Welcome to the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Thursday March 28, 2024
Home Forums Images WikiNASIOC Products Store Modifications Upgrade Garage
NASIOC
Go Back   NASIOC > NASIOC General > Newbies & FAQs

Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!
Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.







* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads. 
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-26-2001, 04:04 AM   #1
Andrew
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 1170
Join Date: Mar 2000
Chapter/Region: BAIC
Location: San Jose, CA
Vehicle:
2005 STi
White

Default How do torque converters work?

I know this is a great mod for automatic cars and I always suggest it to people to have it done, but im not sure how they work. Could someone explain how they transfer torque and why higher stall speeds are better for higher powered cars. Also what "locks up" in them?
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.
Andrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.
Old 07-26-2001, 09:31 AM   #2
inchoate
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 5470
Join Date: Apr 2001
Chapter/Region: Tri-State
Location: Philadelphiaish
Vehicle:
2014 Honda Odyssey
Nondescript

Default

check out www.howstuffworks.com and do a search. It's a really good site for stuff like that.
inchoate is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 10:51 AM   #3
JGard
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 1904
Join Date: Jul 2000
Chapter/Region: TXIC
Location: Austin, TX
Vehicle:
2017 Impreza Sport
E36 M3/4/5

Default

they're not a "mod". They are the clutches in an auto. Basically, they use fuild, which heats up when the plates inside (one attached to flywheel, one to tranny) spin at different speeds. The hotter the fluid gets, the thicker it gets, which makes the plates spin at the same speed.

but yeah, check out the howstuffworks web page.
JGard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 05:34 PM   #4
Andrew
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 1170
Join Date: Mar 2000
Chapter/Region: BAIC
Location: San Jose, CA
Vehicle:
2005 STi
White

Default

i meant "mod" only as to upgrading the stock one. not something you would just add because it doesnt have it...

thanks for the site, ill check it out later tonight
Andrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 10:12 PM   #5
Jonathan
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 4021
Join Date: Feb 2001
Chapter/Region: NESIC
Location: Natick, MA USA
Vehicle:
1999 Legacy GT Ltd
Quick Silver Metallic

Default

Quote:
Originally posted by JGard18
They're not a "mod". They are the clutches in an automatic transmission. Basically, they use fuild, which heats up when the plates inside (one attached to flywheel, one to tranny) spin at different speeds. The hotter the fluid gets, the thicker it gets, which makes the plates spin at the same speed.
Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the moderator host person, however it just might be possible that Jimmy-Jammah here just described (very nicely, I might add) the functionality of a viscous coupling as employed by both Jeep vehicle's 'Quadratrack' system, and Subaru's manual Transmission AWD systems.

Most fluids, such as automatic transmission fluid, tend to become more viscous (easier flowing) the hotter they become. The wisdom of utilizing a torque converter with a HIGH stall rate is to assure that the engine is in its correct 'powerband' when the car starts moving forward. Most typical Automatic transmission vehicles suffer from a brief delay period when first starting out from a dead stop. Many amatuer 'Drag Racers' will resort to 'brake standing' (nailing both the brakes and the throttle) before starting there runs in an effort to thward this tendancy. Installing a High stall speed torque convert also helps in this regard.
Jonathan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 10:49 PM   #6
JGard
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 1904
Join Date: Jul 2000
Chapter/Region: TXIC
Location: Austin, TX
Vehicle:
2017 Impreza Sport
E36 M3/4/5

Default

Jonathan: I would say we're both correct. The torque converter works in the same exact way the viscous center diff. works, just with a different fluid, and different number of plates.
JGard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 11:17 PM   #7
Corn-Picker
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 8679
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morgantown, WV
Vehicle:
2010 The most hated
vehicle on the internets

Wink Viscosity

Most fluids become less viscous (flow easier) as they heat, although some behave in the opposite fashion. The AWD may also work off of the fact that viscosities can change as the fluid is pumped, irregardless of heat. A great example is blood; as long as blood is being pumped, it flows fairly easy. When blood is allowed to puddle though, the viscosity increases because it is not being pumped. And some plastics/polymoers thicken as they are circulated, which may be similar to something in a torque converter/AWD linkage. I know little about cars/car parts, I just remember some of this from a fluid mechanics course.

Corn-Picker
Corn-Picker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2001, 11:54 PM   #8
Jonathan
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 4021
Join Date: Feb 2001
Chapter/Region: NESIC
Location: Natick, MA USA
Vehicle:
1999 Legacy GT Ltd
Quick Silver Metallic

Default

Corn-Picker -

Good point. Yes the Viscous coupling employed in Subaru's AWD set up does indead get thicker as it gets hotter. When the front and rear axles are turning at approximatly the same speed the coupling fluid is cool and flows fairly eaisily, allowing a certain amount of minor slippage (such as when taking a tight corner, for instance), however when one set of wheels begins to loose traction, very quickly this causes the fluid to heat up, and not allow much slipage, fourcing both axles to turn at the same speed.
Jonathan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-27-2001, 12:16 PM   #9
spshultz
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 1415
Join Date: May 2000
Chapter/Region: RMIC
Location: Anytown, USA
Vehicle:
2015 F150 3.5EB
2014 Jeep GC

Default

Someone suggested www.protorque.com. Once I have all the data needed to have one made I will do just that. If we were able to bring the RPM's up a little higher (instead of brake standing) the auto's would jump off the line pretty well. This is a common upgrade for the Aus/Europe WRX gents. They also run one to two tranny coolers. There is/was a forum out there for Auto WRX's. It was very very informative.

Shawn
spshultz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-28-2001, 11:14 AM   #10
SubyTechMaster
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 4423
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Placerville, CA USA
Vehicle:
'04 08 Tribeca, SVX
Gold, Maroon

Default

Hello Moderator, please pardon my impudance for not agreeing with you. Torque Convertors consist of an Impellor, a Stator, and a Turbine as their major parts. There are no friction plates in a Torque Convertor.

Subaru also uses a computer controlled Lock-up mechanism in the Torque Convertor.

Last edited by SubyTechMaster; 07-28-2001 at 11:17 AM.
SubyTechMaster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-28-2001, 11:37 AM   #11
JGard
Scooby Guru
 
Member#: 1904
Join Date: Jul 2000
Chapter/Region: TXIC
Location: Austin, TX
Vehicle:
2017 Impreza Sport
E36 M3/4/5

Default

hey, I don't claim to know it all

that was just the understanding I had about them...I was wrong.
JGard is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
how do i convert my 4.11 to 4.44 TurboCharged97L Transmission (AT/MT) & Driveline 7 08-18-2006 12:46 PM
how do i convert my 4.11 to 4.44 TurboCharged97L Subaru Conversions 4 07-18-2006 02:31 AM
how do i convert a .DAT file into a .CUE file? MyScoobie28 Off-Topic 10 09-23-2005 08:32 PM
C++ How do you convert from a float to an integer? Corn-Picker Off-Topic 28 10-04-2002 03:56 PM
how do i convert this? nitrousjunkie68 General Forum Archive 4 03-28-2001 07:13 PM

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:00 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Copyright ©1999 - 2019, North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club, Inc.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission
Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.