Do you ever wish you went bigger?

[Devilboy28]

I have 3.73s and thinking about some 5.56 gears. I usually don't drive over 35mph anyway :D

[Camarorulz]

Some of us like for our speedometers to work right, and 4.10s are too much for cars that are driven on the highway consistently. I think even 3.73s are pushing it. If you only drive it in the city most of the time and drag race it though, more power to ya. I like my 3.42s, have had them in for a year, and I don't plan on going any bigger.

Now that I don't have the crappy 3.08s, its all about horsepower, not about bigger gearing. That would be a waste of money to go to a lower ratio.

[ November 11, 2003: Message edited by: Camarorulz ]</p>

[onoiocoko]

my car came with 3.42s, its a 95 with a 3.8 and it doesnt have limited slip or disk brakes but its got the code and it feels like 3.42s cause its got some acceleration. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Camarorulz]

If it has the code GU6 then it has 3.42s unless someone changed the gears.

[Bliggida]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Now that I don't have the crappy 3.08s, its all about horsepower, not about bigger gearing. That would be a waste of money to go to a lower ratio.[ November 11, 2003: Message edited by: Camarorulz ][/QB]<hr></blockquote>
3.42's to 4.56's is the equivalent gain of adding 100 horsepower to the engine. The cost of a gear set vs. Nitrous, Supercharger, or turbocharger is clearly a better purchase.

With a T56 swap, my car should cruise 70 MPH with 4.56's at the same 2,250 RPM that my T-5 does now with stock 3.42's!!!

[imported_admin]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bliggida:
3.42's to 4.56's is the equivalent gain of adding 100 horsepower to the engine. The cost of a gear set vs. Nitrous, Supercharger, or turbocharger is clearly a better purchase.<hr></blockquote>

Not on the 3.8. For some reason proven track times show losses with anything over 3.42. 12secondv6 used to have 4.10's, he got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. I used to have 3.73, I got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. With really steep gears your 60' will be great but after that the engine just runs out of steam, regardless of transmission. I only see one decent time on the timeslips page with 3.73's and I'll bet he'd be even faster with 3.42's.

[Cole Angrimson]

i love my 3.42's :D i do. they are stock and i already had to put a new set of internals in my car. tore out my rear. thank god my ring and pinion gear were ok. but i drove a kids Camaro with 3.08's and i hated them. they had nothing low end. even 3.23's i noticed the difference. alot of people i know with Camaro's or Firebird's put in 3.42's after riding in my car. :rolleyes:

[Bliggida]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Stefan:
Not on the 3.8. For some reason proven track times show losses with anything over 3.42. 12secondv6 used to have 4.10's, he got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. I used to have 3.73, I got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. With really steep gears your 60' will be great but after that the engine just runs out of steam, regardless of transmission. I only see one decent time on the timeslips page with 3.73's and I'll bet he'd be even faster with 3.42's.<hr></blockquote>
On some 3.8L. My guess Stephan is that those who are installing 3.73's and 4.10's, do in fact gain more torque to the wheels. But it becomes its own enemy. For some reason what may seem elementary to You and I, long time mechanics. To the average hop-up-my-V6 Joe doesn't seem to pick up on. Even some our fastest V6's fall into this category. Such as 12SecondV6 (unless I am thinking of someone else?) where he has all the power, and not much in the put-it-to-the-ground category. Which is equally important.

You can't just intall 4.10's and leave it at that. The power you gain will translate to wheel slip with working on your suspension to make it hook up. The V6 and V8 F-bodies are identical. Our suspension is a little softer but otherwise (except for 1LE) is the same parts. And how many LS1's run into the 11's with sub 1.8 60 foots. If you want to, traction is not a problem for the F-body. Left stock that is a different story. And I think that's what these people are doing. Going with big gears, causing a lot of wheel slip, leaving the suspension alone and then saying that 4.10's don't help. Well, that is a misinformed analysis. If you have stock suspension, the stock (3.42) gears are going to give you better track times. Now compare that with 4.10's that include a torque arm, control arms, subframes, and good tires - what happens? 1.9 60 foots on 235mm tires. That's pretty darn good.

