Stock Stall Speed

[GTObert]

Anyone know what the stock converter stall speed is? I was taught that you can check by holding the brake and hitting the gas, then check your RPM. This works just fine unless you just end up doing a brake stand, which is what happens when I try.

[ImpalaPPV]

You can find it (ball park) the way you described except don't "hit" the gas -press it very gently until the rear tires just start to break loose. That should give you a general idea where it's at. I want to say it is probably around 1400-1800 rpm.

[storm9c1]

Start the car, let it warm up for a few minutes. Then on flat pavement, you want to lightly apply the brakes (in drive at idle). Only apply enough to hold the car still. If you let up just a tad on the brakes, the car should start rolling. You want to find that the minimum brake force needed to hold the car still.

While holding the brake (in this minimum position), slowly press the gas starting at idle, go in 100 RPM increments until the car moves. The RPM reading when the car moves will be your the approximate stall (low end). Don't be surprised if it's pretty low. As mentioned, stock stall usually begins around 1400 and is fully stalled by 1800 or so. Stall is not binary, as RPM increases, so does stall force until max stall is achieved.

Finding the high end of the stall is the same procedure (but much less accurate). Apply moderate force on the brakes and ramp up the gas until the back wheels spin. Things like traction control and ABS get in the way of this procedure, so I wouldn't trust it on a modern car. It's a better procedure to follow on old cars. But it will give you a rough estimate.

[leadfart]

That won't work with these cars, unless my PPV is different from yours. The software won't allow you to hold the brakes and "powerbrake" the car. I found this out the first time I went to the drag strip, and tried to do a burnout. No go!!! I was able to tune this out with HPtuners.

Generally, stock stall would be around 14-1600 RPM, I would think.

I'm mulling the goods and bads of putting a little stall on mine.

[GTObert]

Is it the torque management you're talking about? I haven't seen anything in HP tuners that deals with trac control or abs. That would be nice though.

[leadfart]

In the engine section, there is a brake torque management section that you disable, and max the scale values on. My tuner did it, but he forgot to max the scale values out. There may be something in the tranny section as well.

Explore at your own risk, I am not a tuner.

[CrashTestDummy]

That won't work with these cars, unless my PPV is different from yours. The software won't allow you to hold the brakes and "powerbrake" the car. I found this out the first time I went to the drag strip, and tried to do a burnout. No go!!! I was able to tune this out with HPtuners.

Generally, stock stall would be around 14-1600 RPM, I would think.

I'm mulling the goods and bads of putting a little stall on mine.

I'd love to do that in our PPV. We have a converter in our 96 Impala SS. Under normal driving conditions, it feels 'heavy', meaning, it takes more throttle to get it moving, and to accelerate from a set speed (unless it's in lock-up mode) takes more throttle then you'd normally expect. Jump on the throttle, though, and the car REALLY comes alive. I almost scared myself the first time I did it.

I'm sure the transmission runs a bit warmer, but I haven't seen any adverse effects from that. That car has almost 200K on the clock and is a low-11 second street car. The fluid stays red and smells fine.

I'd probably do that before I put a gear in the Caprice, although combined, the car would probably really wake up. If I trip over a Camaro diff, I'd definitely throw it under the car, but won't be spending a lot of time looking for one. I think the diff would affect mileage more than the converter would.

[xcidmigs]

[quote=
I'd probably do that before I put a gear in the Caprice, although combined, the car would probably really wake up. If I trip over a Camaro diff, I'd definitely throw it under the car, but won't be spending a lot of time looking for one. I think the diff would affect mileage more than the converter would.[/quote]

I made the mistake of thinking that and spent a ton of $$ putting a converter only into a cammed LT1 camaro. Killed the MPG around town which is where i drove it most, also harder to drive if you can understand that, like harder to not peel out away from lights accidentally and getting looked hard at? I drove another relatively stock car with M6 that a friend had the rear changed out to 4:10 I think? and it was a great combo, idled normal, if you were rolling along like at a stop sign you could easily just leave in 2nd and pull away no drama at all. And when you wanted to go it sure did. plus he claimed still getting about same MPG and over 20 on highway no problem. That plus the ease of swapping out the rear at home vs the entire trans removal has me definitely steering towards finding a camaro dif for my caprice.