interesting article you linked us too. but i have a quick question. what did it feel like when the tranny mount broke in the 3.4L? I'm pretty sure i broke mine last week but I'm not sure and i can't get under it to look since i don't have ramps or anything of that matter. tranny and shifter moves up very far and will bounce if more gas is applied.

I also have 3.42's in my 3.4 and i love 'em. but 1st gear is pretty short.

 

Best way to see if you broke the tranny mount(other then going under the car) Put the car in 1st gear, get on the gas hard, let off the gas(don;t toucht the clutch) do that, as you do that if you feel the tranny jump up and down.like more then maybe a 1/4-1/2 its likely broke. I have had partail broken ones only move 1/2 in, and some move like 4 in.

 

Thats awesome... amazing how the motor is still going strong. I mean I percieved no problems with it ever(then some loose rockers around 115k I had to tighten) and that motor had some hard runs on it. Goes to show what keeping up on maintenance will do.

that is what I was worried about with 3.73s, because the 1st gear on 5-speeds is a pretty high numerical number. Already kind of quick as 3.23, even faster as a 3.42 car. I was worried it would be useless with 3.73s...


As for litte G, I know he is revving his motor out to liek 6400 RPMs now. He is still 100% stock motor, never pulled the valve covers, I have been seeing what he has pulled witht he stock valvetrain, before running into valve float. I wanted to see what kind of room I had to play withthe stock valve train. Since I have been upping the rev limiter a little bit. Thing is though on a stock motor, peak hp is ~5800-5900 rpms, though I feel the stock limiter robs a little power form you, I am not sure if going past 6100 is really worth it on stock valvetrain.

Maybe it works out for him since he is on 4.10s and 5-speed. He jsut does some wierd things, he also launches form above 4500 rpms off the line.

And Joe as for his weight, I *think* not sure, that his race weight is ~2800-2900 lbs. (scary considering, my car is ~3270 w/o driver, in drag form, and the old 3.4L which is as much of astripper car as you can get my best wieght from it was 3120) Only real reduction jack/spare, low fuel.


I know some have looked into the gearing before 12secv6 used to be a strong supporter of 3.23s being the gear, I think he jumped down from 3.42s to 3.23s, do to a gain in times. Though he does have an auto, and was running juice.

Funny thing is though, he jumped on the little G wagon of thinking and he threw in a higher stall (4200? I think? ) and lightened 4.10s. He has had a hiatus(sp?) in running his car recently. Some good stuff to think about...



BTW Joe if it was the mount I had last put in the 3.4L it was a 1Le, so a little stronger then stock, I ordered it Jan 31, 2002, so it had some miles on it.(Just noticed that because its still in my "account" with gmpartsdirect, and I am waiting for a clutch slave right now)

You might also get a kick to know, I just ordered a new clutch/hydraulics for my 3.8L and it only has 52k on it, technically the 3rd clutch in this car. The first clutch was at 7k miles do to hydraulic failure.

 

Eric, you brought up a good point with a higher stall for an automatic. That will actually do more than gears! Along with the higher stall, a little extra gear can help.

If you remember, the torque arm you put in was a 3rd gen with a reverse mount. When I changed the arm to the proper 4th generation, I had to replace the bushing/mount as well. The rear trans mount is still good, but I started bending the torque arm mount from a few high rpm launches with slicks. I've since put it back to regular radials and 3.42s, the car is a nice driver, but really could use amore highway friendly gear for my long hauls. It's great around town, mostly leaving red lights from 2nd gear. I did finally fix the broken EGR mount. An interesting side effect was a quieter exhaust. I'm not talking about the noise from the leak, evidently the leak was also causing fuel mixture issues. Now that everything is right, the exhaust is pretty quiet out the tailpipes. Maybe I've gotten used to my bolt on T/A with a 4" mufflex. I think I'm going to swap that Z28 catback for a spare borla I have sitting in the garage. I still haven't ordered a black box to correct the speedo yet, I've been meaning to do that.

Clutch issues? I couldn't have guessed. I still have that broken T-5 in storage should you need a core. lol! Dang though...... you shouldn't be going through clutches like that.

