School me on Powerglides?

[Brian Westerdahl]

Didn't Hoffman and Markley run a powerglide in their streamliner and go 358 MPH or so.  I think I remember that.

[desotoman]

I remember it being a turbo 400. But time does funny things to your memory. LOL

Tom G.

[Brian Westerdahl]

Yea  I am finding that out LOL

[SPARKY]

Tom.   That right it shifts slow and smooth---higher line pressurer and more clutches try to extend the "Pack Life"

[McRat]

McRat,
If you are worried about how hard the shifts are without a converter, just let off the gas for a second before shifting. Sort of like shifting a manual but no need for a clutch. The unit that we run, has overrunning first and second gear so when we do let off, it's no big deal. It feels like we just pushed the clutch in.
I used to run a Turbo Clutch in my 68 Chevelle drag car. I did not like it as first gear ratio was just wrong and the car would sort of fall on it's face. The new clutch technologies would have fixed this problem but that was over twenty years ago. It would be absolutely fine in a LSR car and you would not need a push vehicle.
I would think that you would want as many gears as possible as you are slightly limited to usable rpm range with a diesel. I betting you gave this a lot of thought already though.

Rob
BTW, I've been a big fan of Casper for years now.

Thanks!  Yes, it would be pushing the limits of the RPM band, but it should make it.   Won't really know until we try it though.  While a dyno graph says it's OK, sometimes they don't jive with the real world.

Casper has had rough life.  

(infomercial - )

For those that don't know, a short bio on our truck (if you get bored easy, skip to next post ):

It was purchased new in Las Vegas in 05, driven to LACR dragstrip, and ran 16.4? and dyno'd at 255 rwhp stock.  
3 weeks after purchase, it ran ~12.24 @ 111 with the stock engine, turbo and fuel system.
It has raced in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California, in dragrace, sledpull, dyno challenge, fuel economy, trailer-drags (dragracing with a 10,000lb trailer), and LSR competitions.  It is still under warranty (riiiggghhtt), and the last payment was made a couple months ago.  It is still street driven occasionally, and is licensed and insured.  Both Kat and I race the truck.  

It's best ET has been 10.59 @ 129 at Fontana with Kat driving, highest HP has been 916 rwhp at 3800rpm, weighs 6420lb at the dragstrip, 7100lb at LSR events, and 8,000lb at sledpull events.  We have both a 403ci engine (stock disp) and a 441.5ci (stroker engine) for the truck.  It gets 23mpg highway.  

Kat and I own Quality Inspection, an inspection and reverse engineering lab in Corona, CA that I founded in 1993.  We have 6 employees including ourselves.  I do tuning and hotrod sales for Duramaxes as a side business to help support our racing, under the name of McRat Racing.  Robert Miller is our crew chief and best Duramax mechanic in the west.  He works at M.K. Smith Chevrolet.  Tom (9) and Allison (11) are usually at the track with us as is "Kodiak" Johnny helping with the truck.

There are several shops that have helped us keep racing the truck over the years:  Pacific Performance, Inglewood Transmission, EFILive, SoCal Diesel, Garrett, Carrillo, Gale Banks, Mahle, Wicked Diesel, Mitch Fabrications.  

The next challenge for Casper is going to be to run a 9 second quarter mile after we run El Mirage next weekend.  

And now, back to our regular programming...

[robfrey]

That truck is pretty famous. It's cool that it is still streetworthy. I want to get a duramax for an everyday driver and tow vehicle.
Getting back to the transmission- Why a powerglide? TH400 should be just as efficient as a glide with it locked up in third gear.
I got a lot of criticism when I chose to keep the th400 w converter eliminator. I figured that once it is in high gear and everything is locked up, it should be just as efficient as a standard shift transmission if not more so. I also figured that some promods are still using this trans so it should be able to handle about 3000hp on the salt as it is not really getting the shock abuse that the it would at the drag strip.
So far, I really like it. We also have a really cool valvebody in our car. I'm putting a demonstration Youtube video together and when it's done I'll let you know. You will really like it at the dragstrip. I'm able to stage my car at full boost so nobody catches me off boost on the line.

[bbarn]

That truck is pretty famous. It's cool that it is still streetworthy. I want to get a duramax for an everyday driver and tow vehicle.
Getting back to the transmission- Why a powerglide? TH400 should be just as efficient as a glide with it locked up in third gear.
I got a lot of criticism when I chose to keep the th400 w converter eliminator. I figured that once it is in high gear and everything is locked up, it should be just as efficient as a standard shift transmission if not more so. I also figured that some promods are still using this trans so it should be able to handle about 3000hp on the salt as it is not really getting the shock abuse that the it would at the drag strip.
So far, I really like it. We also have a really cool valvebody in our car. I'm putting a demonstration Youtube video together and when it's done I'll let you know. You will really like it at the dragstrip. I'm able to stage my car at full boost so nobody catches me off boost on the line.

As an example of his full boost launch, I watched Rob take his 4000# 63 Le Mans for a "Sunday drive" yesterday. 8.92 @ 158 in the 1/4!  It was quite funny watching 100 people standing at the line when he launched getting road rash on their chins!   

[John Noonan]

That truck is pretty famous. It's cool that it is still streetworthy. I want to get a duramax for an everyday driver and tow vehicle.
Getting back to the transmission- Why a powerglide? TH400 should be just as efficient as a glide with it locked up in third gear.
I got a lot of criticism when I chose to keep the th400 w converter eliminator. I figured that once it is in high gear and everything is locked up, it should be just as efficient as a standard shift transmission if not more so. I also figured that some promods are still using this trans so it should be able to handle about 3000hp on the salt as it is not really getting the shock abuse that the it would at the drag strip.
So far, I really like it. We also have a really cool valvebody in our car. I'm putting a demonstration Youtube video together and when it's done I'll let you know. You will really like it at the dragstrip. I'm able to stage my car at full boost so nobody catches me off boost on the line.

As an example of his full boost launch, I watched Rob take his 4000# 63 Le Mans for a "Sunday drive" yesterday. 8.92 @ 158 in the 1/4!  It was quite funny watching 100 people standing at the line when he launched getting road rash on their chins!   

Video please...

[bbarn]

No video of Saturday's run, but here is one of a 9.002 from earlier...Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKt1rebIi8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Bx2oM0oj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAzXgHH_2m0
http://www.onepadpontiac.com

[John Noonan]

No video of Saturday's run, but here is one of a 9.002 from earlier...Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKt1rebIi8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Bx2oM0oj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAzXgHH_2m0
http://www.onepadpontiac.com

The last link is

http://www.onebadpontiac.com   

Great stuff ! !

J

[robfrey]

Also note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3IuTIDnaV0

This is really why you need a lockup converter or converter eliminator.
Car is gear bound but converter is slipping 9.5%
That would be another 20mph.

[Crosley]

Hughes Performance has built converter stuff and trans  for various diesel applications.

A fellow named Gale Banks has run our converter stuff in a drag race Duramax  truck.  I think that Duramax has run some good numbers on the drag strip

Our newly developed  XP-4 powerglide is rated to 3k horsepower.  It has t-400 sized out put shaft and a large diameter input shaft.  The XP-4 requires a dedicated design torque converter, the XP-4  probably is over kill for the land speed racing on the salt

it is best to not shift at full throttle if you run a direct drive converter eliminator setup. The shock load is a bit high without the  converter

If you decide to build your own power glide  transmittin , be very careful on matching parts up for input shafts, pump stator designs.  Oil flow control through the these parts  is done differently by many companies.

8-)