Mostly Stock 1998 T/A... Switching Gears
09-08-2018, 10:44 PM
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Mostly Stock 1998 T/A... Switching Gears My 1998 T/A is a mostly stock LS1/automatic except for a MagnaFlow Cat-Back exhaust system. Not even a WS6. Unfortunately it has the anemic 273 gear ratio.... the car runs like a top right now so I'm not looking to mess with the engine all that much. I do have a few mods down the road, but for right now I'm looking at just changing the gear ratio and possibly a stall converter. Oddly enough, it takes off from the stoplight fairly well but I know it could be so much better. I do drive the car to and from work once in a great while and that's about 20 miles so I still need some decent gas mileage but I am thinking of switching the gear ratio to a 342 or 373. I know I have a series 2 carrier so I will need to get some special gears to go into my rear end. I found them at Hawks Motorsports. I just haven't decided which set I want to get. Also, what is the stock stall speed on my transmission? What would be a good one to bump up to that's not too obnoxious? I am on a budget for right now so I'm trying to watch that as well. I'm also not looking to race my car at all. It's just mostly my weekend driver for a little bit of fun, so ETA and quarter mile time don't mean a lot to me.
Last edited by Rokkaholik; 09-09-2018 at 12:50 AM.
09-09-2018, 07:25 AM
#2
First, are you going to be changing/installing the gears and torque convertor or is there going to be shop labor charges ? That has a great effect on the overall costs of the projects.
MPGs at freeway speeds with the convertor locked doesn't change that much as you might believe. I've collected data from posts over the years. 2.73-25.9mpg,3.23-24.5mpg,3.73-23.0mpg,4.10-22.2mpg,4.56-21.5. In city driving,mpg is strictly right foot dependent.
On a budget ? you'd be tempted to get a convertor in the $400 range,DON'T. You'd be unhappy/not satisfied with the results and you'd be doing it all over again with a GOOD convertor thereby wasting the money from the first one. There are many that have 2.73's with a GOOD convertor and are quite satisfied. A good convertor would be a Yank SS3600/4000 or CircleD equivalent.
For performance, a good convertor first, then gears. The most popular combination seems to be SS3600 and 3.73s'.
MPGs at freeway speeds with the convertor locked doesn't change that much as you might believe. I've collected data from posts over the years. 2.73-25.9mpg,3.23-24.5mpg,3.73-23.0mpg,4.10-22.2mpg,4.56-21.5. In city driving,mpg is strictly right foot dependent.
On a budget ? you'd be tempted to get a convertor in the $400 range,DON'T. You'd be unhappy/not satisfied with the results and you'd be doing it all over again with a GOOD convertor thereby wasting the money from the first one. There are many that have 2.73's with a GOOD convertor and are quite satisfied. A good convertor would be a Yank SS3600/4000 or CircleD equivalent.
For performance, a good convertor first, then gears. The most popular combination seems to be SS3600 and 3.73s'.
09-09-2018, 09:53 AM
#3
I'd say a good 3200 to 3400 converter. And by what I've experienced I'd leave circle d out of the list. May be good converters but they have a hard time getting stall speeds and low speed driveability right. In other words they're loose as #@#@. And I tried the cheap converter route, I had a TCI street fighter - way loose. Talked to circle d, the one they sent me felt exactly like the TCI. This was back in 2008 or 2009, maybe they learned a thing or two since then who knows.
I have a 2001 Z28 with that Circle D that was restalled at 400 miles by FTI (and it was exactly what I wanted). And I have an off the shelf FTI that I bought from Summit in my 2002 SS and they drive perfect. They both have 3.23's though.
And if you're paying shop time or doing it yourself a converter is easier to do right than gears. And what I mean is I've seen shops screw up gear installs and blame the customers for improper break in (the break in period is 500 miles). A converter pretty much works right away or doesn't. You may need tuning on the misfire tables with a converter also.
I have a 2001 Z28 with that Circle D that was restalled at 400 miles by FTI (and it was exactly what I wanted). And I have an off the shelf FTI that I bought from Summit in my 2002 SS and they drive perfect. They both have 3.23's though.
And if you're paying shop time or doing it yourself a converter is easier to do right than gears. And what I mean is I've seen shops screw up gear installs and blame the customers for improper break in (the break in period is 500 miles). A converter pretty much works right away or doesn't. You may need tuning on the misfire tables with a converter also.
