Turbo 400 converter damage

[ajd89]

Anyone seen anything like this? Wasn't like that when I put the motor in in the spring. Back of the crank looks fine.

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[QBuff02]

Did you have clearance between the converter and fleaxplate when you installed it? Almost appears that it was bottomed out and pressure broke it.

 

[fried_daddy]

My converter was like that on my TH400 when I removed it for a rebuild and a engine swap. I ended up getting a replacement from Autozone for like 110 bucks. Not sure what caused it though.

 

[fried_daddy]

Pic of damaged converter

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[Matt69olds]

Check the engine for excessive thrust bearing clearance. If the thrust bearing is wiped out, either someone didn’t get the converter seated correctly (check the pump) or maybe the converter was dropped?

 

[bucket]

That's just odd. I'm in to see where this goes.

I'm actually concerned for my own truck now. When the engine went into the 454 SS truck, the converter snout refused to seat fully into the crank. So I simply put machine washers between the converter and flexplate to fill the gap. I wonder if the converter snout could chunk out like that?

 

[shiftpro]

Check the floor real carefully to see if the broken piece shows up.
I'm seeing in my crystal ball the engine getting lowered into place and the tranny is not tipped back tail down enough. The nose on the converter hooked
on the edge of the crank and instead of slipping in it got wiped off tightening down the tranny.
Was the tranny tight to the block? The bolts I mean...

 

[Matt69olds]

Always remember, the converter needs to be able to spin with the bellhousing bolts tight!! It’s ok if there is a little drag, or the converter mounting tabs lightly hit balance weights. If the converter is pinch tight, you WILL tear up the pump, converter, the transmission, or the engine thrust bearing, possibly all at the same time. And there needs to be a little clearance between the flywheel and converter mounting tabs. If not, same possible damage. Converters “grow” dimensionally from the pilot (the part that “pilots” into the back of the crankshaft”) and the front of the converter pump (the part that slips inside the transmission). If there is no clearance, when the converter grows under heavy load, it will put a bunch of force on the crank and transmission. It’s basically trying to push the engine and transmission apart. Something has to give. Normally, the flex plate “flexes”. If it forces enough to bottom out the pilot on the crank, it will tear up the engine thrust bearing.

 

[ajd89]

Wow thanks for all the thoughts on this! Bell housing bolts were all tight. Doesnt seem to be any play in the crank or extra wear like the thrust bearing was wore. Sounds like I must have done it when i installed the engine then. It all seemed to go together just fine no major issues but anything is possible I guess. I did put the flex plate on backwards to start didnt notice till i went to put the bolts in the converter but I cant see that taking a chunk out. The converter was not pinched it slid up to the flexplate fine and I even spun it to line up the bolts in the flexplate. They do seem to run around 100 bucks I checked rockauto. Just gonna get a stock reman probably. One more thing to add to the list.