What converters you guys using in 10 sec street/strip cars

Broke my 9 1/2", said the turbine is broke. Place I sent it won't touch it. Originally a Tci, and I may send it back to them eventually. Looking for what everyone else uses.

All the companies I called we're very helpful. But there are a lot of opinions.

Background on the car

69 runner 3760# + my 240#
511 10.5:1 with standard port SR's ported by MCH
260/266 @.050 on 110 in at 106
Six pack or sometimes a tm6 with a 1050 annular
4.10 gear 28" tire.
Shift 6200-6300

It's been 10.92 @ 123.4 through 3" mufflers


ATI recommended a tight 8". Sounds a little wild for the car??
Coan recommends 9" sounds about right
PTC 9 1/2, really like what he had to say.
Turbo Action actually recommended a J. Although they no longer make them.
Dynamic I have absolutely no interest in

I actually have a J on the shelf and am going to try it, I do feel like It may be a bit loose though and give up some ET given the low shift points.

Thoughts, opinions, experience ??

I went with a 9 1/2" PTC built to my car's specs.
I myself like the bigger pots on street car converters.

If you never plan to run nitrous, I would definitely go with a tight 8". They are a more efficient converter. Only go to a 9-9 1/2 if you make a ton of torque, that may drive thru the 8".

We (My brothers and I) have a great relationship with JW Performance in Florida, and have sold many of their converters.

Love my 8" JW in my 904, 10.39-128 motor, 9.65-138 spray, driven a bunch.

I have a couple of J converters one in the race
car and the other in my 416 that was tightened
up by Lenny(Ultimate conv).. its now a 4500 stall
for the street/strip.. I like the J and you can
get it tightened if you want.. that uses quality
parts inside it.. any quality conv shop can work
on it(you dont want some cheapo company putting
in junk parts)

I've had a bunch of different brand and size converters in race cars and street and strip, my old Duster had a custom made off of the dyno sheets 10 inch Continental street and strip. It was to tight for drag racing at the track, it would push the front tires locked up on the brakes through the staging beams at 2300 RPM in low gear I ended up breaking the sprague in it after hopping the motor up enough to go from 10.69 ET at 124. MPH to mid 10.30s at 127+ mph at 3450Lbs with me in it. I put a Turbo Action SS/AH 8 inch foot brake converter in it, it picked the car up .2 ET and 2.+ MPH in the 1/8 MILE It was way easier to drive at the track and very good to drive on the street
Find a good T/A 069J 3800 or a T/A 4200 J converter or a new 8 inch from Paul at T/A
I have learned that the more HP and torque you have the larger diameter converter you need, if your under 850 HP and similar torque go with the 8 inch, if you have more HP and torque than that go with the 9 inch

That cracks me up. ATI flat out refused to build me an 8" for my BB 493 because I street drive my car.

My opinion, the PTC 9.5 is probably the cheapest option and will be perfect

Im an Ultimate customer and love Lenny's service

For many years now, these guyz!
http://www.protorque.com/

My 71 cuda runs mid 10's but would probably run low 10's with a bigger carb. But we're doing it with an 8" turbo action converter I've own for 15 years now. Has a mech diode for a sprag but it's bulletproof behind all the motors I run with it.

Dynamic (Frank Lupo) 9.5"

Way back, when the car had a 528, we had a generic 10 inch B&M converter that we'd had behind a 440 in various guises. The car would run 10.60s and was real nice on the street. We got a custom 8in converter from ATi and also did a cam swap basically going to the next one down the page. After a couple of dozen passes we got the car to go a best of 10.008 @ 137 and run a handfull of 10.0's, mainly 10 teens. It was still nice on the street.
We ran the same 8in converter behind the 572 for many years but we always felt it slipped a lot, the RPMs would only drop 300 rpm on each shift.
The 655 has a custom 9.5in ATi for reference.

I just ordered a 9-1/2 in from PTC yesterday. It is going in my 64 Belvedere with a 505 indy EZ heads and crossram. I had one behind a 440 in the 64 and worked great. That one started as a dynamic but had PTC fix it and dropped 2 tenths. Ptc a good choice.

I have a local company build mine for me...all custom. Atlantic Coast Converters. I used a 9" 5k stall behind my 10 sec 446" wedge another 9" behind my 572" hemi.
A GOOD converter will not slip excessively and will drive fine on the street no matter what the stall rating is.

Another vote for ProTorque! Great customer service!!

PTC 8" here. Great service. The last 3 converters I've owned were 8" behind 425hp - 680hp motors and no problems (2 were on 727's, the latest one is a 904). We had a 9" behind the 580ci low 9 second car, that also saw some street use. It worked well too. All from Dynamic, Midwest Converters (now defunct), and PTC.

PTC

My son and I both use the Dynamic 9.5 converter in our street cars and we could not be happier. They drive like normal cars as I can cruise at 1500 rpm or 2500 rpm and it has no slippage and drives great. At the track when I hammer it the converter flashes around 4200 and works nice. It may go a little faster with an 8" or better stall converter but this Dynamic works great as an all around converter for a street car thats sees the track once or twice a year. And mine has been in my car since 2006 and my sons has been in his Dart since 2003 and he just ran a new best last Oct. Ron

I order the stock replacement 727 converter for a mid 70's dodge pick up with 4wd and a 318 It is about $75 from any wholesale trans parts company and I have found it to the the loosest stocker out there and just perfect for hot cheap street use--I have bracket raced them with 440/ big hyd cam/ small slicks cheap fun!
JW--hard to beat, ATI probably some of the very best, TA smart guys perfect workmanship and they know Mopars but..
Everyone has gone to the 9 1/2 because of core issues--it offers the converter builders lots of choices in stock form by way of many factory combos they can mix and match for effect
I found the J to be the best magic unit ever in a footbrake car but was too loose in my 69 Super B with 451 SR head 4.10 gear car for much street use--

PTC 9.5

ATI 8" Treemaster

8 inch PTC.... I also foot brake.