09-09-2018, 12:16 PM
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I'd consider a torque converter upgrade before touching the gears, even if you don't plan to race. The above suggestions are great; don't cheapen out when it comes to selecting a converter and you won't be disappointed. For your application, anything in the range of 3200-3600 stall speed would probably be perfect. This, IMO, is a much better upgrade than a gear swap....but only if you select a quality converter. And once you have a ~3500 stall speed converter in place, the measurable performance difference of a 2.73 to 3.73 gear swap becomes quite small. At that point, the greatest benefit to such a swap is mostly a matter of perception ("tighter" feel on the street, at part throttle).
09-09-2018, 12:28 PM
#7
Some people like loose converters and some like tight converters. And some people think 'so this is what a high stall converter is all about' no matter if it's tight or loose.
This is why is so important to talk to a converter builder, some know how to read what a customer wants, some don't. Some just build converters that are predictable, like Yank.
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09-09-2018, 01:16 PM
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First, are you going to be changing/installing the gears and torque convertor or is there going to be shop labor charges ? That has a great effect on the overall costs of the projects.
MPGs at freeway speeds with the convertor locked doesn't change that much as you might believe. I've collected data from posts over the years. 2.73-25.9mpg,3.23-24.5mpg,3.73-23.0mpg,4.10-22.2mpg,4.56-21.5. In city driving,mpg is strictly right foot dependent.
On a budget ? you'd be tempted to get a convertor in the $400 range,DON'T. You'd be unhappy/not satisfied with the results and you'd be doing it all over again with a GOOD convertor thereby wasting the money from the first one. There are many that have 2.73's with a GOOD convertor and are quite satisfied. A good convertor would be a Yank SS3600/4000 or CircleD equivalent.
For performance, a good convertor first, then gears. The most popular combination seems to be SS3600 and 3.73s'.
MPGs at freeway speeds with the convertor locked doesn't change that much as you might believe. I've collected data from posts over the years. 2.73-25.9mpg,3.23-24.5mpg,3.73-23.0mpg,4.10-22.2mpg,4.56-21.5. In city driving,mpg is strictly right foot dependent.
On a budget ? you'd be tempted to get a convertor in the $400 range,DON'T. You'd be unhappy/not satisfied with the results and you'd be doing it all over again with a GOOD convertor thereby wasting the money from the first one. There are many that have 2.73's with a GOOD convertor and are quite satisfied. A good convertor would be a Yank SS3600/4000 or CircleD equivalent.
For performance, a good convertor first, then gears. The most popular combination seems to be SS3600 and 3.73s'.
A torque converter I can do myself. I've done plenty of tranny swaps on past cars.... Gears are a different animal and I probably wouldn't attempt them without supervision or someone experienced. Too many little things can go wrong.
Upgrades down the road that are a possibility are possibly Intake and headers, and MAYBE heads/cam if I already have to take the engine out anyway, but that's far down the road. The other possibility was
http://www.on3performance.com/shop/1...em-retains-ac/
I talked to the tech guy there and it seems I could get some decent power without having to mod any internals of the engine, but I'd need a special K member, and some fuel system upgrades. I thought it was a neat idea since it would be different than the supercharger, heads, cam upgrades.
This is DOWN THE ROAD sometime though... and with the War Departments approval.....
09-09-2018, 01:22 PM
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Those are correct for installing in my 2 series carrier to change to 3.73?
Hawks had that same part number, but with a TK after it:
http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/cama...nd-pinion-set/
Hawks had that same part number, but with a TK after it:
http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/cama...nd-pinion-set/
09-09-2018, 01:29 PM
#12
Those are correct for installing in my 2 series carrier to change to 3.73?
Hawks had that same part number, but with a TK after it:
http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/cama...nd-pinion-set/
Hawks had that same part number, but with a TK after it:
http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/cama...nd-pinion-set/
X is ring and pinion only.
09-12-2018, 07:17 AM
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Well.... a friend of mine is a mechanic and he knows how to do rear end gears, and when he took a ride in my car the other day he noticed as I went around corners and hit the gas, especially at lower RPMs, there was an odd clunk in the rear. Guessing it may be a U-Joint, but with 126k miles on it, it may possibly be in the rear end itself. Getting under the car this weekend to do a little fidgeting around, but if I have to open the rear end on the car for anything, I'm going to end up putting gears in it anyway...lol.