Can an old timer put 2 cents in, back in '68 bought a new dodge r/t charger. It came with 3.23s. wheel spin was off the charts. ran 14.20s all day long. 1st mod insalled 4.30s droped to 13.10s wheel spin droped off, all on stock tires. Gears are where its at baby. My buddy ran a Motion Camaro 454, he put 4.86s in it and no one could beat him light to light with 7 in. cheaters. I aint bs'n

 

The original post discussed gears in the body of the post, not in the title. Perhaps, the others were responding to that. The original post also said something close to I looking for one more mod with a "lot of pop." Gears certainly qualify.

 

WOW!!! Another guy that had gears and liked them....and they improved traction...wow. Hmmmmm now should his opinion count or should we go with those who knock the mod and never had them???

You're on a forum where people think gears hurt traction. I even had one guy tell me I was dead wrong and that traction cant be improved by giving the car a mechanical advantage. The fact that tires spin slower in a particular gear when you re-gear makes no difference to them nor does the fact that every tuner runs the maximum gearing that will still allow their targeted trap speed with a H/C car. When they get wheel spin with 4.10's they think you correct it by putting in 3.42's.

Nope. 1st: tire spin wouldnt have been a major problem if your first mod was gears and then you stopped adding engine power when you couldnt hook anymore. Thats why there are 600rwhp S/C cars running high 11's and geared head and cam cars run in the tens.

As I said before and this gentleman did too, I kept putting in higher and higher gears until the tire rotation speed dropped enough that the car hooked. At 5.xx gears I still couldnt hook but at 6.13's it hooks and the front wheels come off the ground. NO OTHER CHANGES. You have it backwards; if with gears, you dont have traction, stop increasing engine power which, invariably, is only in the top of the rpm band. Gear for the whole powerband.

Think about it, if you are spinning in 1st gear and you have 4.10's then if you had 3.42's you will be spinning even faster at the top of that gear. An extreme example: spin your tires in second gear and see how long it takes to hook....forver to never. 4.10's in first is like a gear 20% shorter than first gear.

The other argument is that the car isnt a drag car as if going from light to light is any different.

The original poster made a statement about gears and stated that headers or a cam are better than a gear set and that downshifting was as good and that is not true. We were trying to get him to see that it would be a better mod to re-gear and that headers arent even close to that performance improvement.

Keep in mind people that the profit margin on a 1500 dollar gear change isnt so great.

 

Got it. I didn't read the whold thread, my fault, thanks.

Dave

 

I like going fast and spinning tires ... so Ill talk either one.

 

Huh??? That makes no sense to me at all. Someday we will have to talk.

 

1st gear=2.97:1
4th gear 1:1
6th gear .56:1

with 3.42's:
final drive ratio's are
10.15:1
3.42:1
1.92:1

with 4.10's
1st is 12.177:1

So....frst gear with 4.10's slows down the rate of rotation.

If you did a burn-out with 2nd or 3rd gear you NEVER regain traction. Eventually if you keep going steeper and steeper...the car eventually has so much slower spinning wheels it hooks. Not so noticable from 3.42's to 4.10s but it is a step n the right direction. So doing a burnout with 4.10's will still break loose but you will re-gain traction faster and is easier to modulate the gas pedal to regain the traction. My Dart has 700rwhp and over 800tq and it hooks with 6.13's where it didnt with 5.xx gears. I think the car moves about 14 feet in first gear at redline.

 

SpinMonster, you obviously understand the technical aspects a lot better then me. But I can unequivocally say that I launched much better with the 4.10's than the Z51 stock 3.42's. Didn't understand why but wasn't about to complain.

This thread did start with a comment about gears, despite the title.

I will say again that the gears were my best mod. My c5's hit their power band much lower than the c6 which hits about 4,000. 4,000 is much too high for normal driving. The gears solved this issue.

If my Z06 has a high power band then I will be getting gears very quickly.

Hope this helps.

 

They have eyes but can not see. Gears are a mod and a mod that is by far the most effective. when my Z gets here it will get 4.10s 1st then well talk cams and then headers. IMO.

 

Spin, Did you have enought rpms to make a 1/4 mi. with the 6.13s? and what was your trap speed?

 

Another way to think about gaining traction lets say you are driving in icy conditions at medium speed. It is better to be in a low gear at higher engine rpm for the same speed then in a high gear at low engine rpm. This is equivilent to the lower ratio rear differential advantage at launch at the track.

 

10,300rpm @141 N/A

I still have the car. My uncle was the one who tracked it. We attemped to make a forced induction car of it but never finished after i 'acquired' the car.

Its a solid roller motor obviously and it isnt street legal. Runs 13.5:1 on 107 octane. Idles at 3200rpm. Rather than reduce the gearing we were going to use bigger diameter tires. I have a few pictures to show why that in itself was an undertaking if anyone wants to host them. This is starting to look like a hijacked thread so I would like permission of the original poster before doing that.