QuestionMy father has a 1955 Chevy Belair Hardtop with a 350 and TH350 transmission. He's had the car for a few years now and bought it from someone who didn't know much about it... as they just bought it to re-sell. The car has been great except for one thing. The engine has to be idled up in order to prevent it from stalling when in gear. It tends to bog down when accelerating from stopped. It will hardly break the tires loose, but has tons of power in the upper RPM's.
I don't know much about them, but it seems to me that a torque converter with a higher stall may resolve this issue. Would you agree?
If so, how do I determine the proper stall? I do not know what type of cam is in the engine, although my Dad says the engine sounds almost exactly like a '67 Camaro he had with "3 quarter" or "3/4" cam in it.
We are unsure of the rear end ratio, but by calculating it using the tire diameter / RPM method, we determined 3.82:1.
We are fairly mechanically inclined and I think we could install the torque converter ourselves if we could determine the proper stall.
Any information you can provide would be GREATLY appeciated. Thank you for your time!
Chad
AnswerCHAD;
OK first off if you are not going to race the car- I would keep away from a toqure conv. / stall speed , as far as the stalling at low idle the toqure conv. will do nothing to help that. you should try to get the idle fixed first , if the engine has a 3/4 cam in it than it should run good, but you have to find why it will not idle or get everything adj. right. if the cam is a solid lift cam you must find out what to set the valves at. and the timing
and adj the carb. etc. if there is a cam in it , than the idle might be up around 800-900+ rpms at idle or even more.
If you get that right - than all the rest should be fine. ok was the distributor ever removed ? . p.s. if it is running good at a hi rpm than it should also be good at a lower, you have to get all the bugs out. little at a time , but I would stay away from a stall speed/ tq/conv. rw
