^ will share when poll is closed^

if you have to know before google it.

 

Do I have to know how it works, or do I just have to know what it does? I only vaguely know how it works but I have a pretty good idea of what it does. Ah, screw it, I'll vote yes, then google it to confirm. I'll edit to let you know if I was wrong.

 

Well in this case i think know what it is, is as good as knowing how it works.

How it does it is part of knowing what it is tho.

 

Woohoo! I didn't know exactly how it worked until I just went and read up on it, but I had a pretty good general idea of what it did and how it did it. I couldn't have written you a book on it but if I had talked about it within the limits of my knowledge I don't think I would have said something wrong, just a little vague on some parts. Now I understand it better.

Good thread, btw. I love threads that make me reexamine in greater detail something I've skipped over or done only a small amount of research on. Funny coincidence, I was on Howstuffworks.com for the last hour reading about other things I sorta-kinda knew about from school but never really understood. No better way to waste time than learning.

BTW I'm an import manual tranny fanboy and I have a great appreciation for the proper application of a built auto tranny. I've never built a primarily drag-oriented car, or a car with enough power to really justify going with an auto. With low power small displacement engines you're usually better off with a manual, to minimize losses of an already small amount of power through the drivetrain. When I build a car with enough power that the difficulty is not in having the power to accelerate the car but in delivering that power effectively to the ground, that car will have an auto.

 

Yea in low power the manual is better.

Im thinking the auto tho because i can make it a full manual shift with the flip of a switch.

Like push a button its in first or push a button its in 4 no matter what, just like a 5speed.

With a well built auto loss through it would be min. Im still thinking 5speed for the fun tho.

The thing that gets me is when kids are like oh ill rape you hard off the line in my 5speed yet they have no idea how an auto tranny works and what it does with torque.

 

I didn't do too badly off the line in my old 5-speed AWD DSM, with a 5000 RPM launch limiter and about 15 pounds of boost off the line. But yeah, most of the kids out there say that then dump the clutch and spin their one front tire and go nowhere. That's when you stall it up and rip them off the line and laugh when they give up before they shift out of first gear.

 

A friend of mines dad will argue with me even to this day about how much slower an auto is off the line because you can't bring the RPM's up as much. He swore up and down that his '00 6spd firehawk T/A would rape my '02 auto z28 out of the whole because "auto's are better from rolls." Even after I tried to explain to him that without great hooking tires or rediculous driving I'd whole shot him everytime with the help of the auto. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about obviously.

 

Thanks for explaining this at ihop after the Sunday St. Pete Meet. I voted no because I had no clue what it was until you explained it. Neat stuff.

~James

 

slightly off topic

there are advantages and disadvantages to both AT vs MT...AT's are heavy and require tons of fluid, plus unless the TQ converter has a lock up on it, they usually only run at 85-90% efficiency compared to 100% on MT, also the higher the TQ multiplier the less efficient it is once its up to speed. so where as 2.0:1 multiplier may be 85% efficient a one with a 5:1 may only be 75% efficient. its a matter of preference and what your going to do with it.. an AT works great for drag where the race is pretty much decided by the 60ft.. a MT would work better for road racing because of better control of gearbox..

anyway this is just what i think i know.. im not 100% sure if im correct on all of this so if somethings off plz tell me

 

Only thing your wrong about is that the TC is only able to lock up under light load, and the tq multiplier has nothing to do with effency.