Went from 3.70 gears to 3.00...

[65shlbycln]

Well, i thought i had 3.31ish gears in my car. Turns out i had 3.70. After the 3.00 went in, I noticed 2 things...

1)The car has much less trouble keeping up with traffic. I could probably cruise at 90 no problem now. At speed, while keeping up with traffic (~60-65mph) i went from 3k to less than 2k RPMs.

2)The car is much slower during acceleration. I miss it. It used to pull very hard, and now, its nothing special at all. I definitely wont be racing anyone now. If only I could have had the acceleration and lower rpms at the same time...

i dont have the time now to go to an overdrive tranny, so the toploader stays.

Overall, i'm still satisfied, because my gas bill will be much lower, and I can actually drive in the left lane now and drive WITH traffic.

But yeah, gears really really make a difference as far as acceleration goes.

I'll end up being happy with the swap during the week when i go to work; its the cruising around on the weekends when i'll be sad i did the swap.

No more fast fastback

 

[Max Power]

There's the rub.

 

[ratio411]

A wide ratio toploader will help some.
It will get your final drive ratio in low gear back where it was.
I have talked to alot of old timers in the toploader business and they all say that the wide ratio is the only way to go on the street.

Wide ratio/3.00 in first gear- 8.34
Close ratio/3.70 in first gear- 8.58 (what you had)
Close ratio/3.00 in first gear- 6.96 (what you have)

 

[65fastback2+2]

heh, you think thats bad, try going from a 4.11 spool to a 3.00 open hahaha, talk about being upset at acceleration. course now my top speed is above 75 lol, but still, it could take anything to 70 before, and now, i cant even take a stock chevy 1500 to 60 =/ Im doing an AOD in a month or so, but im still keeping the 3.00's, should get SWEEEET gas mileage im hoping for 26+ by the time im done (headers, 4bbl, AOD, etc)

 

[BAD67FUN]

I must say... it sure is a sad time when we have to be concerned with gas mileage on our little hot rods. I'm just fortunate my stang doesn't need to be a daily driver. Dang gas prices!!

 

[blown65]

bleh, you should be glad you dont get my gas mileage. I dont think gears are going to help me out in that dept much.

 

[65fastback2+2]

bleh, you should be glad you dont get my gas mileage. I dont think gears are going to help me out in that dept much.

with the 4.11's i was getting 6mpg

 

[Great68]

I think i'm happier with getting rid of the 3.40's I used to have. Cruising around on the highway at 3000 rpm sucks. When I went to 3.40's I used to think "I don't drive on the highway much". Then I realized that highway driving is 75% of what I do haha.

I have my old 2.80's back in now, with a spare set of 3.00's.

Bottom end isn't so bad anymore, the head swap more than makes up for the lack of low end power (when I have it running haha)