I recently upgraded 3 months ago form the boat anchor 2.73's to 3.42's, and was fairly happy with the increase in acceleration and what feels like more low end torque (i know this is not the case though). But the other day I got to thinking that I probably should have gone bigger, such as 3.73's which I know a lot of people run, or 4.10's, which I know a select few are brave enough to run with the automatic. However, with my current urge to upgrade a second time, I feel and the 3.73's might be a waste of time (that is that going from the 3.42 to a 3.73 is such a small jump), i am really considering 4.10's.

How streetable are we really taking here with 4.10's? Or on another note, should I just leave well enough alone and focus my efforts on something else like a stall?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Robert

 

without a doubt invest in a stall before regearing the car...4.10s will pick u up a little ET, but you will take away some streetability and a decent stall will allow the car to remain highway-friendly and give you MUCH more of a gain than the gears....

IMO, 3.42 is the best ratio for a street driven automatic, its enough gear not to be a dog out of the hole and still low enough to cruise comfortably.

i DEFINITELY recommend you go with a stall converter first. a good 3000 or so stall will give you good streetability and a VERY noticeable increase in performance. personally i dropped over half a second going from a stock converter to a 3400 stall w/ drag radials (you WILL need these with a high stall, traction on street tires will be all but nonexistent).

there are guys going very fast on 3.42s, so spend your money where it counts first. good luck.

 

Spend the money on a stall not gears. The stall will give you much better results than another gear change.

 

I agree spend the money on the stall converter.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself!

YES, I was "brave enough" to stuff 4.10's into my little 10-bolt behind an automatic tranny, but having also had 3.73's previously, and after driving a friends '96 T/A, A4, 3.42's, I agree that 3.42's are a great "all around" street gear.

Believe it or not, even with 4.10's in my car now, I need a stall converter! Surprisingly, even with street tires, my car hooks up pretty hard, and it actually bogs the engine off the line until the RPM's get up to ~3000 or so when the LS1 finally starts making some torque.....

.....then it's time to hang on!!!

Keep your 3.42's, keep your highway mileage, and get a ~3000 stall converter. That'll be a helluva street combo.

 

I had 3.42's in my A4 and would wup up on my LS1 buddy with M6/3.42's.
When the rear went, I replaced with 3.23's and now he beats me by 1 car through second gear.

I used 3.73's for one day - Darn Richmonds sounded like a jet engine - but they were too much.

The 3.23's are stock for my car and work well, but my 315's really liked the 3.42's best. Another vote for 3.42's.

 

I think 373's are the optimum but since you have done gears already I would get other items first. My TC made a huge difference and probably took 1/2 second off my 1/4 mi times. (not 100% sure since the trans was rebuilt at the same time) Gears only gave me 3 tenths going from 323's to 373's. The TC really woke the whole car up. I would also highly recommend a PTS Xtreme 9X11 TC and about 3k stall for an LT1. A bit higher for LS1's. Here is a link:

http://www.ptsxtreme.com/

You can fill out a spec sheet and they can recommend and optimum stall and config and then they will custom build it for you. The irregardless warranty is awesome too. You can't go wrong with that.

 

And to answer the question: why strip it out?

'cause running light sure feels good.

not to mention low cost and losing 700#'s does wonders for your ET.