I was thinking about changing my 3:23's over to 3:42s in order to maybe make some extra horsepower or lose some time off my ET. Would it help with a mainly stock car, or am I beter off spending my money elsewhere?

 

gears wont make more hp, it will just seem that way, personally i would go 3.73 instead of 3.42 get off the line faster, and still cruise at a decent rpm

 

It'll only cost you ~300rpm to get 3.73's but it will give you more benefit at the track. I have had both, 3.42's and an LS1, and 3.73's and an LT1, and I like both, but I could feel more of a difference with 3.73's, it just picks up faster.

 

3.73s were one of my early mods, the car gets off the line so much better.

 

you wouldn't really notice a difference going from 3.23s to 3.42s, it will feel like a waste of time and money after you are done. I did the same thing and wasn't happy w/ the results.

 

If your not worried about your top speed at all.. go with the 3:73s I have 3:42s and they are great... I think 3:73s would be tricky to launch on the street..and bad in the snow (I drive year round). Not to mention I can still hit 165+ with no issues and still have RPM left. Just depends on if your a track junky or not. Since most of my races end up on the interstate..Ive considered downgrading back to 3:23s and focusing on getting the HP numbers up.

Basically.. You want to see a difference in ET and visit the track regularly..get the 3:73s... that doesnt fit your bill?? Spend the money elsewhere and leave the 3:23s in there.

 

***************************
I plan on replacing my stock 2.73 with a set of strange 3.42.................
After I had did some looking around, I found that thunder racing offered the best package, i have a 2.73 gear in my car now and this weekend, i'll be putting in a strange 3.42.
I went with the complete kit, I don't think you need the delux kit, unless your rear end is in bad shape.
the complete kit comes with the gear, pinion, t/a cover with fill &
drain plugs,bearings,shims,sleeves.all the fluids
and at the price of 399.00 I think its a good buy.

The team that did "one lap America" in a '95 TA, tested the gears 2.73 till 4.10 and they concluded that 3.42's gave the best overall performance.

I had talked to tech rep at thunder racing and they had told me that staying with the 2 series carrier is fine, your not giving anything on quality or strength from the gear.
you just don't have as many options to choose from with other
gear sizes.

I also don't plan on getting radical with my engine, I'm happy with what she puts out, just wnated a little more zip off the line.
hope all this helps...................................
zoso

 

For what it's worth, I went from 2.73 to 3.73, and the difference is minimal.


So IMO, there would be hardly any difference from 3.23 to 3.42

 

man, I don't mean to step on toes, but you saying going from 2.73s to 3.73s showed a minimal difference would lead me to believe you are smoking crack.

unless you changed tire size to 33.50 x 10.50 at the same time as the gear change, you had to have noticed a difference!!! It blows my mind to think you couldn't really tell a difference.

If you had someone else do the gear change, I would check to make sure they installed the right gear!!