2010-2012 Ram 6.7L Cummins Torque Converters

About 2010-2012 Ram 6.7L Cummins Torque Converters

Your Ram's torque converter is one of the most crucial parts of its powertrain, and unfortunately, the stock torque converter isn't the strongest thing in the world and is prone to warping, cracking, and burn-up once you start throwing on some serious horsepower and torque modifications or tow extremely heavy loads. The good news is that there's more than a few 68RFE performance torque converters to choose from that can help improve the reliability and power-holding of your tough Ram truck. The bad news is that there's A LOT of different torque converters to choose from and finding the right torque converter for your Ram's level of power or application can be a bit of pain. That's why we here at Tier One have put together this handy guide to help you figure out just what torque converter your truck needs.

Single-Disc vs. Dual/Multi-Disc vs. Triple-Disc Torque Converters

One of the biggest factors in a given torque converter's ability to hold horsepower and torque is the amount of friction discs it has inside. The friction disks apply during lockup, and the more discs that a given torque converter has, the more power it can feasibly hold. Adding extra discs increases the overall surface area of the friction surface that can be applied during lockup which decreases the chances of the torque converter slipping when placed under high levels of load.

Single-disc torque converters: single-disc torque converters are pretty bog-standard and are found in a lot of OEM automotive applications. With only a single disc, they have the least amount of friction surface to work with, and thus, can hold the least amount of power out of all the various torque converter types. They do save on cost and are easy on your input shaft, but if you're adding power, towing heavy, or launching hard at the track, upgrading to something with more holding capability is highly recommended. Unfortunately, your Ram's stock torque converter is a single-disc design, and it's prone to issues.

Dual/multi-disc torque converters: dual-disc (though they're sometimes called multi-disc) come with two friction discs, allowing them to hold more power than stock while still being fairly easy on your Ram's OEM input shaft. Dual-disc torque converters are a great choice if your Ram is rocking some extra horsepower from tuning and light turbo upgrades where the OEM single-disc torque converter tends to start having issues. Multi-disc torque converters are also a good choice for towing and off-roading at moderate power levels, where their extra clamping force and slip-resistance comes in seriously handy.

Triple-disc torque converters: as their name implies, triple-disc torque converters come with three friction discs, giving them MUCH more friction surface than stock and giving them one heck of a bite when they lock up. Triple-disc torque converters are perfect for Ram 6.7L Cummins builds that are throwing down a whole ton of horsepower and torque or are being used in extremely heavy towing, aggressive off-road, sled pull, or track applications. While triple-disc torque converters can hold a bunch of power, we strongly recommend using a 68RFE billet input shaft with triple-disc torque converters, due to their clamping force being a bit too much for the stock input shaft to handle.

Cast vs. Billet Torque Converters

The second important distinction when it comes to how much power or how tough a torque converter happens to be is the material it's made out of. That being said, when you see the term "billet" being thrown around with torque converters, it's generally just referring to the cover, and some torque converters that have cast covers may have billet internal parts like stators, apply pistons, etc, and torque converters that have billet covers may have cast or more "standard" internal components. It's a bit of a mess, and you'll have to read the descriptions of individual torque converters and see what one will be best for your truck.

Cast torque converters: cast torque converters come with cast covers and are generally fine for mild applications and power levels. These torque converters are fairly inexpensive, and while some of them do come with some internal upgrades (better bearings, stators, apply pistons, etc.) their power-holding is limited by the strength of their cover. Unfortunately, at high power levels the cast covers can crack or warp which can cause you and your truck more than a few headaches.

Billet torque converters: billet torque converters take their power-holding to the next level with a billet steel cover. These covers are CNC-machined out of billet steel, which has much more torsional strength than cast steel, allowing them to handle huge levels of force and the shock of hard lockup without cracking, warping, or otherwise having issues, even at extremely high levels of horsepower and torque.