Greg Rogers

I don't have much to contribute as far as advice but I do want to offer support. I love what you are doing! Keep up the good work!!

MrEarl

Thanks for the support Greg. The support and advice given here has been great and very helpful.

Sugar Bear

Any updates?

MrEarl

Nothing other than I've changed direction and have had the quadrajet rebuilt and will be installing it after the holidays. Still considering what benefit a different torque converter and distributor might contribute also. Will report back how the rebuilt car helps performance. Thanks for asking.

Fun71

Over the past years I’ve upgraded torque converters three times from the factory unit and have never been disappointed with the choices. Having the correct parts for the application/usage is critical.

Battenrunner

not to come off as rude, but good advice is only useful if it is headed and applied.....

your torque converter has likely ballooned and is messed up, you need to replace it as a first step in my opinion, not after you have done everything else and still wonder why the car won’t pull the trailer up the hill.....

the next major thing I would do after installing a heavy duty, tow-rated torque converter with anti-ballooning plates is a set of 3.73 gears if you are running tall (28 inch) tires... you could even consider going to a gear vendors overdrive and going up to some 4.11+ gears

the carb and distributor should just be considered important to the overall combo to keep the engine in the correct air-fuel ratio and to eliminate detonation under load and at light throttle position.

MrEarl

Not sure exactly what you mean by not heading good given advice @Battenrunner as I had a top end build plan all worked out based on the advice given by lots of folks here but due to no fault of anyone here nor of my own, it just didn't pan out so therefore I'm backing up and punting with just the rebuilt quadrajet for the time being. I had also asked for thoughts and opinions on a tow-rated torque converter and while I did get some opinions that one would be beneficial I would still like some more advice as to a particular name or brand to consider. Any specifics on that would be appreciated. I think I've covered in this thread anything that might need to be considered in selecting such a converter but if additional info is needed I will try and give it. Thanks for your advice and comments thus far.

Edit) after going back and reading your previous posts I see you "would strongly recommend a PTC 11 inch torque converter with anti-balloon plates that will stall around 1800-2,000 rpm." So I take it that is what you meant by not heading advice" Sorry, I will look into that.

MrEarl

Thanks Kenneth. So going by your signature, your current torque converter is a Hughes and you are happy with it? Any thoughts on a specific converter that might meet my towing needs.

Battenrunner

Yes Sir, after you said the engine was revving, but the car and trailer stopped moving, and you are quite sure the trans wasn’t slipping, that points to a sloppy/ballooned torque converter.

There are lots of decent converters available, but I feel like Kenny Ford and others at PTC I have dealt with multiple times have always been golden to deal with, and they will build a converter to exactly meet your needs and reach your goals. I have had converters from PTC, TCI, Florida Torque Converters, and DAACO from their performance line.

PTC was the best for matching a converter exactly to the goals/needs, hands down. They also are typically very fairly priced for custom setups.

HUGHES does fine as well, but I haven’t heard of as good of service for custom orders. When I worked at a hot rod shop for a long time, anytime we had a special converter need, we called PTC, and we were a big TCI dealer as well.

One more thing to add.... TCI and Hughes like to both push their “off-the-shelf” converters in lieu of making a custom setup to work best for you. Not saying that they are bad at all, but their converters tend to be more based on average combinations.