First gear pulls hard as hell, and the car pulls very hard downshifting into second from 75 or 80.

And that's about it. Punching it from 45ish to 70ish throws me into the bottom of second gear where I have absolutely no power and it feels like I'm pulling a freaking boat!

Should I be getting 1st punching it from 40? Because I'm not. Maybe theres a problem somewhere -- other than the fact that second gear is good until like 90+.

Questions:

a) Is there a downshift prob?
b) Should I install 3.73s, or should I bolt on a converter?

The car does pretty well in the 1/4, but punching it from a roll in most normal driving situations leaves me less than happy.

 

Well, the biggest problem you suffer from is the stock TC, in my opinion. Gears will help you some, but you are still going to have "dead spots." With a TC, the dead spots are history.

 

To be 100%, totally honest, there's a part of me that preferred the 2.73's to the 3.73's I've got now. Off the line? 3.73's all the way! However, I've found that there seem to be way more "dead spots" than with the 2.73's. Unless I'm slightly under ~45 mph, the car will not downshift into 1st, so then it just starts pulling 2nd, which it pulls to about ~75 mph, then 3rd gear takes it from ~75 to ~110 mph. The problem is, even out on the highway, when doing 70/80 mph, when you punch it, it usually won't hit 2nd, 'cause it would run out of gear too quick, so it only hits 3rd gear, and then it takes a long time to pull upto whatever speed above ~80 you were looking for. With 2.73's however, when you punched it at ~75, it would drop to 2nd gear, and pull like a son-of-a-b!tch in 2nd all the way upto ~100 mph!

In short, if you do mostly city driving, you'd probably be happy with something like 3.42's or 3.73's, but if you do more highway, keep the 2.73's (and maybe get a stall converter as someone suggested).

That's my $.02.

EDIT: I don't even want to admit this either, but I ran my car at the track last Friday night, and it only shaved .003 seconds off my ET, but I also lost 1 mph?! I think now what I need to do is play around with the shift points, and work on traction, because my 60' time did improve significantly on a couple runs.

 

Maybe 3.23s would be the ideal gear, then?

 

I've got 3.42s with a big azz converter (st3800). It doesn't matter when, how, or what speed I'm at, when I floor it the absolute minimum RPM that I see is 4200 and it pulls like a ****. If I'm at a point where it shifts down fine. If I'm not, fine too because then the converter takes over and does it's thing. The car almost scares me sometimes when I hit it to pass on a 2 lane

 

I went from 2.73 to 3.73 and it was the best mod I ever did. Its a completely different beast now. Sure it doesn't kick down like it used to, but it still pulls hard enough to keep me happy.
I gained .5 and 4 mph with the addition of the 3.73s and hooker shorty headers ( most people will tell you they are worth nothing). I think I got .3 or so from the gears and the rest from the headers. This was all on street tires.
So I'd say they were worthwhile. But, you sound like you would be happier with a converter.

 

i dig the the 2.73's. cruising around town doin' 30-35 and you are right in the sweet-spot. also on the highway, 65-70 is just right for the 2.73's.
i'd say get a converter and keep the gears.

good luck

 

Identical mods on the car, a cutout and lid/filter.

With 2.73s: 13.24@106.48, 2.03 60'
With 3.73s: 12.96@108.36, 2.03 60'

Similar weather conditions at the same track, two weeks apart.

.3 and 2mph just from gears. Proof is in the pudding. And yes, big SOTP difference.

BUT, I do agree with the downshifting thing. The car from a 70-80mph roll sucks as it goes into 3rd gear at like 2500 RPMs and that doesn't help until I start getting into the power band, and ultimately, the boost band.

But from a dig or 40mph roll, no comparison