hexxLS4

iTrader: (1)

Anyone consider doing this? Or too worried about the hit to mpg? Seems like a good and safer alternative to FI or internal engine work...comments?

BADDLS1SS

iTrader: (22)

Gotta link to the parts needed to do it?

BADDLS1SS

iTrader: (22)

Eh... i found a ZZ performance link... the whole tranny has to come out to do it. Stock gear ratio is decent, not worth 500$ and having to dissasemble the tranny.

Area47

um, why?!?!
when you get more mods on your car done, you will find that your stock 3.29 ratio is peachy.
hell i spin the tires from a 30 punch in my car, and thats on motor, and thats with the 2.93 gears

krazyglu

i was thinking about it the other day, and didn't know if anyone had done it yet
i went from 3.73's to 4.10's on my formula and it made a huge difference and didn't really impact mpg, but that was an m6
i feel good when i get 19mpg on this car, i don't really want to take a big hit yet

Area47

also have to keep in mind, these cars fight for traction all the way through first gear, i can forsee breaking something with these gears and sticky tires

krazyglu

very true, i don't know much about fwd transmissions, but it seems they are much weaker then a transmission and rear

bartonmd

The only stuff you'd be harder on would be at or after the final drive part of the trans (1/2 shafts and the splines on the front bearings is about all I can think of... maybe engine-mounts?)... larger ratio gears multiply torque and take load off of the rest of the engine and trade the load for rotational speed.

Mike

Kazmaniac

Errrr ... I was happy my daily driver had a V-8 and 2 doors, now you want to change the gear ratio???

Cheers!!!

Punch the #'s in a gear ratio calc, and see if you'll gain anything useful from it.

Area47

the advantage, tire smokin fun
down side. tire cost.

a 3.42 would benefit more then a 3.69. on motor, i hit 3rd about 200 ft before the traps on motor. bottle was well into 3rd gear, but thats with more power.

get more power in the car and you won't have to worry about gears right now

hexxLS4

iTrader: (1)

The thing is, you do the 3.69 gears and you get what would be about the equivalent to about a 25% torque boost on every gear without any other potentially damaging mods to your car (nitrous? Turbo?) while freeing up load on your engine.

Spinning tires? Until you get stickier tires, improved suspension...etc....you're gonna spin. What difference does it make if you are putting out 25% more torque from the engine or from improved gearing? When the power gets to the wheels, the tires don't care where it's getting it's power from. And yeah, you're gonna have to pull out the tranny to do the work...so while you're in there, be smart and do some tranny strengthening mods.

Also, it's not ALL about the 1/4 mile or racing from a dig. I bet you've all experienced the 45mph dead zone where the car has REALLY weak pull. If you haven't just to give you an idea how bad it is, I got barely beat by a 260HP ECLIPSE off a 45 roll. The eclipse's gearing is just that much more aggressive at that speed. The 4 speed trannies on these cars just SUCK! I wish they just gave us a 6-speed instead of DOD. I mean, look at the corvettes...they're putting MORE HP and still getting the same MPG.

Transmission is always neglected in the modding process it seems. Then people wonder why they're grenading them when they throw turbos and nitrous on them.

The tranmission seems to be the weakest link in these cars. So as long as you're not worried about MPG....improving and strengthening the transmission is probably the way to go. Even if you're not changing the ratio, strengthening the transmission is probably a smart idea before doing any major uprades besides your basic bolt ons.

hexxLS4

iTrader: (1)

Lay off the throttle...change your launching tactics. Again, the tires are going to spin regardless of whether you get power from your engine or improved gear ratio... You shouldn't be spinning your tires on a well placed launch now should you? Spinning is a problem no matter what on these FWD V8's.

hexxLS4

iTrader: (1)

That's just your perspective...if it's your DD, then props to you and your camaro SS. For some of us, we want to boost these cars and gear ratio is one way to do it. All's I know is when I finally get the ***** to change the ratio, I'll be buying a gas sipping civic as my DD.

Area47

50% of the time it's a guessing game on slicks with a fwd, either it's going to dead hook and go, or dead hook and snap something.


when you raced the eclipse, you should have dropped down to 40 mph and stood on it


dunno, i'll play with calcs. later and see what i can come up with

Kazmaniac

Hey, relax dude - you probably missed the "cheers" part of my message. My Z28SS is getting 4.11's this spring for the same reason.

Area is also right though, my Z already has the intake and exhaust go-fast stuff done.

A point I want to make is that with the manual, if I see you getting closer on the street, 90% of the time I've dropped down into the lowest gear possible to keep the LS1 in the power band by the time you are along side. At 45, that's the bottom of 2nd gear. Do you guys manually select a lower gear with your autos???

Next thing I would look at tranny wise is programming, since it seems the MCSS's primary goal is to get into 4th as fast as possible (like the M6's CAGS). Since no one can mess with it right now, look at 2nd and 3rd gear ratios.

But, I'm into manuals / road course racing instead of 1/4's, so you need to base your desicions off from what you will use the car more for.

Above 90 performance is lacking in W-bodys compared to F-bodys. My Z pulls like a **** to 160, but again, it has a hell-uv-a-lot more horsepower than the MCSS. Intake / cam / exhaust.

And on the gas sipping Civic as a DD - if you think the Monte is fast, get in a Civic and drive that all day and get back to me. Is the $10 / week you save in gas worth the lame??? (I will give you some props if you get the Acura Integra GSXRS2F2Fer w/ a MANUAL) You'll sell the Civic to buy more go-fast parts for the Monte in less than a month.

bartonmd

Also keep in mind that the 'vette weighs a solid 600lbs less than this car, and has less frontal area, and a lower coefecient of drag... It's going to get higher mpg, even with the same drivetrain...

Mike

Area47

um, you CAN program the tranny.
you can change shift points, pressure, trq mngmt, blah blah blah


i can drop to first at 43 mph
44 i can't
ah well
my tranny has a mind of it's own right now

BanditTA

iTrader: (3)

We run 3.69's all the time in our FWD 3800 S/C cars. Usually because we can beef up the chain (that breaks around 350hp), its also proven. Many of the guys running 11's are using 3.69's and slicks.

Area47

hmmm, dunno.
have to do some number crunchin to see what i can come up with later tonight on my half *** calcs

Kazmaniac

43 in 1st?

I stand corrected on the tranny programming. Heard you can't mess with the TCM w/ the Diablo ... the programming part of my MCSS will need to be done by a hand-held because I really can't dedicate any time to deep diving the ECM / TCM. The big-dog's Hypertech had an option to adjust shift points on the auto, but Hyper doesn't make a unit for these cars, nor does Superchips. Planning on using the 93 octane / no DoD tune.

Tried an on ramp yesterday manually shifting, held gears longer, but needed more line pressure to slam you back in your seat like a manual.