[all_ryze]

Interesting FAQs on the TCI torque converter

READ

MOTOR CITIES FINEST
PHS Documented "REAL JUDGE"
12.53 @ 110.68 on street tires, through the mufflers and a 4 speed!!

[all_ryze]

Interesting FAQs on the TCI torque converter

READ

MOTOR CITIES FINEST
PHS Documented "REAL JUDGE"
12.53 @ 110.68 on street tires, through the mufflers and a 4 speed!!

[PLAY400]

Wow! Glad I don't have 1 of those. Makes me wonder how my B&M 3000 holeshot was made. Could it be as bad or even worse. Unbelievable!! Alan

[TCSGTO]

A very good hipo trans shop in my area won't sell TCI coverters any more. They don't like to recomend any off the shelf converters because they usually aren't as efficient as a good custom,especialyy for a large cuin engine, but they say the B&M's are about the best made of the common speed shop units.

[bob8748]

And I thought TCI was a good name!?!
thanks

So let me get this straight:
Your Honda has 1.6 liters and my bottle of Mountain Dew has 2?

[Ron]

Exactly what makes you guys think the TCI is not a good torque converter. Just because this company...a competitor...says so?? Baloney!!!

No problem with my TCI torque converter. Been in my street/strip 1965 GTO for four years. No problems, no worries. When I installed the TCI torque converter is improved my performance over another "well known" torque converter manufacturer.

I'm a very happy TCI customer.

Ron

[jim brady]

I have used TCI convertors for years and have never had a problem. Scott Miller at TCI has always helped me get the convertor that works. If I had a problem he has always helped me get the stall That we want . This looks like one convertor company bashing another as Their could be a lot of things tht caused the problems other than the convertor its self. Was the convertor installed right?

[Old Man Taylor]

I have a "Jim Butler special" TCI converter. I have about 200 flawless runs on it, and it stalled at exactly what it was advertised to stall at, which is 4200 behind my 400 inch engine.

http://www.jimspontiac.homestead.com/Index.html

[Hot Rod]

I will post my personal experence with TCI when I get home this evening!!!! And the long and short of it is they are everything they said they are and back it up with one hell of a warranty!!
Those of you that know what happened to me at
Route 66 three years ago know what happened and TCI backed it up many times more than what I had invested in there converter!!!!!

More to come!!!!!!!!

Rodney

Outlaw Pontiac Racers Association
"For Those Who Live the Legend"

"WELCOME TO THE NO SPIN ZONE!"

[myckee]

I have a TCI converter in my car for the past 2 years, and I couldn't be happier. It is great.

To me, the website posting this is trying to drum up more business for themselves at TCI's expense. If they had the convertor analyzed by an independant firm and that firm was reputable, then there might be some creedance to what they say. As it stands, what would you expect them to say..that TCI are awesome and half the price of a Yank special?

You can't believe everything you read. I prefer to ask around to people I know who may have tried a particular product. By the looks of the positive responces above, that this Yank dude is posting pure BS on his website.

[dammen8]

Here is my story....

All I have ever run and recommended was TCI products. I have always been very happy with them until this last year. I am running (or should I say was?) a JBP 300+ race converter that is advertised to stall 4200-4500. Well I put it in and it goes to 4700 which was right at my peak torque so I was happy, I had the converter in the car for 2 years and it worked great. Now I realize that 2 years to some people might seem like a lot but we do not race that much up here in ND since the season is pretty short. Anyway getting back to my story at the end of the 2nd year at the last race I decided to try the n2o, well lets just say that it was very unsuccessful, I drove right though the converter.

So I call TCI and told them exactly what happened and all they said was it is fine. I told them that I now have a "tinny" noise coming from the converter when the car has been run for awhile, once again they said its fine. I went to a 1/4 mile track and made my licensing runs the car goes though the traps with 12-13% slippage. I do not know about the rest of you guys but I feel that 12-13% is way to high. So again I am on the phone to TCI and they say that this is normal . I mean come on even I know better than this, I know lots of people running 8" converters that only have 6% slippage but I am supposed to accept the fact that mine is normal .. I gave them every chance I could and I got nothing. I have called their "tech line" 4 or 5 times and received 4-5 different answers, Only one of the tech people agreed that 12% was to high but he said that there was nothing he could do about it. I have also e-mailed them 3 times with all my questions and info, heck I even sent them both of my dyno sheets, chassis and engine. I directed one of the e-mails directly to Scott Miller and I never had a single e-mail answered. So I figure if they do not want to help me out....Screw them, after redynoing my engine this year I pulled the converter and sent it away to be fixed and I will tell you one thing I did not send it back to TCI.

