For those of you that went from a 2.73 to a 3.42 or bigger is a gear well worth the money. As in 1/4 et's and all around with a good set of tires that is , becasue I am thinking about doing a gear in my car and was wanting to get some feedback

 

I had 3.73's in my car last summer (for about ~2 months or so). They were good and bad.

GOOD:
- lots of neck-snapping acceleration off the line
- helped 60' time by about ~.1 to .2 seconds (even while spinning on street tires)
- didn't kill gas mileage like I thought they would.........even on hwy.

BAD:
- the gears were literally "bad"..... unfortunately, I got a set that whined really bad, and I couldn't take it any more..... had to put back the originals
- traction............it suffered so much, that at the track, while the 60' time was a little quicker on a couple runs, I ran pretty much the exact same E/T as listed in my sig, and actually 1 mph slower?! I know that with better tires (DR's or E/T Streets) the car would have pulled low 13's at least
- the shift points weren't where I thought they should be..... when I hit the gas from various speeds, the transmission would only downshift 1 gear, or the converter would only come out of lock-up sometimes at best, so for day-to-day driving around, I prefer my 2.73's (especially on the highway)

IMO, 3.42's are probably the "perfect" gear for an automatic. They will offer you great acceleration compared to 2.73's, but are not quite as extreme as 3.73's, and hopefully a little better on the hwy? I'm potentially putting 4.10's into my car this year though (yeah, I'm nucking futs!) so I'll let people know how that goes.........IF it even does!!!

 

i say leave the stock gears in and get a convertor

that will keep you in your ideal rpm range all the time

 

I agree get a torque converter first , then down the road you can change the gears

Gearchange is only go for 1 to 1 1/2 tenths

converter is good for 3 to 5 tenth is the 1/4

 

and you can run on the highway just like you had before

 

Isnt running a high stall with 2.73's not recommended?? Since those gears are so tall???? But yea..idk why, but i actually like my 2.73's, and with my sh!itty Avid T4 yokohama's..i cant get any traction even with the 2.73's...everyone told me that it doesent matter what tires you have..with 2.73's your rarely ever gonna have traction issues. Well i dont know if i have a factory fluke (highly doubt it), or thats just a rumor..if i stomp my car doin like 20, i break traction easily...and keep spinnin till i back off, or the car shifts into 2nd. But yea..overall i like the 2.73's..especially on the highway,nothing like rippin out 95 mph in 2nd gear