My street 69 GTX is very similar to your RR. 493 with 11.4 compression. Pump gas set up. Eddy performers ported by Modern (325 cfm @ 600 lift) custom solid roller 620 lift and 260 duration. (car has power brakes that work perfect)MSD ignition, Street Dominator with a 4150 holley 1000 cfm carb.
3.73 gears, caltrack springs, bars and shocks on stock front and rear suspension. 3960 lbs with driver.275/50/15 Hoosier drag radial
Car has gone 1.49 60 ft and 10.84 at 123.50.
I broke a 10 inch Turbo Action twice! I talked to Paul and he recommended the tightest 8 inch because it had all the heavy duty internals. (remember we have HEAVY cars) It has been in the car since about 2004 with about 15,000 street miles and well over a thousand passes. Very easy to drive on the street. I launch off idle at around 1100 RPM. Nice street/strip converter.
Oh yeah, this thing makes 494 RWHP

Wow, extremely similar car/combo. That's good to know an 8" works in your car. That's the info I was hoping to find. Thanks!

Lots of great info guys!! Thanks for the replies. I have some good info to base a decision on.

My tight 8 inch TA converter will flash to maybe 34-3500. car would be faster with more stall. then more gear, then less weight, then???? Not a street car any more in my eyes.

I probably have the only GER Thunderbolt 3500 stall converter that GER got right! For a 904, no less. I did crack a pump drive, which I got replaced with a chrome-moly one, but my lowly GER has went 30K+ street miles and at least 400 low 11 second motor passes, plus a handfull of 10.60 at 130 - 1.42/60' passes on a 100 shot. 360LA engine, low gear set 904, 3.89 gears, 3150 race weight. I think they called it a 3500 stall 9 3/4" - I can usually hold it to about 3800-3900 on the line. I've tried 2 other "name brand" 9 1/2" 3500 stall converters, and both were tighter at idle and slowed the car down about 3 tenths. I know the next pass may be it's last, but it was the best $269 I ever spent on race car parts. We bought 2 more of them after I bought mine and GUTTED them in 12.50 cars!

Do you drive it on the street with the 8" ATI converter ? Ron

I used to drive my car on the street with 8" ATI. It's possible but probably would not do it again. I'm much happier with a 9 1/2" that flashes to 4,500 for street use.

I'm reading this post with a lot of interest. Only issue I see with the answers is we need a better description of street driven. I have a 3300 stall ati behind my hemi dart clone ( what they recommended) and it seems tight to me BUT my street driving is 20 miles of highway to get to car shows etc. I cruise at 3200 rpm at 60 mph and my concern is slippage then. Around town I would just stay out of high gear to keep the rpms up. Thoughts please!

does a lighter car [2000-2500, 500-550hp, 4.88 gear,33" tall tire] need a tighter or looser converter to be comfortable on the street compared to an all out track car ? i realize this is a stupid question, as there are no real concrete results to compare to, but a long, long time ago, i remember something about the weight coming into play as an important ingredient in determining stall for a light weight car. insights into this thought, and help for my stupidity ?

Lenny at Ultimate, I have three of them done by him

Another vote for the 9 1/2 ATI. I picked up a solid 0.30 in E.T. over the custom Gary Gonzales converter.

That's weird, they built my 8" converter for 25% street use, although it's been several years now.

I always used 8" converters in my 9 second big block street cars.
My current car is 95% street and I'm hoping to squeak into a 10.99 with a 9.5" Dynamic converter.

What size case is your 3300 stall? I think you'll be fine, my 9.5" Dynamic is kinda loose and I drive it around town with 3.23 gears, on the highway I'm around 2450 RPM's at 60mph.

I drove this car quite a bit on the street with an 8" ATI custom Treemaster and 4.30 gears.

Ultimate Converter built me a tight 9" converter that is great on the street, but will flash stall to about 5,000 rpm.
For the track it is likely too tight to really hit hard (foot brake racing), but I wanted it tight so it drive nice on the street, which it does.

yes I drive it on the street, not too much anymore. My street tires, 30x13 ET streets are about shot. The car drives very good with the 8", not much different driving in town than my 10" tci from years ago. The big difference is when you really launch it, yea it flashes to about 5400.The 10" just doesn't flash as high. No heat problems with a good cooler.

Though you disavow Dynamic/Lupo that is what i have run for 7 (?) Years or so . Daily driver / bracket racer . It is a 5100 stall , i think 9 1/2" maybe 9
Has gone from low 11s behind a 440 to mid 10s behind current 505
I do around 6-8000 street/highway miles per year, and race monthly . Longest 1 way trip was 12 hours straight , race and then back .
I wish there was more racing here .

Tex

i live in pa not too far from GER and Dynamic. had a GER and don't know if they are still around. i have the dynamic in for a while now in a low 10sec duster with a 440. it flashes around 5200 to 5400. no issues and i just had it updated after it was about 6 years old. only thing i can compare it to is the GER and well i'm sure the ger would slow my car down but i neverbroke it. and i call it old faithfull.

Been using 10" Turbo Action and 9.5 PTC convertors. No problems with either.

Thanks. Ron