Now as far as this torque converter company saying this about TCI I guess it could be true but it could also be propaganda (sp), much like one of the pontiac engine builders. Like I said before I have run lots of TCI products, so I have seen alot of their welds and I have never seen a globby weld like the one that yank had displayed on any of my TCI converters. I am mainly not happy with the help you receive from TCI's tech department, but there is always a flip side to this because I know that HotRod is very happy with the help he received. So maybe I just hit the wrong person every time I call or email . Sorry for getting so long


Chad Dammen

ND's fastest Pontiac (I think) and Minot's fastest street car (not like that means much)

[Hot Rod]

As anything you may purchase from any company it's only as good as the person that you deal with and finding that right person can be very hard sometimes!
Well I had been running a converter that a Chebby friend of mine had run in his chevelle big block and the combo worked very well in mine. So I got the numbers off his converter and ordered one from Scott and Summit! Well about two months I installed it before I went to Norwalk and raced it with out any problem, then I went to Route 66
and was having a banner evening the car did not change more that a few thousands every pass and it did not matter which lane I was in.
Well in the quarter finals I was in the left lane and the TA left normal and right as I went into second gear all hell broke loose or should I say the converter let loose and one of the arms that bolt to the flywheel cut the bell housing off the engine and made one hell of a mess.
With further investigation the ears broke right off the converter because when the ears were welded on the converter did not have enough heat in it for the welds to penetrate and this caused the ears to come off cutting the bell housing off the back of the motor.
When I got home I took the converter to the person that teaches welding at Nova and he wrote me a complete diagnosis of what happend and what caused the failure and that was poor penetration of the welds.
I then contacted Scott Esterle and he gave me the phone # for Jerry at TCI, after contacting him he was very professional and told me that he would need to see the converter before he could do anything for me, I also sent him digital pictures of the damage.
Well three days went by and Jerry called me and said that he had recieved the Converter and it was going to be checked out by one of his top people. I kind if told him my concerns and he point blank said to what was I looking for.
Simply put I new Converter built to my specs, the damage to the vehicle that was not there before the converter letting loose and a new transmission case to replace the one that had been damaged.
His answer was if the welds are as I said they were no problem.
Four days later I had a new converter with a mounting ring not the three ears, built to my specs, and new starter, tranny lines, and transmission case, a check for $500.00 for the hood and some other goodies as well.
I called Jerry back to thank him for what he had done and it made a true believer out of me, about a company that stands behind there products 300%+! I trust TCI and what they build and will keep on supporting there products. Does this mean that they are perfect no way, hell they built built a converter that had a problem, and I even called them before I installed it, telling them that the mounting arms were different. I was told to install it and even had the name of the tech that said that there would be no problem. Moral of the Story get the names of who you spoke to extenion numbers and any information that you can trace it back to the manufacturer!!!!!!

TCI is #1 in my book and that's my story and I am sticking to it!!!!

By the way Scott E. can testify to this being the truth if there are any Poo Pooer's out there.


Side note Chad I would have tracked down the right guy, yea it's a Pain in the Arse but you paid real good money for the product and it wasn't delivered, and I respect you opinion and don't blame you one bit for how you feel, I would still give them hell! Big GuY!!!!!

Good luck you ride is really flying!!!

Rodney

Outlaw Pontiac Racers Association
"For Those Who Live the Legend"

"WELCOME TO THE NO SPIN ZONE!"

[TTS]

