Planning a big block 493 - 513 440-based pump gas stroker build for an A body street/strip car. Got a couple of 8" converters that I already own and am contemplating trying out. Wondering if these might be 'too much converter' for the application - how to tell? It would need to live on the street, and am planning on running an aux trans cooler for sure. Also hoping to run a small rear gear like a 3.55 with a 325 15 50 tire, not sure if this combo will work well.
Also, any harm in running a shift kit, stock valve body and kick down linkage with an 8" converter, as opposed to a full manual valve body like a Cheetah? Since will see more street duty than track a reverse pattern manual valve body on the street may be a bit much to live with on the street...

The easiest way is if you know the manufacturer call
them with the number on the conv... also if you know
the real torque of the engine it was behind you can
calculate the P factor for that set up then if you
kow the new torque you can figure that P factor to
come up with the new stall... I'm running a 5000 stall
8" in a 518 trans with a standard valve body with
a shift kit... that part inst any problem but the
518 has OD so I might run into a temp issue when
in OD if I'm not rolling fast enough... I'll find out

I see some guys running 8" converters on the street but with more gear then 3.55's. Myself I use a Dynamic 9.5 street/strip converter and like it alot using my 4.30's and 30" tall tires. I know my brother threw an 8" converter he had laying around in a mild 484 cammed 383 Duster. It had 5.13's with 33" tall tires and ran 12.0's @ 111. It was basically an all wrong converter for the combo but its been living in the car for a few years already and drives ok on the street. It works much better then we thought it would. Funny thing is my buddy bought the Duster from my brother and dropped my old 440 in it now and it seems to work good with the same 8" converter still in it that is listed as a 5000 stall. Ron

I'm nobody here, but the rating of a torque converter is contiginent to the torque applied. Meaning your big cube motor is going to stall more than a MP484 cam'd low comp. 440, as an example.

Tall tires and tall gearing will make matters worse given the rolling resistance. Excessive heat losses is generally the byproduct unless you have a really close tolerance built converter and a very big cooler too. Is your driving more rural hwy or innercity suburbs??? If rural, you may get away with it but it may not actually "hook-up" or couple fully at hwy speed (hence, more heat losses)

I'd rather have a little too much converter and be well into the torqueband than dogging the motor down with one that is too tight.

Too much on the street will feel like a slipping clutch at anything below WOT.

To me the biggest variable is weight, a light car with the same motor and gear might be perfectly happy with a vert that slips like mad and flashes too high in a heavy car.

Too much is generally overshooting the torque peak at the flash = wasted momentum. Easier to get a happy vert when you have a broad flat torque curve. 340's and hot 383's are among the hardest to get the vert optimized for.