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All right, I got everything all back together and working including the new coolant pressure sensor..... As it turn out there was some kind of a tune-n-test today at Showtime Speedway, so I said why the F#!% not..... I went out, cooled the car and made the first hit..... Car felt a little flat, kina of like when it blew the head gasket..... All was good with the motor, but it looks like my new custom built converter sucks the big one..... I cooled it off and made another hit, same **** and the trans got way hotter then it has in the past..... When I got to the et shack after the second pass, the guy there said something smelled hot(the motor was only 170)….. When I got back to the pits I stuck my hand under the car and the converter was extremely hot..... I am still foot braking the car, when I staged it for the second pass I loaded to 3200 and bumped in and while I was waiting on the tree it flared all the way up just over 4000 on it's own..... The converter flashed to 5200, the other odd thing it does is it has a kind of gradual rpm gain to about 5650 the ramps at least twice as fast to 6300 where I shift(it doesn't seem loaded the same,it also loses a couple #'s of boost during the upper rpm)….. After the shift it drops back down to about 5400 and has the same slow ramp as in low up to 5600(that's as far as I care to go, it's only an 1/8 mile track.....With the other converter it had a very linear smooth rpm ramp, I was just overpowering that converter(it on had about a 3-400 rpm drop at the shift)…..
I am going to check the trans and make sure it didn't get hurt(I don't think so), and put the other converter back in and see how it acts.....
The pass it blew the head gasket was the first with the new converter, I figured it didn't feel great due to the blown gasket..... Apparently that wasn't the only reason..... Now due to the head gasket it has gone through a few other changes(heads, gaskets and lifters)….. So putting a know converter in it will tell me if there are any other issues..... At least I think it will.....
What was the old and new conv spec/brands again? Looked back a ways and missed it?
Both converters are FTI's..... The first was an off the shelf Street Race 9.5'' 3400-3600..... The one that is in the car now is a custom 9'' built specifically for the car, they apparently screwed the pooch on this one.....
Got the old converter put back in, hopefully I can test wed night and see what it does..... I can tell already it drives around better, the other one was sloppy loose on the bottom..... I also have some Hy Gard coming so I can give that a try.....
Took the car out Wed nite with the old converter..... Felt much better, 60ft picked up a tenth and it went 2 tenths faster in the 1/8th..... It went 6.40@108.39 on just over 16lbs, still leaving off the footbrake at around 3400..... Still shows 29% converter slippage though..... I think I am going to put a little gear back in it, plus the Hy gard fluid I ordered came in..... I'll need to try that too..... I do need to send the new converter back and see if they can get it straightened out.....
I cleaned the car up some today, and leaft it with the trans fluid draining so I can try the Hy Gard next..... I have read to use a screen filter not a daycron, so I will have to swap that out too.....
I am also going to call FTI tomorrow and see what they can do with this converter.....
Long overdue update..... I called FTI, and between talking with them and suggestions from a couple others I had a couple things to try..... One question was if the daycron filter I was using could be a restriction possibly causing pump cavitation, which in turn was causing to converter not to fill properly..... and that causing my major converter slippage issues.....
I already had the pan off waiting for a screen filter to try, this was where my fist issue came into play..... I did not realize there were 2 sizes of the 727 Torqueflight filters and I ordered the wrong one the fist time, the second time I ordered the smaller one but got more large ones..... Was told it was there mistake and they sent me the correct ones, guess 3 times is a charm..... I put everything back together and checked cooler line pressure both before and after the cooler, I also added a pressure transducer to the cooler line before the cooler..... Pressures looked great, so I did some testing around the shop and there was a definite difference then before..... The converter stall is 400-500 rpm tighter then is was before, at least until I leaned on the fluid a little to hard and cooked it a little..... So I flushed everything and put some HyGuard in it, actually about 75% HyGuard and 25% type F..... The fluid change seems to of tightened the converter a couple hundred more rpm.....
No the next issue presented itself, the cooler feed line started leaking out of the hose end at the trans with the new found cooler line pressure..... So I replaced the line and fittings, now all seems to be good so far..... I did a little street testing, everything seems good and the logs look real good too..... Cooler line pressure seems to hold at 80ish when the trans is around 150 deg..... Next test will be at the track on Wed nite…..
Well all that was no help..... Car ran a little faster but better air ca account for that..... Converter slippage is no better..... On top of that I think I broke this converter.....
So here is what my car looked like when I leaft the shop today.....
Today I got the new pinion in the rear and put the bearing on the new diff, but I need some longer bolts for attaching the gear to the diff..... I also put the drive studs in the new axles, but I am going to see if I can get another set of rear brake caliper brackets from Strange so I can just leave the other on the old axles..... Otherwise I will have to take the bearing off the old axles.....
Since I was stuck there, I went ahead and disassembled the trans..... Everything looks good except the tip of the band adjustment pin is bent, maybe a little to much line pressure..... I will have to check that out..... I need to get a gasket/seal kit plus a band adjusting pin and put that back together.....
Haven't been doing much on the car, went to a couple swap meets the last couple weekends..... I did get the rear end all back together..... I also got the trans case mocked up in the car to check clearance for the cooler pressure bypass valve.....
All back together again..... Drove it to work today for the first time in a long time..... Going back to the track on Wed nite and we will see what happens.....
Yes..... Made 3 passes getting more aggressive with each one..... The last pass was the fastest, it went a 1.46 60ft and 6.11@115.39..... Still leaving off the footbrake..... The converter slippage is just under 15% with this converter, I sure it will be better in the quarter at a higher rpm..... It goes through in the 1/8th right at 5400.....
It made a peak of 20psi but trails down to just under 17 by the shift.... I guess I need to get some kind of boost control on this thing so it maintains a steady boost level.....
3 passes with no breakage or problems, that's different..... It did have a little vibration when I was driving home I still need to check out..... One of the new rear tires did balance kind of shitty, after 3 burnouts/passes I think I will recheck them.....