[1998GT]

Now i'm starting to think that we need to resticky milw96cobra's post about gears. A lot of people here are still asking the same questions that are answered in that post. I have 4.10 gears and i'm completely satisfied and i am soo glad that i did not go with 3.73 gears. I have seen better gas mileage around town and had a huge gain in performance. A lot of people are saying that oh with 4.10 gears you will be shifting a 5 speed like crazy. I do not think that is true one bit, with my lower gears i can start off in 2nd now if i wanted to. 1st gear is just to get you rollin, when ever i come to a half i hardly ever down shift to first unless i come to a complete dead on stop but anything else i can stay in 2nd gear and not lug the engine or do any damage to the clutch at all. When i'm driving around town im' in 5th gear, instead of having to be gonig at about 70 mph to be in 5th, i can be cruising at 45-50 mph and be in 5th. It is quite nice.


Don't fear the gear

Gears are the best bang for the buck by car but thats only if you choose the rite gear ratio. You will see bigger performance gains with 4.10 gears, i know. With 4.10 gears i have not been able to floor it in 1st or 2nd gear. I have stock suspension and all i can do is just smoke the tires.

Everyone, please dont fear the gear and by the higher gear. There are many people on here that have gone with 3.73 gears, and ended up swapping them out for 4.10 gears.

Thanks and i just wanted to clear some of this stuff up..




Milw96cobra's Post
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Everything you need to know about Gears!
Mods : Sticky this if you want....

Why am I writing this? I see alot of people asking about what gears they should get, and in others replies I constantly see false information being passed on. I know first hand what 4.30's feel like in a Modded 96 Cobra... 4.10's feel like in a Modded 2000 GT, and 3.73's feel like in a 95 GT.

First off... DONT FEAR THE GEAR

There are many misconceptions when it comes to choosing the right gears. Now you might be saying to yourself, 4.30s!? That's WAY too much. But in all reality, they work perfect. In a 1/4 mile race, you want to be crossing the finish line at your peak Horsepower RPM in 4th gear.

For our modular Cobra's (pre 2003), with that beloved 6800rpm redline, 4.30's puts you at that peak HP RPM when you cross the line in 4th.
For our modular GT's with a slightly less rpm range... 4.10's would suit best.

For those of you with the pushrod 5.0's, 3.73's work great, since you make all your power in the midrange, as opposed to us modular guys making our power up top. Although, I've heard several people say they should have gone 3.90's or even 4.10's as well.

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What does such a short gear ratio feel like?

It feels like the car lost 1000lbs. Yes, that's right. It just pulls like no other. You hardly have to push the pedal to get up to speed... and that's even keeping it under 3200 rpms. I had a Viper try to pass me in the passing lane the other day on my way out to my girlfriend's house in the country... I dropped her to 2nd at about 45.... let her rip... That Viper didn't get passed my door. Maybe he wasn't flooring it, but the look on his face sure told a tale.

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Ahhh, another concern that has probably crossed your mind is, but what about my gas mileage?!

I drive probably about 40% city 45% highway and 5% 'givin it some'

With my 3.27's, I would consistently get 19 miles per gallon.

I've gone through 2 tanks on my 4.30's now.... each with probably 35% city 50% highway 15% lettin her rip.... 22 and 23 miles per gallon.

Yes you heard me right.... my gas mileage IMPROVED.

And YES I am taking 5% off my mileage total, due to my speedometer being slightly off (even with the 23 tooth speedo gear)

As long as we modular guys keep the rpm's under 3250rpm's, where the intake runners switch over to the 'performance' square runners.... we are in 'economy' mode.

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Thanks

~Luke

 

[ChronSmoke]

I totaly agree with you Luke.4.10's=Modular 4.6L
In the future though look into stickyer tires,
upper and lower control arm,and subframe connectors.
They will stop you from spinning your two back tires into the ground and over all better your launch of course.
Keep praticing your launches pratice makes perfect even
with stock suspention.Are you still running your white
23 tooth speedometer gear or did you get Speedcal?
If you are still useing your speedometer gear how much
are you off?

 

[1998GT]

Yeah i have some traction problems.... :\ But yeah i have the 23 tooth speedo and i'm off about 4% so at like 100 mph it reads at 104 which isn't that bad. I plan on getting a speedcal though. IN the future i plan on putting on some sub frames, lower control arms, and put coil overs all around.

~Luke

 

[ChronSmoke]

GEARS

Luke that's good I though you would be off by more than
4%.I would get Speed Cal first thing to save your mileage.
Since you only have 36,000 miles witch is very rare to find
a 98 GT with that low of miles.It will only save thousands of
extra miles for just one hundred bones.If you trade it or sell
it one day it will be worth most dew to the lower miles.For
going that high in the gear ratio I thought you would be off
by 6%.That suspension is what will make your traction issues
go away.I know it's eazy to say but,expensive to do.Luke
what are your favorite coil overs and upper and rear control
arms?

 

[1998GT]

I'm not sure, i know that you can get them off of ebay for about 180 for the rear and 160 for the front but i also know that Maximum Motorsports sells them. What do you think would be better, front coil overs and adj. rear control arms? Or coil overs all around? I want to be able to lower and raise my car as i please.

