As far as the lock-up goes, at that point in the track the torque muliplication is minimal, at best. By locking it up, you remove all slip from the converter and slip is HP that's not making it to the wheels, but is being lost as friction in the converter. I haven't tried not locking up, but I'll give it a shot sometime. The trick is to lock it up in third when your engine RPM very nearly matches the output RPM so that you essentially go to direct drive through the transmission. I know the guys playing with AODEs in competition are locking it up in each gear to minimize the slip losses altogether.
Stang_ROTY. Sorry to hear you're not going the Lentech route. Have you checked with anyone to see if the C4 flexplate could be modified to accept the AOD? I'm not sure on the differences, so I'm not sure if it could be done. I know my flexplate is a 161-tooth with the 50in-oz balance for the 302. There might be a flexplate out there that wouldn't upset your engine balancing. I'm assuming you went with a 157-tooth flexplate for a small C4 bell housing. I know a Street Bandit racer (one of the top racers at that) that is making the change from a C4 to the Lentech AOD so it can be done. He might be neutral balanced though, I can't say for sure.
Redsn95vert. Check out their website at
www.lentechautomatics.com or give them a call at (613)838-5390. I know that Len has been talking about the AODE market, but I'm not sure what they're making at this time.
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Jeff Chambers
T/S #3
11.611 Seconds/116.7 MPH
Chambers Racing Team