pyro719

Pace setter long tubes with true duals or 373 gears?

ttop1986

Since you have 2.73's right now I'd have to say the gears. My long tubes made a nice improvement in the upper rpms though.

Daniel6718

at the track or on the street?

shoebox

Gears don't necessarily make you faster. It can feel faster (quicker) because of the increased torque multiplication, but unless your engine can make use of it, there will little change in how fast it goes.
OTOH, headers will gain you HP.

Denny McLain

Wow...that really is a tuffy. If it was a six speed going from 3.42 to 3.73 it would be a slam dunk for headers. Just not an auto person, but 2.73's to 3'73's is one hell of a jump.

Dunno! Always been a real fan of headers/exhaust but no experience with that much of a jump in gearing.

91RSLT1

Go with 3.73, ET street drag radials 255/50/16, and then a GOOD 2800-3200 stall. Then down the road headers. Then again it depends on your goals, use, gasmilage, etc.Either way it will make the car more interesting, at least for awhile, then more mods. Isn't it fun!

Z28LT1_Just_Nasty

Go for headers, the sound alone is worth it. But again it depends on your goals. My first mod ever was 3.73's and I loved them.

pyro719

I can do one or the other right now. I will be doing both eventually but wanted to know which one would make car faster to 100 mph. This is a street car mainly. I have been reading that going from 273's to 373's could take a half a second off in the 1/4?

The Engineer

And then, a quality stall converter (3200) will give you another half second off your 1/4 mile ET. But with the 3.73s and stall, you'll need some traction to realize the total benefit.

WD

pyro719

So gears would make the car faster than headers?

94_firechicken

For an automatic, definately. I had a friend with an LS1 with crappy gears. He got 3.73's with a tune and he was cutting a better 60 foot, and practically took give or take 2 seconds off of his time. If I where you, after the gears I'd get a stall and some good tires. Imo, you won't notice AS much of a change in your 1/4 time with headers than gears and a stall. If you want some noise and a little weight reduction take out the muffler. I did it with my car and it sounds really deep and only screams when you get on it. The factory CAT siphons the noise of how loud it would be if it was just a straight pipe.

CheshireCat

I'd go with the headers, but I'll never go to the track... I already lose traction if I floor it from a stop. I want more power for passing on the highway and I don't want to be spinning my tires...

I think Shoebox is on the money here... Gears by themselves will make the car more responsive due to the torque multiplication. This is true throughout the rpm range, but is most noticable from low RPM's. On stock cam LT1 cars, gears shouldn't really help ET very much. Of course if you're running a cam that moves the power band way up, then gears are a must...

Almost everyone who goes to the strip with a 4L60E will want to get both gears and a stall. Of course, if you don't spend your time at the drag strip, or don't race from a stop, or don't run some serious drag tires, then the stall isn't as big of a priority.

I EAT T/A

I like my 3.73s, I'd go with the gears if I was still had a stock motor.

LSWHO

My brother and I both have STOCK Lt1s.

His is 3.23
Mine is 2.73

His car will pull HARD away from me on a roll race.
He will pull a few cars from a dig.
His trap is the same and he runs 3 tenths faster.

3.73s would be an even bigger jump. WAY bigger than headers will give.

jaguar5822

On a stock car gears make their most significant change to help your quarter mile times in first gear, assuming you can grab traction. If your tires are already spinning in first, then gears aren't really going to help that much. Also, think about highway gas mileage, that is a large jump, and pretty costly to go from 2.73's to a 3.73 gear. There is a mph calculator around here somewhere that tells you your rpms at any given speed. Personally for a daily driver street car that sees little track use, I think 3.73's are overkill, 3.42 is probably a better overall performance gear. It also depends on what mph you like to drive in. If you race in a quarter mile, you'll want different gears than if you race primarily on the highway.