Well, here it is,
Ron, exactly why I think TCI is inferior is quality. The same quality standards I have to live by. I cannot get away with the crap they sell, why should they? I have seen what they have to offer- stock transmissions + some crap and converters that can be topped with a little more bread- YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!!!!! The converter co. I deal with (precision industries has never said anything bad or negative about TCI, to me anyway) has given my customers 2.5 year after purchase stall changes. Their warranty and guarantee is over in 2 years. They guarantee, and I have not seen otherwise, a .500 in ET. I have seen less, but nobody is complaining. Average .300+ and 3 to 4 MPH over you know who. I have stories about TCI that I am ashamed to tell. Stories of them lying, stories of them not telling the truth, and stories of them apoligizing. Depends on who you talk to there. The only way their converter is installed is if a customer supplies it. And from now on, we will charge more when we have in the past to send it back for repair before it leaves the first time. JIM, unless the pics show chatters at the pump drive, or a severly worn hub IT WAS NOT IMPROPERLY INSTALLED. I can testify to that. A improperly installed converter will wear the transmission, not the converter, first. HOT ROD, nice story, I'm glad they did right by you. I have been in heated conversation with what I still consider the best used car salesmen in the world at TCI. TTS or The Transmission SHOP is more than willing to take FULL responsibility for everything posted here. It has all happened before. I still refer to some of the statements in those conversations (w/ TCI) in my personal jokes.

[TTS]

BTW, and no pi$$ing match, I will not confirm this, only what I have heard from reliable sources. I wonder if the transmission assembler at TCI is up to $15.00 per transmission yet? Last I heard about a 2 years ago he got $10.00. I wouldn't lie, promise!!!!!!!!!

[Ron]

I still like my TCI torque converter and the customer service that TCI has provided me.

Ron

[tempest455]

I first heard of "Yank" about three years ago and that's only late model stuff. TCI has been around longer than most. Hmmmmmm???? See many 1,000+ HP NMCA cars running Yank?

I also have a TCI 8" race converter, and like it. The welds are very nice and it appears to be a very quality piece. It's unfortunate about Chad's experience with TCI. I've had good results with TCI's service.

Personally, you can't go wrong with TCI, ATI, B&M, Munsinger, Continental etc. I have seen examples of all on seriously fast race cars without any problems.

Tempest455
http://www.wauknet.com/douthitt/

[all_ryze]

Just like any other product on the market, some sware by it and some hate it.

I found that website from another board and found it interesting on what they had found with the TCI or that particular converter.

I have never used TCI and never had an opinion on them, and I usually form my own opinions from personal experience, but, pictures are worth a thousand words, I see some pretty poor craftmanship there.

It is however, 1 converter and the history is not known! So, I will not form my opinion based upon someone elses findings, published or unpublished.

MOTOR CITIES FINEST
PHS Documented "REAL JUDGE"
12.53 @ 110.68 on street tires, through the mufflers and a 4 speed!!

[Hot Rod]

Pictures speak a thousand words!!!! There is more to this story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!
Nothing more than a commercial to bad mouth the competition. I find it very interesting that they went after TCI??????? I guess the Yank might be pulling more than he's telling us!
There is no doubdt that there is a problem here but I would like to hear the whole story, and I also would how can anybody say that they can pick you up between .300 and .500 pretty bold
statement considering they do not have any idea what it is your running. I am sure that he builds a quality piece. There are a lot of quality manufacturers out there I have run Coan and like what they build, and I can tell you that Chris at Coan would never resort to tactics like this, this is a real turn off to me.
It like comparing John Bean Alignment Equipment with Hunter Engineering Alignment equipment, since I no longer work for Hunter I can tell the whole story, John Bean cannot hold a candle to Hunter they are not even in the same quality of equipment as Hunter. Hunter spends more on R&D than John Beans budget!!!!!! But yet they do a real good job making you believe that they are the Me too, Me Too and use "Smoke & Mirrors" to get the task done!!!!

Rodney

Outlaw Pontiac Racers Association
"For Those Who Live the Legend"

"WELCOME TO THE NO SPIN ZONE!"

[ponchopete]

I have to question the integrity of any company that so blatantly blasts the competition like Yank has done to TCI. I couldn't say either one is good or bad, but seeing a company pull something like that would definitely turn me off to using anything from Yank. It's like listening to Flopper badmouth every other Pontiac engine builder on the planet.

"My car would be fast if it had an engine, transmission, and rear axle in it."

[63Longtop]

My best friend purchased a Coan convertor for $800. He supplied them with all dyno #'s and necessary info. He had 45 runs on the convertor and it went away. The convertor was pulled and was taken a cut open, I personally went with him to have it done. The convertor had been repaired 3 times and was sold as NEW. This company would offer nothing after several attempts. The convertor had a stator out of a Opel trans and a sprag assembly out of a Torqueflite. The only fins still standing were the ones that had been previously damaged. Not a good example of customer service! He paid $700 to have it rebuilt correctly.