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Pony Wars: TCI’s High-Stall Converter For Our ’Stang

Over the course of Horsepower Wars: Pony Wars, our 2017 Chevrolet Camaro SS and our 2017 Ford Mustang GT will be altered to the tune of a handful of rather dramatic changes. Pony Wars is all about our pony car duo competing in a battle of the best. Part of that competition includes both cars competing at the drag strip in several phases: bone-stock, $5k modified and $15k modified. If you’ll recall, we are using Summit Racing‘s pricing and parts to dictate both phases, which you can find more information on here.

As our 2017 Mustang GT progresses through each of those stages, the factory torque converter found in the 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission just isn’t going to cut it. During our baseline testing, we were only able to stall the factory converter up to around 2,000 rpm. Obviously, the factory converter wasn’t too pleased with that, as evident in our testing.

However, a solution for our problem was right around the corner, which is why we hit up our friends at TCI Automotive for a torque converter that has the ability to grow with our ’Stang through the various stages of Pony Wars. If you’re wondering how the new TCI converter differs from our factory counterpart, you’re in luck. In this segment, TCI gives us some quick-hit-info on the 6R80 High-Stall Torque Converter (PN 457010, $1,009.98) we’ve selected for our application. Follow along as TCI details the differences between the factory unit and our new torque converter.

Our new TCI billet torque converter pre-installation.

Our billet, high-stall multi-disc lock-up unit from TCI is CNC machined billet and features a bolt-together design constructed from a factory core. The largest benefit of the bolt-together design is that it doesn’t require any welding or cutting to access its internals. For our application, this is highly favorable, as we plan to unbolt and disassemble the unit to change the stater to match changes to the engine combination.

We plan to change the stater throughout the stages, as this will allow us to control the stall speed of the torque converter. The benefit here is less time diagnosing, and more time racing.

“The benefit of having a bolt-together torque converter is that it allows the customer to change the stall speed of the torque converter without sending the converter to back to us,” said Kevin Winstead of TCI Automotive. “The stater affects the performance characteristics of the torque converter, such as stall speed, torque multiplication of the converter, as well as the converter efficiency when it’s unlocked.”

Here's a teaser of what's to come from our upcoming $5k article.

In regards to how a stater change could benefit us during the $5k and the $15k phases, Kevin said the stater “…allows you to use one torque converter for multiple combinations, whether it is naturally aspirated, bolt-on modified or supercharged.”

Stick with us to find out how we plan to upgrade our TCI Automotive billet bolt-together torque converter. Horsepower Wars is backed by some of the biggest names in the automotive aftermarket — including ARP Bolts, BMR Suspension, COMP Cams, Covercraft, Diablosport, Dyna-Batt, E3 Spark Plugs, Fragola Performance Parts, Holley Performance Products, Mahle North America, Mahle Motorsports, Mickey Thompson Tires & Wheels, ProCharger Superchargers, PRW, QA1 Suspension, Royal Purple Synthetic Oil, Summit Racing, TCI Automotive, Weld Racing, and others – and it’s going to be a crazy ride over the next few months as we let these Ponies continue the battle. You won’t want to miss it.