~LUke

 

[kyle_c_21]

sorry, a little off topic, but the speed cal box's, do they have to stay on the car, or can you calibrate the speedometer then take it off? me and a friend were gonna split the cost, but were worried that it has to stay on the car. thanks.

 

[ChronSmoke]

Luke, I think that front coil overs and adj. rear control
arms would be best out of the two.I would do it step
by step though do coil overs all the way around and
than do adj. upper and lower control arms.I would do
it that way.M&M is a great place to buy them at.Doing
coil overs I would consider Eibach spring and M&M or
Steeda adj. upper and lower control arms.What brands
do you personaly like Luke?

 

[Quick4.6]

if you're going for hook, just do the upper and lower control arms. coil overs are a great way to adjust ride height, and are proven in both road race and drag race apps, but they're obviously more costly then just getting a set of springs.

 

[Fast1]

I didnt know Eibach made coilover springs for the sn95???Where did u find this at?

 

[Quick4.6]

I didnt know Eibach made coilover springs for the sn95???Where did u find this at?

to the best of my knowledge eibach doesn't make coilovers... at least i've never seen them on their website.

if i were going to do coilovers i'd do MM or Griggs.

or a UPR or D&D setup for drag racing.

 

[Mana4Real]

I looked through the eibach catalog at work. No coil over is made by them. I don't see how our cars could have a coil over anyways, the spring doesn't go over the strut. They are separate.

 

[1998GT]

Are these any good??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2408490854&category=33582


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2408406807&category=33582



Rear and front coil overs.

Whatcha think??


~Luke

 

[ChronSmoke]

COIL OVERS

Great Luke those look awesome to me.I as specialy
like the red and blue powdercoating it will protect
the coil overs from rusting or tarnishing.These will
not only low the stang to a perfect height but,improve
your handling by far.

 

[Quick4.6]

remember that you're going to actually need the shocks and struts too.

personally i'd go MM before I went Granatelli. you're also going to want to know about perch adjustability. some perches are a pita to adjust. thats where buying cheap screws you.

 

[Fastercarr]

I have 4.10's in my 91 GT and wouldn't ask for anything else. Just a personal opinion.

 

[302THEBOSS]

I completely agree. In fact, if I had a Stang and first gear wasnt so low already, I'd go with 4.30s or 4.56s and not think twice. The reason you dont need to be afraid of alot of gear is that you can simply reverse the effect by increasing tire height, which will also INCREASE TRACTION. Run alot of gear with tall tires and your car will hook and go.

Todays group of "hot rodders" are sissys, IMHO. Back in the 70s the small block guys ran anywhere from 4.56s, to 4.88s, to 5.13s! They had those tachs pinned at 8 or 9 grand, but you get my point. And they only had 4 speeds! 4th gear was only direct drive my friends.

How do you think those Evos and STis run good times with no torque? If you think its because of their weight, your sadly mistaken. Theyre not THAT light. They have like a 3:1 first gear with 4.88s. Even my moms Chevy Lumina could haul ass if it had a 14.5:1 first gear!

 

[BlueStreak03]

The downside to running a tall tire is that you can't lower the car very much the newer stangs desperately need. Also, we can't run the incredibly steep gears that guys ran back in the earlier years of hot rodding without dumping tons of money into the bottom end of the motor and valvetrain. 8-9 grand on a stock 2V mod motor is begging for a tow truck ride home.

 

[CobraBoy]

i know this thread is really old but im going to add to it anyways seeing as how much particular decision to go with 4.30's came about.

when i was looking into gears i came on here and asked about it. it was my first few threads/posts on the site. i asked what kind of gears should i get and all this stuff. MOST everybody told me that 4.10's and up will see bad gas mileage blah blah all this other stuff... i was thinking 3.73 or 3.90 at this point. until one guy came on and told me about his cobra and he did 4.30's and pointed out all the experiences he had with them. so i was decided on the 4.30's. went with the 4.30's... i get AMAZING gas mileage around town and the freeway mileage is about the same. it honestly felt like i had just bolted on 80 ft lbs of torque. had i known better i would have done 4.56's

 

[rj8806]

i know this thread is really old but im going to add to it anyways seeing as how much particular decision to go with 4.30's came about.

when i was looking into gears i came on here and asked about it. it was my first few threads/posts on the site. i asked what kind of gears should i get and all this stuff. MOST everybody told me that 4.10's and up will see bad gas mileage blah blah all this other stuff... i was thinking 3.73 or 3.90 at this point. until one guy came on and told me about his cobra and he did 4.30's and pointed out all the experiences he had with them. so i was decided on the 4.30's. went with the 4.30's... i get AMAZING gas mileage around town and the freeway mileage is about the same. it honestly felt like i had just bolted on 80 ft lbs of torque. had i known better i would have done 4.56's

The gas mileage issue is just myth. The easier you stay "in the power curve" of your cam the better mileage you get. The only disadvantage with low gears like that is on a T45, 3650 or T5, the 1st gear is 3.37. That equates to a useless 1st gear. It is over so fast, that it is rendered a granny gear.


Richard

 

[CobraBoy]

yes, but 1st gear just yanks so hard.... its like.... amazing:eyepoppin

i shift at about 32 mph when i max out first gear. and yes it goes buy quick... but thats usually where i gain a lot of my distance on people when they race me. i mean cause i rip through the gear in like a second