I have been thinking of doing a gear swap for a long time and now that my diff is leaking fluid (134,000 mi) I think I'll use that as an excuse to go ahead and do it. How much $$ should I expect to pay for labor. Is it essential to get a new carrier?? Thx for the help!!

 

3.73's here and loving them. Although, I do have 315 nitto drag radials that hook well. Traction will become a problem, so think about that. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably go with 3.42's and a stall. I bog a little out of the hole since my tires hook so well. Although, on the streets, I still haven't been beat out of the hole.

 

I have 3.42's and with my 93 which had a lower geared transmission I use to get ~23 mpg with a mix of town and Fwy driving. My clutch and tranny went out so I just changed to a later model which has higher gearing (like yours). I think I will change to 3.73's now because I want to get back the low end responce I had with my old combo. I believe that 3.73's with the 94+ M6 gearing is the best of both worlds.
As a seperate note, the lower gearing of the 93's may be why people always felt the 93's were quicker. At least off the line they had a better SOTP feel but at the end of the 1/4 mile or by 4th gear all was equal.

 

3.73s here from 2.73s. Awesome difference. Nice being able to be at a complete stop, turn the wheel all the way over and stomp on the gas and have the whole rear of the car swing around. Makes for a showy u-turn . My highway mileage is around 20mpg, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. Depends on how fast I'm going. Enjoy going 90mph at only 2000rpm cause with 3.73s you'll never do that again! hehe I go about 70-80mph at 3krpm

 

ive had both and i really like my 3.73's better. but 3.42's are good too. either way, youll love it.

 

Still lol whats the difference in ET? I dont really want to get worse gas mileage and a harder hook up if theres no difference between 3.42's and 3.73s in an auto?

 

Their are a lot of factors. Such as if you can hook or not. If I had the 3.42's I'd bog terrible off the line without a stall. So, stock stall my 3.73's are much better cuz I can hook fine.

Also w/ 3.73's, if you plan on doing serious mods later on then you'll cross the traps after shifting out of 3rd, which you don't want. With the 3.42's you will be able to cross the traps in 3rd at high rpms, which is optimal.

All depends on how much you plan on modding your car. Either way, coming from 2.73's you be VERY happy.

 

I am sorry but what do you mean bye bogging? I am kinda confused about that. I figured you woudl be able to launch better with 3.42's...i really appreciate the info you presented though!

 

I never thought about making this into a poll... DOH! My bad! However this has helped alot! I think I'm leaning toward 3.42's. My next question..... with a stock rear end and tranny and hopefully a shift kit would a tranny cooler be in order? Obviously I'd like to get the most out of my car. How benificial would one be?

Thanks again for your help!

Mike

 

I am running weld 17x11 wheels with 315 nitto drag radials. They are roughly 12" wide and a very soft compound. With them and 3.73's when it is above 70 degrees out, when I launch without a brake stall my car will not spin the tires, just hook and rocket off. If I brake stall I can get them to roll over maybe once before they hook. It's not because I don't have the power cuz I'm in the low 13's, it's because of the wide drag radials. With that said, if I had 3.42's, I would not be able to launch as hard as I can with the 3.73's, and my car would most likely bog. Meaning, it doesn't immediately fly up into the powerband because the tires are spinning. Now, even though I bog some with 3.73's I can still pull most cars out of the hole on the streets cuz I'm not spinning at all. If I had an aftermarket high stall converter, then I wouldn't have the bogging problem at all. Honestly, my best two mods I ever did was buying my weld wheels w/ the drag radials and getting the gears. Hope that helps.

 

You'll end up going from the 2.73 to the 3.42 and you'll say this is bad a$$. Later on you'll get use to it and want more and move up to the 3.73 and so on. Never ending story. Just like our cars. Damn, this car is braking me.

 

How would a vigilante 2800 stall and 3.73's go??? What about with street tires?

 

Can you say NO TRACTION.

When I first put the 3.73's in I was running 275 street tires. They only had about 3/32nd tread on them, but I couldn't hook at all. That's with a stock converter. Also, once I hit about 4500rpms in first I spun until it shifted and then some more in 2nd. Now with 315 drag radials they hook great. Just get some nitto's, you'll love em'.

 

I went from 2.73s to 3.42s and about the same time I did a dual valve spring/1.6 roller rocker conversion.

My gas mileage went up from about 16.5 mpg to 19 mpg. I now get about 280 miles/tank city.

 

I know I really won't compare to the rest of you guys, my truck is like pushing an outhouse down the road, but with all my problems fixed and my toe to the floor I just averaged 15.4 mpg. I still have a lot of debugging and tuning, but figured I'd chime in.

it will let loose in first and burn second real good. I have 3.73s and a zexel torsen like the rest of you all. I'm running 245 50 16 bridgestone potenza RE910s. Like them alot, but may be going to a bigger tire soon.

If you live close to North Carolina triad/ greensboro area, i can help you set up the new gears.