 

haha... about that core... I might need it sometime, once I get a clutch that doesn't slip in the car. Tehn I think I am going to start breaking crap again

 

He has absolutely nothing done to the motor itself. He takes the air filter out when he runs and he has catback and suspension. Then tuning and about 300lbs of weight reduction. (race weight its like 3080 last he told me) Little G has the rev limiter set to 6400 but he told me he shifts right around 6000 or 6100. I think the extra room is so he can power shift without hitting the limiter. Joe I see where you are coming from with this gear debate and I know you know your ****. I always see your posts on f-body.com. Anyway, I always recommend 4.10s because I ASSUME (guess thats bad) that people are going to further mod thier car because gears are pretty serious mods. I'd still go with 4.10s over 3.73s though, guess I'm stubborn and biased.

 

There is no problem with that.

 

As soon as I saw the title of this thread, I knew that someone would bring up Craig's car.

I'll advocate for 4.10s right along with some of the others, just because I've watched the way they helped transform his car. I've known Craig for over 20 years, and helped at every stage of the buildup (or should it be called a teardown ) of this car. With the free-flowing intake, !cat, 3" cat-back, and extensive tuning, his car still pulls very hard right up to 6,000 (which is pretty much where he is shifting).

I won't say that 4.10s are the ideal choice for any car, but they work out very nicely for Craig's combo.

- Justin

 

Our engines make peak hp at 5200, so it makes sense to keep it around there more. With 4.10s, I cross the line at about 5200 in 4th gear. With 3.73s, I would still have to use 4th which would be a waste since I'd only cross the line at 4800, assuming I'd have the power to get to 98mph. With 3.42s, I'd have to shift into 4th at 95mph, which again would be a total waste. So the only viable alternative would be the stock 3.23 gears which top out at 101 in 3rd. I've gone from 3.23s to 4.10s and picked up 4 tenths with no other mods. The fastest I've ever gone with 3.23s is 14.66 @ 95ish. The lower gear obviously wins in my platform. If you look at the top of the V6 lists, you'll see nothing but 3.73s and 4.10s. The idea that a 3.42 is an optimal gear may hold water with a different engine that makes more power low in the RPM range, but again, the 3800 does not fall into that category.

g

 

stock manifolds & ypipe, stock untouched rockers, stock untouched heads, stock untouched cam...he has no cat & an aftermarket catback exhaust system...nothing that shouldve moved his powerband much. He gained ~4 tenths going from his stock gears to 4.10's...fwiw i swapped from an open 3.08 rear to a torsen w/ 3.73's in my truck and ran the same times...16.1's@ the same trap...every car is different & reacts differently. 3.4's are going to react different then 3.8's 3.8's different from 4.3's so you can have your experience & thats fine but it doesnt mean that every v6 cant gain more with 4.10's...it depends on you powerband & the rest of your drivetrain & its gearing...not on "well because these cars dont make much power after xx" thats only part of the equation.

 

Let's just agree to disagree. I have 12+ years experience running 3.8s.... however that is with mostly power adders. Kenne Bell hashed this stuff out almost 20 years ago, I followed his R&D. You're right every car responds differently. Torque wins races, HP sells cars and parts. I still say for a stockish street car, 3.42s are ideal. Mine runs low tens leaving off the foot brake, likely a high nine with better tuning so I will simply stay with the school of thought that I've already subscribed to as it works. You guys are free to do what you wish.

 

Considering the to 4 NA 3.8's run 4.10's you can disagree all you want
WickEdSix98-Heads/Cam NA-4.10's-13.3@102
LittleG-Stock heads/cam NA-4.10's-13.5@100
Magnus-Heads/Cam NA-4.10's-13.6@98
12SecondV6-??? NA-4.10's-13.7@96

You have yet to own an NA 3.8 so in all honesty you dont know what your talking about.

 

Edit: Originally I replied, but honestly..... you aren't worth my time so the comment was deleted. The instant you start with the "You don't know what you are talking about" attitude, you lost all credibility. Out of respect for each other, we had already agreed to disagree so your comment isn't worth the reply. Just drop it. by the way, I said "mostly" power adders. I didn't say all. You have no idea how many N/A 3.8s I've had, it was never mentioned.

 

for not wanting to comment that was a pretty long deleted thread as far as agreeing to dissagree you'd need two people with two different opinions...I was not expressing my opinion I gave you 4 examples of the 4 fastest NA 3.8's that I know of. If you'd like to point out what 3.8 NA cars youve seen that have run faster then 13.7 I'd like to hear about it because its news to me.

 

Since you are hell bent on pushing your point of view, whatever, keyboard warrior................. Is that short enough? If ya got that much of a problem, take it to PM.