Torque Converters

[slow-canoe]

Has any one had any experience with TCI's towing torque converters ,do they help with heat and do they help to lower rpm's of the motor. They are for towing in pickups and motor homes. Or has anybody used any other kind of towing torque converter and how did it work out.
Slowcanoe

 

[icrman]

Torque Converters

During cruise the torque converter design will not help lower the engine rpms. Since all new design automatic transmissions use a lock up device that directly hooks the engine output to what ever the final drive is. The rpms will be set by the gear ratio of the final drive and the tire diameter.
You can change engine rpms with the tc design as far as when it is being used to work. Higher stall is less efficient etc. Now some of the transmissions will purposely slip the tc clutch, its supposed to be something that improves emissions or feel.

 

[dsl4us]

Torque Converters

Slowcanoe,
What kind of vehicle are you looking at installing this in?
Newer/older?
I was considering installing one in my Dodge pickup with a Cummins. More clutch surface than stock and a billet front cover.

A tighter converter in my motorhome would be nice. The allison at542 doesn't have a lockup converter. But rather than do that I'm looking into installing a 1000 series 5sp.

Dan

 

[slow-canoe]

Torque Converters

Looking to put one in a older motorhome with a 454 and turbo 400 transmission . I contacted TCI about this converter and I was told it should lower the stall speed a couple hundred RPM, lower the crusing speed RPM about 200 RPM and reduce heat by having less slipage at road speed. They also thought it should help with fuel mileage. I know a guy that put one in a Dodge diesel pickup with a 518 transmission , he really liked it. Thought maybe somebody on this board might have used one.
You can contact TCI at (www.tciauto.com)
PS: Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year To All!

 

[dsl4us]

Torque Converters

You could see a reduction in cruise RPM. It all depends on what the stall speed is of the stock converter, cruise RPM and overall condition of the stock converter. Motorhomes, from what I've seen, usually have a 4.10 gear. So your cruise RPM will be around 3000rpm @ 65mph. You'd need to calculate your theoretical RPM and check it too the actual RPM, that would be you "slip" at cruise speed. A good converter should only have around 200 rpm of slip if it's really loose you could see 500 rpm of "slip".

This is easy to see in a trans with a lockup converter. The converter in my '00 6.5TD/4L80E only drops 200-250 rpm when the converter lockups up under load. My Dodge/Cummins drops 500+rpm when it locks up. The converter in my Dodge is very loose and not in a good way, it has alot of internal fluid bypassing. Since you don't have a lockup converter you need to calculate your RPM to see roughly how much slip you have. If you only see 1-200rpm then a "lower" stall converter won't do you much good. Also with the tach you can see how much your RPMs go up when increasing the load. Watch the RPM while cruising on flat ground then maintain same MPH going uphill and see how much the RPM changes. A tighter converter will have less RPM increase than a loose one.

Hope this helps.
Dan