C6 Rebuild Questions-Newbie

[falcongeorge]

I understand the entirety of everything discussed. What I did not realize is that the companies mentioned earlier actually make Converters...especially Broader(we sure about that?).
 
Thanks for the input fellas and I will reach out to a couple. I was only curious if anyone had any experience with a build similar and folks to stay away from.  I think this is out of the ball park for most on the forum here in this regard but you provided me with some "quality" converter folks to contact so thanks for that and input earlier when it started.

The truck is just a basic truck other than the engine build. The old 4x4s were pretty big stock as far as height and tire fitment.  With fresh factory springs a 38" tire will fit these old Highboys.
It is not a mud racer for certain, if it was it would pull a lot more RPM and definitely be running a different cam/intake combo and I sure would not have spent as much money as I have trying to redo stock items.

Just going to be my old school, every other daily driver and sleeper once done. Assuming axle hop wont be too bad and the cheap rear locker doesn't grenade if it hooks up.  May surprise a few kids in a stop light race...but no way I am running it to fast...drums on all four corners, lack of modern braking etc....its a tank after all.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

The reason I mentioned that FTI does a lot of stuff for mud racing wasn’t that a converter for a mud racer would be appropriate for your truck, I was more thinking that they deal in that market, and a lot of guys that do mud bogging also drive modified 4x4’s on the street, so Considering that they are major players in the mud racing field,it’s possible FTI also has some crossover experience in street driven 4x4’s, it’s a bit of a leap, but probably not an unreasonable assumption.

[aj]

FWIW here...Jay (Broader Transmission) absolutely does make converters...and much more. I’ve been to Jay’s shop many times and he’s a tranny guru with full fabrication capabilities and tranny dyno in his shop.  Jay is a true craftsman who does amazing stuff with Ford trannys. He’s a one man operation...not a high production assembly line.  He has extremely high ethical values and in my opinion under values his work.  The custom tranny stuff I’ve seen him hand craft on his CNC is impressive.  If you deal with Broader,  you’ll get top notch products but keep in mind Jay is building everything himself so keep that in mind.  If he doesn’t answer phone immediately,  it’s likely cause he’s running CNC or tranny dyno, similar but he will follow up.  He takes a lot of pride in what he does. Great guy.

[gt350hr]

    falcongeorge,
        You are correct about converter sizing and stall speed. I do have converter experience . Large surface area ( big converter) is harder to make "slip" than a smaller area. Long ago converter modifiers bent fins and machined stators just like today. This would get 2500 out of a 12 " converter or about the same as a stock Falcon 10" ( if it would fit "out of the box") The stator machining done back then was helpful but really hurt efficiency ( lock up) .  Marv Ripes out here in the west ( and some others) looked at a different way to machine the aluminum stators and gain stall ( literally fluid confusion) before the rpm created enough flow for "fluid lock". The blades of an aluminum stator look like a modified airplane wing. By cutting the underside of the leading edge ( instead of the trailing side used to get) the converter was "confused" longer yet the unmodified trailing edge maintained the large surface area needed for lockup. At that "eureka" point fin angles and pump to turbine clearance became more important than ever. The converters were so good that the one way sprags began failing. Now days stators are often hand made from steel in specialty applications.
   
    Bottom line rule of thumb, big converter , lower stall smaller converter , higher stall , all without regard to power ( torque) input.
  Randy

[falcongeorge]

    falcongeorge,
        You are correct about converter sizing and stall speed. I do have converter experience . Large surface area ( big converter) is harder to make "slip" than a smaller area. Long ago converter modifiers bent fins and machined stators just like today. This would get 2500 out of a 12 " converter or about the same as a stock Falcon 10" ( if it would fit "out of the box") The stator machining done back then was helpful but really hurt efficiency ( lock up) .  Marv Ripes out here in the west ( and some others) looked at a different way to machine the aluminum stators and gain stall ( literally fluid confusion) before the rpm created enough flow for "fluid lock". The blades of an aluminum stator look like a modified airplane wing. By cutting the underside of the leading edge ( instead of the trailing side used to get) the converter was "confused" longer yet the unmodified trailing edge maintained the large surface area needed for lockup. At that "eureka" point fin angles and pump to turbine clearance became more important than ever. The converters were so good that the one way sprags began failing. Now days stators are often hand made from steel in specialty applications.
   
    Bottom line rule of thumb, big converter , lower stall smaller converter , higher stall , all without regard to power ( torque) input.
  Randy

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Marv Ripes(A-1) revolutionised the converter/auto trans biz, and along with it, stock and SS class racing, and door car racing in general. For sure there were other serious players at that time, like Vinnie Tarantola, Paul Forte and Rossi, but in the early/mid seventies, probably half the best auto trans class cars in the country  had A-1 converters in them. He was also the one that made the powerglide a viable drag racing trans. I was just a kid, pushing a broom and washing parts on the weekends for a guy that was building gas and m/p class motors (and some VERY serious street race motors) so I didn't have much to do with stock and SS stuff directly, but I sure witnessed a lot of that revolution in real time, as it was happening.

[gt350hr]

    I'm not 100% sure of who "created" the leading edge cuts on the stator. I do know that there was a fierce battle between A1 and Rossi ( Bob Thomson and Mike Munsinger did the developement and eventually struck out on their own as Thomson Transmissions and Munsinger Converters). Mike had the mods down to a science. I still have two Opel units I rely on in my race car. One is a bit tighter than the other because it has a "19 blade" Fiat stator instead of the common 1.9 Opel stator.
       Randy