No, there was nothing billet about this unit. Maybe the cover (which was advertised as billet), but it still looks like it was welded on. The Circle-D is a true billet unit.

This one was also a triple disc clutch. You can see the discs in the 3rd and 4th images, the clutch surface is hardly bigger than a rubber band. The Circle-D has at least 3 times the contact patch. The stamped piston didn't have ANY clutch material on it, was merely a metal contact surface for the pad on the first disc.

The brazing was complete ****, multiple vanes have no brazing on the inner edge and other have holes in the brazing allowing fluid leakage. Many of the tabs are only partially brazed allowing more turbulence. I figured it must be the norm for a high stall converter to spike the transmission temperature 80* on short pulls, but the Circle-D definitely disproves that.

 

After cleaning I can see better. I think the cover is billet...but those rings around the snout (hidden by paint originally) look suspicious. I can see light through the turbine case on several fins due to bad braze work (meaning fluid goes through too!).

 

Not trying to side with anyone, but look at this "Jay Leno's Eco-Jet Car with Precision of New Hampton:" . Also seen alot of good reviews. A trans shop local to me in the metro Detroit area builds transmissions for some of the monster truck guys, some over 2000hp, and for what its worth, they swear by the Precision of New Hampton convertors. Again, I really hate that your convertor blew up, this is just some food for thought. I hope everything works out for the op!

 

The converter pictured is a billet multi-disc as best I can tell from the pictures. It looks like a grenade went off in it, but that may be material from elsewhere.

 

The turbine and impeller aren't meant to completely seal off, a little fluid going between the seams isn't a deal breaker. The furnace brazing looks fine. You should buy a converter for twice as much, open it up and find it's not furnace brazed. That's easily a $780 converter, or was. May not have been as nice as some others but it does appear to be as advertised. And a "billet" converter generally describes the cover. Many have billet pistons, and most have "billet" turbine hubs, etc but there are only a handful of converters that are completely billet and they ae typically aluminum, and not being discussed on a truck or street forum.

 

You may have difficulty seeing in the images, but several turbine fins don't have any brazing at all and others are only tack-brazed, whereas the pump is flawlessly brazed. I don't know if the weakened fins would have had issues with flexing, but this converter has had small variations (300rpm bounces) at stall speed from it's first day on the job.

The grenading and damage was from debris solely generated by the converter (namely from the sprag shattering). The bent fins on the outer edge are from cutting it open, as are most of the shavings. The transmission was fine aside from scarred clutches and a shredded input shaft where the stator destroyed it.

 

A converter for any real power needs to have the fins tig welded. Furnace brazing is fine for sub 1000 HP deals but above that, it's not going to be robust enough on the ends of the fins to do anything. It is more for stiffening up the entire assembly than anything. It's all flimsy sheetmetal that is TabA/SlotB together. Furnace brazing ties it together.