The longer you keep your engine in it's power band the faster it is going to go ET and MPH. Right now, with a T-5 I don't even use my fouth )1:1) gear. I cross the traps in third, redlined. Now if I bump up my gearing to take advantage of fourth gear and cross the traps redlined in 4th. I will drop a half second in ET and probably 5-8 MPH more in trap speed.

A turbocharger won't help you if you don't have exhaust flow.
Likewise, gears won't help unless you can put the power to the ground.

[95Batmobile]

I agree with Blig on this one...
My car pulls harder than it used to in 3rd gear (auto). I only ran it up to about 95 (so about 85, my speedo is off temporarily) and it was still pulling hard.
My car used to lay over when it shifted into 3rd, felt like it ran out of power... now it keeps pulling harder than ever. Some of that is due to the mods of course, but I only noticed more with the gears.
I think 4.10s in my car would be too much though, I just get the feeling it wouldn't run as good... I don't know why. Just the way the car feels to me.

[SkAchilles]

I should have gone 3.73s, but as a daily driver, 3.42s aren't bad.

LS1s and cam'd LT1s can put down great times on 4.10s and 4.56s because they have a lot more up top than an L36 so they can squeeze out more in the higher gears at the end of the track.

Pesonally with the 3.8, I think 3.42s are the ideal gear.

[SilverTAWS6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bliggida:
You can't just intall 4.10's and leave it at that. The power you gain will translate to wheel slip with working on your suspension to make it hook up. The V6 and V8 F-bodies are identical. Our suspension is a little softer but otherwise (except for 1LE) is the same parts. And how many LS1's run into the 11's with sub 1.8 60 foots. If you want to, traction is not a problem for the F-body. Left stock that is a different story. And I think that's what these people are doing. Going with big gears, causing a lot of wheel slip, leaving the suspension alone and then saying that 4.10's don't help. Well, that is a misinformed analysis. If you have stock suspension, the stock (3.42) gears are going to give you better track times. Now compare that with 4.10's that include a torque arm, control arms, subframes, and good tires - what happens? 1.9 60 foots on 235mm tires. That's pretty darn good. <hr></blockquote>

If you think you need all that suspension work, you're very misinformed. I know plenty of people running sub 1.8 60' with little more then subframes done to the suspension, and maybe a set of ROAD RACE shocks and of course tires. Many people jump at lca's, torque arm, panhard, etc to try to get "grip" and end up just wasting an otherwise good mod budget. I know b/c I jumped at the lca's and panhard just to watch my friend cut a 1.6 60' on stock lcas, panhard, torque arm and stiff Koni shocks. He had the tires to back it up which is most important.

The 3.8L seems to run out of steam when you go to 4th (manual). Probably a turbocharged/supercharged/cam car will have the power to overcome this, but a basic bolt on won't.

A car can easily become overgeared. For example, I have 4.10's and cross the trap right around redline in 4th. I could put 4.30's in, but then I'd be in 5th and run slower. Now if I had a raised redline, that would be different as I could squeeze more out of 4th.

Chris

[merlinsrealm]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Stefan:


Not on the 3.8. For some reason proven track times show losses with anything over 3.42. 12secondv6 used to have 4.10's, he got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. I used to have 3.73, I got rid of them in favor of the 3.42. With really steep gears your 60' will be great but after that the engine just runs out of steam, regardless of transmission. I only see one decent time on the timeslips page with 3.73's and I'll bet he'd be even faster with 3.42's.<hr></blockquote>


I agree. I have 3.73's and wished now I would have went with 3.42's

[jc Kyle]

so what? Has the consensus agreed that 373s with a power adder would be good for power and gas mileage, while 342s are good for naturally aspirated? That's what it seems like to me

[awesomeame]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jc Kyle:
so what? Has the consensus agreed that 373s with a power adder would be good for power and gas mileage, while 342s are good for naturally aspirated? That's what it seems like to me<hr></blockquote>

i think it's the other way around. on the timeslip page the poweradder ppl seem to like 3.42, while the n/a ppl seem to like 3.73/4.10

--matt

[FireFighter]

well i guess i will be sticking with my 3.42's for my cam and N2O