I was told last night to use 355 with my mods and not the 373's he (fortes) said 373's are great for medium to stock powered cars.. Just as a fyi from a pro.
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gentlemen !
any advice for an '89 stock stang with an aod trans and 140,000 kms on the motor with underdrive pulleys, mac headers, flows, and the k&n filter. car dosen't see much use as the baby is only a weekend driver around town. so i really don't care about the gas milage at all.
so what do you'll suggest 3.55's or 3.73's ?
main concern is top to mid range. the car has been clocked @ 240 kmph by the speed radar and by that time the fuel cut off went into effect.
any suggestions are welcome.
I'm extremely happy with my 3.73. I'm glad I didn't go with 3.55. I had 3.08 in my car before. The difference in the way it pulls is awesome and it didn't make my 1st gear as short as I thought it would. The rpms aren't too high when I'm on the highway either.
I was a little worried that after I put them in I was going to be unhappy with "too much gear" but I wasn't unhappy once they were installed. My gears and my exhaust are my 2 favorite mods, it's a toss up
Desert dude..........Man the higher the gear, the harder your car will have to work on your top end. if ur doing it go with 3.55 .....since ur a speed freak. if u were like me and just wanted to accelerate and then wuss out when u look at ur speedo, then go for much higher gears.
Adios
I just bought a bone stock 1989 5.0 lx hatch 5 speed...It still has the stock exhaust and air box...It even still has the rubber dust cover over the distributor cap...what a find....anyway...I have it in the garage and I'm making some mods on it....right now I'm just doing the ehaxust and intake...BBk cold air...GT40 intake manifold...BBk shorty headers...x pipe and flowmaster cat back with some chrome tips..under drive pulleys...just bought a set of chrome 17" 4 lug cobra R knock offs...Oh yeah and gears too...The only thing that was replaced on the car was the paint, water pump, exhaust (factory replacment) and its got a fairly new world class T-5....Lot's of plans for the engine/internals and fuel delivery when it starts to show signs of heavy wear...Anyways I've been pondering on which gears to go with too...I called a perfomance tech for Summit Racing Equipment and he told me with the mods that I'm doing for now that the 3.55's would be the better choice...after reading all these threads I'm left to wonder...
Can anyone else grant me their wisdom???
Oh yeah...I forgot mention the normal maintanence igntion etc...
Last edited by MrFiveLiter; 03-19-2004 at 12:18 PM.
From my experience i would suggest the 355s,with the stick and the 373s with the aod.thats because the car will maintain good driveability in all around conditions street/highway.unless of course you dont care about highway use or do minimal highway driving.
My highway drivability didn't really suffer since I put 3.73 in my car and it's a stick. I drive on the highway a lot too. If I had put 4.10 in my car I might gripe a bit but it still wouldn't be that bad. 3.73=all around good gear for Fox.
I have an AOD 95 GT and I just upgraded the 2.73's to 3.73's yesterday. What a difference! The thing really takes off now and will take a little to get used to on starts. Does anyone know how much that change affects my speedometer? I could not check it yet but it seems to be out about 20 mph or so. What needs to be changed to make it accurate again? Thanks in advance!
For those of you with manual trans. 3.55 if you are running on the freeways. If not go with the 3.73s. Automatics should be safe with 3.73s. I still have the 3.08s in my 92, since I had a Richmond ROD 6 speed. When I grenaded the 6-spd, I put in a Tremec TKO, so I'm going to put in the 3.55s with 31-spline axles, since I'm also in the process of building a 355cid with Major attitude, I'm going to prepare the drivetrain for battle the right way.
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"Mad" Max
1992 LX, thanks to Chicane Sport Tuning and some friends.. it is now wrapped with new graphics and ready to hit the streets AGAIN!!!!
i wanted a gear and rear disc brakes on my 88 vert so i went with a rear from a turbo coupe. is was 3.55's and man i'll tell ya. all i can say is swwwweeeeeeettttttt. i get great power on the freeway and its a blast on the trail rides our club does. but its whatever you really feel as to what you want. opinions are great but in the end you have to make that desision and stick with it. just my two cents.
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Originally posted by rwoznock I have an AOD 95 GT and I just upgraded the 2.73's to 3.73's yesterday. What a difference! The thing really takes off now and will take a little to get used to on starts. Does anyone know how much that change affects my speedometer? I could not check it yet but it seems to be out about 20 mph or so. What needs to be changed to make it accurate again? Thanks in advance!
You'll need to get a speedo gear. Steeda has them for about $15. Just tell them what year, gear and tranny you have and they'll send you the right one.
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opinions are great but in the end you have to make that desision and stick with it. just my two cents.
Exactly. I mean 4.10 could be managable on the highway for some people but it would drive others nuts. I love my 3.73 rear and have no problems with taking it back and forth between GA and NJ a few times a year.
I'm looking at the Ford Racing catalog trying to figure out the formula for speedo gears. I put 3.73's in my 95 GT 5-Speed.
When I plug in the calc for revolutions per mile based on my tire circumference, I come up needing a driven gear number of something like 23, which is not on the chart of available replacement driven gears (only goes up to 21).
Does this mean I have to change the drive gear in the trans, which I think is currently 8-tooth, to a 7-tooth? Has anybody been through this? How tough is it to change the drive gear?
I've heard that the 23 tooth gear is not a Ford part and it does not hold up very well. Has anyone out there had any experience with the 23 tooth driven gear????
i wanted a gear and rear disc brakes on my 88 vert so i went with a rear from a turbo coupe. is was 3.55's and man i'll tell ya. all i can say is swwwweeeeeeettttttt. i get great power on the freeway and its a blast on the trail rides our club does. but its whatever you really feel as to what you want. opinions are great but in the end you have to make that desision and stick with it. just my two cents.
