Anyone know or can chime in on whether or not a torque converter upgrade would be beneficial to my A/T? I will be turboed soon and am just trying to get everything lined up. Pros/Cons to doing an upgrade?

 

will you be doing the valve body upgrade also? im not to sure on what the converter will give you but i do think you can change the engagment or stall rpm.

 

I've researched this and related issues extensively, because I'm getting a turbo and intend to make full use of it, and the conclusion I came to was you're inviting massive expense to make a traditional automatic transmission work with a fully-exploited turbo setup. A valve body upgrade + torque converter upgrade really aren't going to help reduce wear & tear as much as you might hope -- you need new clutch packs and some other odds & ends as well. Failure to do that invites the tranny repair man on an annual basis, and automatic transmission aren't cheap & friendly to work on at all because they're significantly more complicated than a standard transmission. If you just do valve body + torque converter, I don't think you're really doing anything to fundamentally address our automatic transmission's inability to cope with 250HP+. For medium- and long-term reliability, I'd take 10% off 250 and say, keep your turbo boost to no more than 230 horsepower. All in all, best to order a completely new automatic transmission from IPT, beefed up to take a turbo this might set you back $5,000-$6,000 or so. This might be able to handle 300HP for at least a few years, so long as you couple it with a well-conceived transmission cooler.

I just decided to swap my car for a manual, so I could avoid the expense of a the beefed up automatic transmission + frequent maintenance which it'll require to keep it purring with improved reliability. But if you go the fully-upgraded automatic route, please don't post back here, I'll be jealous -- you surely have deeper pockets than I and will have acquired what you really want instead of having to settle for something less (which is what I am doing presently).

 

Not sure. Just looking for reliability. Yes, you're correct, stall rpm will change with upgrade.

 

I'm not looking to go all out with the turbo. I just want to make sure my tranny is reliable. Its not feasable to trade in for a M/T as my wife can't figure out how to drive a M/T. I bought an A/T just in case she may one day need to use the car. I don't intend to boost my car to the limit of the turbo. Just want enough pep to get me past those damn civic's that try to challenge me. Plus, the fun factor i'm sure will be increased in driving the car. It's not my daily driver though, so i'm not too worried about blowing the tranny or the engine for that matter. I was just curious what some others thought of this idea. Thanks a lot for the input.

 

Scionchicop, as you know I have my Turbotoyotas kit installed on my tC and I'm currently running 7psi and haven't had any issues at all with trans slip so far. I even went out and raced against my Dad in his Vette and no issues so far! I haven't installed my tranny cooler yet but will do so asap due to my future plans with the tC.

As the above people mentioned a torque convertor & valve body won't solve the issue of our tranny's not being able to hold over 250whp. However you could get the rebuilt kit from IPT which includes the clutch packs which helps improve the strength of our auto tranny. IMO if you are going to do any work on the tranny, might as well get all 3 (rebuild kit, torque converter, valve body) so you only pay for labor once.

 

Hi BadDudeTC3,

According to Ty at IPT, that route gets very expensive over the long-haul. You're looking at around $10,000 or so, half for the turbo, and half for the transmission. I just gagged on that number. I could have made it swing, but didn't want to take the chance that after spending that much, that something would break down after the brief warranty period expires and expose me to a huge investment all over again. Automatic transmissions are expensive and complicated, manuals are cheap and mechanically simple. In each case, costs correspond.

I'm somewhat disappointed I went manual but I think it's the logical choice for my situation. This car is my daily driver more than it's a hobby car, and I can't dedicate all my cash flow to it in the medium- & long-term. It's certainly an opportunity to learn something new and perhaps have some added fun and hopefully not much frustration (hill starts & whatnot). I'm going to need some new tires, though, or it'll be tricky to tap into all the added turbo-charged horsepower. :D

 

So your saying to build the tranny & get the work done is going to be 10k or are you saying you didn't go that route because you were adding the turbo kit to your car & needed to get a tranny? Every situation is different so I get why you switched over to a manual. For Scionchicop & myself the situation is different because they aren't our DD's. Adding up the parts to do the rebuild is a little over 2k, and I have a great tranny shop that I've been working with for 10+ years so I won't get rapped on the labor charges and if Scionchicop wanted to get the work done they would cut him a deal as well. I'm thinking that figure would be closer to 3-3.5k but hey that's just my opinion. I like taking the path less traveled so I'm gonna keep my tC auto but I wish you the best with your tC and I hope everything works out for you!

 

I don't have a shop like yours that I trust nearby, so I'd have IPT do all the labor, and they charge a pound of flesh for the truly excellent work I'm sure they do. Basically it's only half as much, overall, for me to swap cars and attach the turbo to a manual transmission. You're lucky in one way, I'm lucky in another, that my dealer are being so charitable. They could have raked me over the coals, returning a brand new car, but we worked something out so I went that route instead.

 

Totally understand! Yea the shop I deal with is awesome and they're really good people....I deal with them so much they call me by first name! I understand the $ amount you posted now that I think about it. I'm sure IPT does awesome work but my pockets aren't super deep to have them do everything! We're both lucky people.

 

if your already at 3,500 for the tranny when you buy parts and have another shop do the work but a fully built tranny from ipt is around 3,200

 

3,200 is just for the tranny, thats not including the labor which is were things get real pricey.

 

yea i can your point. but i just can see it costing a butt load to install a new tranny. i geuss i know to many cheap guys who would do it for next to nothing. lol thats what got me into troble with my honda.