Powerglide VS Torqueflite

[vance.dykes]

call Rick at A & A trans he has different gear sets for the 727 and they work great .when he first open he was one of the first to offer something for us mopar hard liners. ALL MOPAR OR NO CAR.

 

[AndersonTommy]

I tried a power glide for 1 weekend and it was the biggest disappointment ever.
I thought my Torqueflite wouldn't handle 1180hp at the time.
Went out 1st time with the Torqueflite and ran 8.57@160.
But the 4th pass I smoked the clutches.
Pulled it out and wasted $5700.00 on a ATI Powerglide.
Went 9.11 next outing.
Only to find out that the Torqueflites Griner valvebody was defective.
Got it fixed and put the Torqueflite back in.
Ran 4 years without any problems.
Now new combo is 1275hp and going to try the Torqueflite still and see if it can handle it.
I did remove the low gear sets.
A& A low gear sets cant take 900 ft.lbs of torque

 

[Frank Mopar]

Trap rpm should dictate your gear ratio, tire size and to some extent torque converter. Where are you at rpm wise in the traps?

I would lower rpm shift light if you want it to shift at lower rpm
IMHO

 

[Mike Gaines]

Trap rpm should dictate your gear ratio, tire size and to some extent torque converter. Where are you at rpm wise in the traps?

I would lower rpm shift light if you want it to shift at lower rpm
IMHO

On a 140.04 run I was trapping 7200 thru the lights. 4.56 gear, 32" tall tires with 105" rollout and a 5500+ converter....and this was with the restrictor plates set to reduce airflow thru the twin Dominators by 50%....so...I would guess with the carbs opened up all the way it is going to be closer to 150mph at, of course, a higher rpm thru the traps.
And, sure, I will set the shift light to about 6000 because I do want to shift at 6500.

 

[Tex013]

On a 140.04 run I was trapping 7200 thru the lights. 4.56 gear, 32" tall tires with 105" rollout and a 5500+ converter....and this was with the restrictor plates set to reduce airflow thru the twin Dominators by 50%....so...I would guess with the carbs opened up all the way it is going to be closer to 150mph at, of course, a higher rpm thru the traps.
And, sure, I will set the shift light to about 6000 because I do want to shift at 6500.

Mike , maybe time to look at gearing . Doug runs a 4.1 iirc . The lower gear will let you run a little longer through the gears plus lower trap rpm

Tex

 

[dvw]

On a 140.04 run I was trapping 7200 thru the lights. 4.56 gear, 32" tall tires with 105" rollout and a 5500+ converter

That is big time slippage, nearly 11%
Doug

 

[AndersonTommy]

Mike I think you're in the right ballpark with that trap rpm.
You might be 7400-7500 at a true WOT Trap speed.
I think you might be perfect as is. I wouldn't touch a thing.
Espe

 

[Mike Gaines]

On a 140.04 run I was trapping 7200 thru the lights. 4.56 gear, 32" tall tires with 105" rollout and a 5500+ converter

How do you calculate the slippage....I have never had to address anything like this before. Thanks
Plus...Doug, what is your gear ratio, tire rollout and converter flash and trap rpm and what top speed....for me to try to figure out where I need to be...thanks again, Mike

 

[AndersonTommy]

Mike check out Wallace calculator.
Plug in all the information . They have a converter slippage program.

 

[dvw]

In decent air; 4.30, trap rpm 7200@148, 31.5 diameter, 98.5" rollout, flash 6000
http://www.wallaceracing.com/mobile/converter-slip.php
Doug

 

[Mike Gaines]

In decent air; 4.30, trap rpm 7200@148, 31.5 diameter, 98.5" rollout, flash 6000
http://www.wallaceracing.com/mobile/converter-slip.php
Doug

Thanks

 

[Darter6]

I'm all for gearing vs changing to a powerglide. My 2 cents.

