what gear/converter combo???

ok....eventually, I will be moving the rear springs inboard, putting in a 489 sure-grip, and a stall converter.......looking for opinions

It's a 400 with a .509 cam, Torker intake, will have headers eventually, and has 26" tall tires (275/50R-15 Drag Radials)I may wind up going with anywhere between a 26 and 28 inch tire....but that will definitely be long down the road, since the tires i have now are new.

I'm not sure if a 3.91 will be too much gear.....
I figure the TCI Streetfighter converter will be best.....
also, Randy's has a 3.73 set. just don't know.
I probably need to get it on the strip and see what it'll do and go from there???

How much street driving will you do and how much gear can you put up with ?

Your 400 has a short stroke/big bore for a bick block and will want to spin some rpms.

If it were me Id run 4.30 gears with a 28" tire and a 9.5" converter with around 3500 rpm stall.

Stay away from the TCI. Id look in to a Turbo Action, Dynamic, ATI or PTC converter.

It'll PROBABLY be driven more on the street, but not as a daily driver....more of a nice-weekend "looky looky what I got"

any track time will be achieved with driving to and from the track.
it'll never see a trailer to get it around unless something's wrong with it

With that 509 cam you'll need what Adam suggested. I was going to suggest the same 4.30 gears with a 9" converter....whats half an inch

I would say try the 3.91s then. If it seems like to much gear go to a taller 28" tire. If it feels real sluggish down low maybe swap a smaller cam in.

I keep forgetting that I'm on an island and almost never have to drive more than 10 miles to get anywhere :roll: I used my Duster as a daily driver for awhile running 4.56 gears with L60-15's. It's really common for guys here to be running around with 4.10 gears in their daily driver.

For the 509 cam the 3500 stall coverter will work great. As far as the gears go, I agree, try the 3.91's.
I don't think there would be to much of a difference between the 3.91's and the 3.73's.
What gears do you own now?

I ran 4.30s in my car when it was my only car. Didnt bother me a bit. If a motor cant take spinning 3000rpm on the highway then you better not take it to the track.

I haven't had it above 3K yet....i'm TOLD the motor had 50 miles on it when I got it....don't want to stress it too quickly

It had a motor plate, so i'll DEFINITELY be able to tell if something isn't kosher once i get it out and get on it....

the throttle cable needs something done. the bracket they put on doesn't allow the stock cable housing to be adjusted back far enough, so I have about 5/8-3/4" cable slack at the pedal (if I pull the pedal up)
I'll have to get out there and redrill the mounting hole so i can move the cable.

The diameter of the convertor has nothing to do with the efficiency unless your running a 3/4 race cam?????

A smaller convertor will give you a higher stall ...but will it lock up properly and efficiently at high RPM? You can get 9" convertors that will flash to 5000 with enough tork but they'll slip at 12-18% at the stripe, 6.5% is max in our book.

You want a convertor that will offer a high stall for racing and a low stall for street driving so you need 2 convertors a 26-2800 for street and a 35-3800 for the track. Of course you'll need to install your tranny with Dzus fastners and carry a 36" floor jack around to give you room to drop the tranny at the track to change the convertor or..........

You could just order a Dynamic Dual Pattern PIA (Positive Input Angle) convertor and solve both issues 26-2800 on the squeeze and 3600 on the flash.

Street Car/Race Car/Street Car/Race Car/Street Car/Race Car/Street Car/Race Car/Street Car/Race Car/Street Car/Race Car/

Always compromises to be made, this is one compromize that you won't have to make with a Dynamic Dual Pattern.

Direct from Dynamic $695
We are a Dynamic dealer...$625.00 from us

Probably sold 50-75 of these in 2004, 100% customer satisfaction.