Is this True about converters??
KMJperformance writes this about their converters..."Welded not Furnace Brazed. Contrary to popular belief, furnace brazing is not the best way to adhere torque converter components to together. Just like a Teflon coated pan, after some time the furnace brazing will erode away and ruin the stators and all other rotating parts in your transmission. All of ACC torque converters are welded at the seams, not brazed, to eliminate the erosion after time. "
I always thought that furnace brazed was better. Looking to buy a torque converter (NOT FOR RACING) just heavy street use with nothing over 5800RPM.
Treblig
All of the quality converters I've seen cut open the pump is always furnace brazed, and on the hard core performance converters the turbine is also brazed. Why, for strength. What a quality converter rebuilder will do on their hard core high stalls is they will tig weld the top and bottom of the fins again for added strength both on the pump and the turbine, after these components have been furnace brazed. It is possible with enough torque to bend the vanes backwards if this 2nd procedure isn't done.
The cheaper "high stalls" don't have this done because of the costs involved. Just welding the top and the bottom of the vanes will increase the strength of the converter to a degree, but no where near as strong as a furnace brazed part. The other downside of only tig welding the vanes is a warpage problem The parts being welded are quite thin and unless the heat is applied evenly, you will warp the pump or the turbine.
I may stand corrected on this next statement, but as I recall there were only 2 outfits in North America that were furnace brazing for the converter industry, one in the Eastern part of the U.S. and one in California. There are other companies that could do this, but their main business usually involved the aircraft industry and had no interest in brazing converter parts. We used to send out 8x8x8 boxes of converter parts to be furnace brazed. The owner of the company, who always tried to do his best to keep work in house, looked at doing this work ourselves, but it was cost prohibitive.
As others have said, a quality converter is not inexpensive, and an inexpensive converter are inexpensive for a reason. I know, as I've plenty of converters apart.
Stock Chrysler converters typically and for most applications have the pump furnace brazed and have for years, as do most Industrial converters.