 

[Cranky]

I tried a power glide for 1 weekend and it was the biggest disappointment ever.
I thought my Torqueflite wouldn't handle 1180hp at the time.
Went out 1st time with the Torqueflite and ran 8.57@160.
But the 4th pass I smoked the clutches.
Pulled it out and wasted $5700.00 on a ATI Powerglide.
Went 9.11 next outing.
Only to find out that the Torqueflites Griner valvebody was defective.
Got it fixed and put the Torqueflite back in.
Ran 4 years without any problems.
Now new combo is 1275hp and going to try the Torqueflite still and see if it can handle it.
I did remove the low gear sets.
A& A low gear sets cant take 900 ft.lbs of torque

Hey Chris, what's the weak link in a Torqueflite? I keep hearing that they can handle more than 1000 horses....

 

[wingcarenvy]

the reason why you hear about these things has nothing to do with cost
a long time NHRA world record holder
was a 426 hemi mated to a 2 speed power glide.
today I'm sure that has changed a bunch..

The record was set by Gary Wolkwitz (8.22) in 2015 and recently reset by Bucky Hess (8.20) both run proflites (904 guts in a 727 case made by Protrans)

call Rick at A & A trans he has different gear sets for the 727 and they work great .when he first open he was one of the first to offer something for us mopar hard liners. ALL MOPAR OR NO CAR.

Protrans built my 727 and its 4 years old with 100’s of passes and has been 8.19/177 in a 3450 pound Dart with 10k miles on it 4 time Dragweek participant. The ET was achieved with 21% converter slip.

 

[dvw]

Protrans built my 727 and its 4 years old with 100’s of passes and has been 8.19/177 in a 3450 pound Dart with 10k miles on it 4 time Dragweek participant. The ET was achieved with 21% converter slip.

The Pro trans stuf is nice. I freshed a few for people last year. Dave is great to work with. I'm very fortunate to have Joel here local That builds agreat unit as well. When you recorded 21% slip was it due to using a low axle ratio? Or is it intentional? We saw that much slip with our street turbo car running a 2.76.
Doug

 

[oldkimmer]

A couple of Questions here for whomever wants to answer them? Does converter slip go up proportionately with torque and horsepower? Does speed factor into it? I’ve always heard that anything more than5% is inefficient. Kim

 

[dvw]

More torque will allow slipage. But eventually it wil catch up moving down track. Loose is fast. Most aren't as concerned with slip as much as they were back in the day. As long as the car is still accelerating the converter will slip. In our car with the turbo car it was geared for low rpm at the finish line. If th etrack had been 1/2 mile the slip would've gone down. To get the converter loose enough to build boost on a tame engine it had to be loose enough. It was a balancing act. Eventually we added more gear (3.54) and tightened it up some. If someone would've told me that a 15-1 572 needed 6200 back when it was built, I would have said no. I would've been wrong. My buddies 615" Super Comp dragster makes over 1300hp. it runs over 7000 flash converter.
Doug

 

[33 IMP]

Doug, is converter choice more related to horsepower, or rpm?
(Example, a 7000 converter wouldn't do me much good with an engine shifted at 6000, even if I made 1000 hp, which I certainly don't, lol)

 

[toolmanmike]

Ask any Glide using racer how many extras he has in his trailer. A buddy of mine has a 800+ horse wedge in his Duster with a 727. He got 1500 passes before he had an issue. He slipped in his outdated back up and was back racing for the Sunday finals.

 

[dvw]

Doug, is converter choice more related to horsepower, or rpm?
(Example, a 7000 converter wouldn't do me much good with an engine shifted at 6000, even if I made 1000 hp, which I certainly don't, lol)

You are correct in your assement of rpm range. The converter has to put the engine in its sweet spot. Most often that will be flash stall somewhere between 500-1000 rpm below the shift point. Currently mine is about 800 below (7000 shift/6200 flash). My bet is it could still be a touch looser. When raising the shift point the flash stays at the same rpm.
Doug