I spoke to Precision today to get my stall converter ordered for the 4L80 swap. To my surprise they recommended against towing anything with a torque converter. They recommended to keep the stock converter. Please provide thoughts. I definitely want to put in a converter when the transmission is on the bench. I was hoping to get some towing capability.

 

with the trailblazer i beleive people were towing to stock specs or close to it... the tb being a 2400 stall (roughly) so i would say with a 2800 you would be alright(and i know the vig stalls are made pretty tough if im not mistaken)... maybe not maxed out towing capacity according to stock specs... but you should be fine with whatever your towing if its not a tremendous amount.. how much are you planning on towing?

 

It really depends on the size of the stall. vehicles with high stalls, like 3500 and above, generally feel very sluggish and underpowered until you hit WOT, when they flash to that rpm.

With towing, you need that converter engaged and if at all possible, locked. I'd recommend a 2500ish stall max if you're towing anything more than your average boat. Make sure the stall has a lockup too at cruising speeds, you'll need that when you're towing.

 

I plan to tow no more than 4000lbs. I was really surprised by precisions recommendations since Ive heard some of our members towing with a 2800 stall.

 

The reason is the size of the converter. Isn't a Vigilante a 9" or 9.5" converter? It will generate a lot more heat because it holds a lot less fluid, at least that's what a friend of mine was told about converters. The higher the stall speed the more heat, the less fluid (smaller diameter) the more heat. Mix the 2 and get a lot of heat.

 

Precision quoted the vigilante at 10.5 inches.

 

Like I said that was the info given to a friend of mine. I'm sorry I can't remember which company he was talking with, I can find out if you want. They made 2 different size converters and either size could be built to stall at the speed that he wanted.

They recommended the smaller one for performance. It's lighter and holds less fluid and therefore the engine would be able to rev quicker.

If he wanted to tow, they recommended the larger diameter one because it holds more fluid and therefore would generate less heat or at least have more fluid to spread the heat to causing a lower fluid temp.

 

the Vigilantes are 9.5" for the cars and 10.5" forthe trucks, they were using 9.5's for the trucks but had some issues, so they went up to 10.5" on th trucks.

peace
Hog

 

I have a 2600 Fuddle HP Truck converter. I was able to keep all my towing capacity.

 

I have had a 3K TCI where I pulled a 8500# boat with over a steep bridge and had no problems with trans temps it got up to 180 in the dead of summer if I remember correctly. I would get a Fuddle if I were you no one stands behind their product like Fuddle does. I have their 3200 in my truck right now.