Well, I had a nice talk with the guy who I believe will be building me a transmission, and he recommends the TCS LS1 torque converter. It doesn't seem to be a very well known converter, but he says out of all the ones he has used, this is the one to get. This converter has a design I haven't seen before, namely a 9.5" pump cover and 11" billet clutch cover. I was told I will still be able to tow with this and that it will also be able to lock up at WOT.



Thoughts?




"This Converter has a 9.5" pump cover, 11" billet clutch cover, carbon fiber clutch lining, billet front cover, furnace brazed pump cover and turbine. It also features double reinforced turbine blades, anti-balloon plate and Torington bearing on all three friction points. Our LS1 Converter is by far the best thing on the market for the LS1 performance torque converter that you demand."

 

They call those spaceship converters and are not as effiecent as others like circled and PI. That converter doens't look as nice as quality as a circle d converter. The hub being welded on is a weak spot.

 

Straight from P.I. website-

The Truth About The 9-12 and 9-11 Spaceship Type Converters

All late model transmissions regardless of make have a clutch in the torque converter. Precision Industries was the first performance torque converter company to design and successfully manufacture a small diameter clutch assembly that would survive the abuses of high performance late model vehicles. We had to manufacture a special front cover, clutch plate and develop a clutch lining that would handle pulse width modulation. This is the reason we use a special billet front cover not just for the good looks! Our competitors in the performance industry do not have the technical ability or the capability and are just too cheap to follow our lead. They are using all stock front cover and clutch parts designed and built for 4 and 6 cylinder vehicles to compete with Precision Industries. When OBDII appeared they suddenly found out that using these inferior 4 and 6 cylinder front cover and clutch parts was not going to work so they started using 15 year old technology, the so called 9-12 or 9-11 spaceship type of torque converter. What these torque converters consist of are parts from 1- $10.00 and 1- $35.00 wrecking yard torque converter core along with a steel ring to mate the 2 converters together. Using these parts equates to a value for this type of torque converter to no more than $300.00. While this type of torque converter seemed to solve the torque converter clutch problem it instantly created more serious problems. One advantage to using a small diameter torque converter is that it has a lot less rotating mass than the stock 12” torque converter and with the thick steel plate to mount the 2 stock torque converter halves together to make the 9-12 you end up with more rotating mass than the stock 12” torque converter. A more critical problem with the 9-12 spaceship type torque converter is the turbine wash over of this design. The turbine wash over is so strong that the large diameter torque converter clutch is pushed up against the front cover and drags during stall and acceleration. This action kills acceleration and causes undue stress to the torque converter clutch. What this means is this style of torque converter will never accelerate as well as the small diameter torque converter meaning slower 60 ft. and ET times. This style of torque converter would probably work satisfactorily in Grandma’s car but is not something you would want for a performance torque converter. Our competitors must be laughing all the way to the bank selling this inferior product for the price they are asking!

 

That's interesting info built. The ones Im thinking about are the cirlced 258mm 3 disk, pi 9.5 or 10.5" 3 disk as well as this tcs one.

 

not saying the converter won't work or won't help your performance, just saying that its not going to be the most effiecent converter and will not maximize your setup as a circle d or pi.

 

I call BS....I personally run one of these and have seen others with these verters cut 1.6 60 ft. times...how is that slow? let me guess you must be a Circle d or PI dealer? I have never heard of circle d until recently so I guess that makes them inferior?

I respectypour kknowledge but I call complete bullshit on ******* TCS..Like i said I run one of these personally and have ran a YANK and my truck is a totally diferent beast with this converter...when it flashes my truck kicks down just as hard at 60 mph as i did at 30 with the Yank, hell i can barely keep it on the road at WOT so yeah I guess my acceleration must suck.. IMO say this one is inferior is just wrong.

 

brad, which Yank model did you run?

 

Precision Industries Vigilante is hands down the best in my book

 

Trying to decide on this crap will easily make all my hair fall out. There's really no way for me to know whether or not the PI or the TCS will give me better performance and street manners other than to blindly try one and see how I like it..

 

I ran a YANK TT2600...wouldnt hold up