Rear gear suggestions

1990lx5oh

New Member
Aug 10, 2007
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Weaverville, NC
I was wondering what ring and pinion gears some of you are running? I'm fixing to upgrade and don't know what ratio I want to go with. But my concern is it's my daily driver of about 60 miles a day highway. So I'm looking for a happy medium of quick accel and decent highway mileage. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
is the car a 5 speed or auto? I put 3.27s in my 87 aod car and really liked them. they woke the car up, made a nice chirp on the 1-2 shift (with a shift kit), an I didn't notice a change in my mpg. i got around 21 per gal when i drove like a normal person. now i see the 331's are standard in the 05 an up cars an they show up on ebay an craigs list cheap, I'd throw a set in my dd if i had 273s.
 
3.55s are a good all around gear. 3.27s will definately be better for the freeway but don't get anything bigger than 3.55 on that commute. For a 3.27 you can justify buying a whole sn95 rear end and doing a brake upgrade/5 lug swap because he GTs had 3.27 gears. Might be cheaper tha having a set installed.
On a side note, If you are looking for a set of 3.55s, I have a set of NIB FMS 3.55s in the garage. PM me if you are interested.
Kevin
 
I had a set of 3:27's put in last summer and I am very happy with them. People thought I was nuts not going with 3:55's, but I didn't want anything crazy. Also, I kind of did what sicarius428 said above. I was at the Ford nationals in carlisle and I saw a guy selling Ford 3:27 gears that he had taken out of an sn95. I picked them up for $75. The guy I bought them from had a bunch of 3:27's. He said that everybody comes in to his shop wanting to change to a lower rear end gear and they always leave the old gears with him. If you do this though, you just have to inspect the gears and make sure there is no wear on the teeth.

Here is an RPM calculator so you can see the difference between all of the gear ratios. 3:27's at 65MPH are doing about 1900 RPM's.

Ford Mustang: Mustang Tech: Calculators & Decoders: RPM Calculator
 
For what is worth, I drive 50 miles/day for my commute. Average around 23 mpg with mods in sig. I also make frequent road trips up to 400 miles. In total, about 17,000 miles/year. I love the 3.73's and actually, when at the drag strip, wish I had 3.90 or 4.10.