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Dirt Squirrel 3.0 - The 2nd Mortgage

probably a good idea to put some rubber bump stops on if you're bending shock bolts. that's a ton of force being placed on the shock mounts.

also limit straps are cheap insurance to prevent tearing the shocks apart.
 
Not sure how pertinent this is, but I've used "F9" (higher tensile than grade 8) 1/2" bolts on my coilovers for years, had spacers on the rears and haven't managed to bend them. I mainly went that route to have a plated hex fastener for the corrosion resistance that was a bit stronger. I supposed you could also order socket head cap screws from McMaster that are plated and 170KSI.
 
Welp, broke a second pump inside the transmission (i think). This time it was a billet one in the 700r4. It took out the snout of the torque converter while it was at it. Now im trying to figure out why. Is it the TCI constant pressure reverse manual valve body? Is it a bad TCI out of balance converter? Bad flexplate? Improper spacing ie too far into the transmission? Im at a loss here. I did but a new flexplate that is predrilled for this 10" converter and its bolt pattern to replace the stock LV3 flexplate that i had to egg out the holes. Maybe i got them wrong to make the converter out of round. I am using a spacer for the snout, but maybe i dont need one? Im at a loss here. It only seems to work for like 12 hours of run time, then the pump goes boom.

Anyone have any thoughts? Should i ditch the TCI VB and run a forward manual one? Whichever one i use, i will need to keep the TV cable deleted.

here is a pic of the TC after i pulled the transmission yesterday. It was basically bound up in the pump and i had to pry it out.
vNMSCSEdD9DbCFzkIOwqE=w722-h963-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg
 
Put the TC in a lathe and check for runout. I've seen some wild shit.

Also, how do you know what is the spacing between the flexplate and the TC pads? IE the converter pull-out
 
Bebop said:
Put the TC in a lathe and check for runout. I've seen some wild shit.

Also, how do you know what is the spacing between the flexplate and the TC pads? IE the converter pull-out
Click to expand...
Im dropping the TC off today to get the runout checked.

I measured with feeler gauges the gap between the flexplate and TC mounting pads with the TC fully seated in the transmission. Its was 0.2" or so on all three.
 
Is you trans guy ok with the 0.2" data ?

How many clicks of engagement did you feel when seating the converter ?

I think you did it right and you have an alignment issue, but just throwing ideas out there.
 
Bebop said:
Is you trans guy ok with the 0.2" data ?

How many clicks of engagement did you feel when seating the converter ?

I think you did it right and you have an alignment issue, but just throwing ideas out there.
Click to expand...
I felt the standard 3 clicks when installing the TC. It spun freely when fully seated and when pulled out against the flexplate. At this point, im hoping the TC is out of round. It would be the easiest answer.

Im also going to check out the spacer i had on the crank side of the TC. Maybe i used the wrong one? Nothing felt bound up during install either time, but its one thing to check and take off the list of culprits.
 
if it was not all the way pushed in there would be a gap in the bellhousing that you would have to pull shut with the bolts if memory serves me correct. sounds like you got it correct.
 
I think i found the culprit. I dropped the converter off at a converter repair place to check runout and as soon as he threw it on the lathe you could immediately see the problems. Yes problems as in plural. First, the the two converter case halves were welded on severely out of tolerance. This caused TCI to use a huge weight to balance it out. 2nd was the input of the converter also had severe runout. Both of these is what probably led to the pump failures. On top of that, he cut open the converter to check the internals and immediately noticed the vein halves were spaced out incorrectly which he said is causing loss of power at idle. He is going to fix everything and add some length to the front converter snout so i can get rid of the spacer into the crank. Moral of the story is fuck TCI's quality control and if you use their converters, have them spun on a lathe to check runout and concentricity before installation. It would have saved me two pumps, a pump housing, ~$1k in new parts, 20 hours of my time and several lost days of wheeling.

Here you can see the damage the billet pump did. it took out both sides of the pump housing. Also the input surface is marred from the runout issue. Its completely worn out. Hard to see it in the housing on the left.
nN69an-l7UbGavzXMpLKo=w490-h653-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg
 
the_white_shadow said:
I think i found the culprit. I dropped the converter off at a converter repair place to check runout and as soon as he threw it on the lathe you could immediately see the problems. Yes problems as in plural. First, the the two converter case halves were welded on severely out of tolerance. This caused TCI to use a huge weight to balance it out. 2nd was the input of the converter also had severe runout. Both of these is what probably led to the pump failures. On top of that, he cut open the converter to check the internals and immediately noticed the vein halves were spaced out incorrectly which he said is causing loss of power at idle. He is going to fix everything and add some length to the front converter snout so i can get rid of the spacer into the crank. Moral of the story is fuck TCI's quality control and if you use their converters, have them spun on a lathe to check runout and concentricity before installation. It would have saved me two pumps, a pump housing, ~$1k in new parts, 20 hours of my time and several lost days of wheeling.

Here you can see the damage the billet pump did. it took out both sides of the pump housing. Also the input surface is marred from the runout issue. Its completely worn out. Hard to see it in the housing on the left.
nN69an-l7UbGavzXMpLKo=w490-h653-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg
Click to expand...
That super sucks! Least you should be professional at transmission work on that chassis.
 
Glad you found the issue(s). At least now you can fix it, but man...that has to be so frustrating. If nothing else, that completely cements that I'm not using TCI for any of my trans builds.
 
Sucks, but glad you figured out the issue.
I've had issues with TCI in the past.
 
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is that converter shop in the houston area? got a name?
 
Glad you sorted it out
What flexplate did you go with? Im intending on hogging out the flexplate on my lv3 for my th350 torque converter
 
TIMMAY! said:
Word on the street 'round here is that you are getting good at blowing trannys.....
Click to expand...
I made a comment on Instalandgram similar to that after his first blown tranny and got a warning from them saying it may be offensive.
 
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