Originally Posted by
Epstein
Lots of good info in there! I honestly don't know too much about auto trannys. Only that they work on magic and elves (not the cookie kind). The impeller/turbine/fluid arrangement is what I had envisioned. Just to be picky, air IS a fluid.
The basic formula I'm going on is work in = work out. If the motor is measuring N horsepower and the motor is really putting out N+10 hp, then that 10hp is going somewhere. That work is either not going in or is coming out the side as heat. If you find an extremely long, boring link on the math behind it, let me know. I'm pretty sure you're working the efficiency angle and I'm missing the boat here somehow.
I actually had a formula but it was not a blanket one. It's also important to note that a torque converter acts to multiply torque over a given range depending on converter diameter (if memory serves). Most highly stalled automatics will dyno low on horsepower and very high on torque.
Before I worked in a transmission shop, I too thought automatics worked on some sort of voodoo magic.
