be a reasonable trade off for a daily driver, unless you like changing converters.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 6,216
Likes: 236
From: Wichita KS / Rancho San Diego
Originally Posted by Formulated
Clutch slippage seems to be the most common problem I read about in this forum. I'm wondering if it's just the byproduct of using 10" and smaller converters. For that reason I've considered backing down on the stall speed and getting an 11" converter like the TCI breakaway. Hughes also has a 10" converter with a 12" clutch. The only drawback is the total mass and inertia of the converter, but it may be a reasonable trade off for a daily driver, unless you like changing converters.
