Do real steep gears help 3rd gear pull?

[9746Cobra]

I'm thinking "not much", but thought I'd ask anyway.

Since I've had this car only twice have I really been peeved about a lack of strong accelleration and it really showed up in the all important third gear.

Todays example had to do with some pokey crawing up an on-ramp to the interstate holding up a bunch of cars, with all of us trying to get around in the other three lanes. But you have to be quick because people will come up behind you and block you in. Then your stuck behind the slow traffic and need to get out of it before the next exit which often backs up, stopped, on the interstate. Yes city living often sucks.

So the one coming behind me as we move further to the left is a Honda pilot. Yea you read right. He's already going about 10mph faster than me and on it, as I'm doing about 45mph. But he's several car lengths back. (5?) I put my foot down hard (I'm in the '96 with 3.90's) and watch the traffic ahead. Rpms getting up to @6600rpm in 2nd, got to about 83mph in third, then backed off and shifted up. Looking back to see where the Pilot was I found he was in the same place I checked last time, about 5 cars back. (Doh!)

I moved over, put it in 5th and cruised along. The Pilot cruised by shortly after. It's times like that I miss the '03.

My '96 runs great and sounds great. But fast it isn't! Being paid for though, I enjoy that every day too!

Now back to my friggin question:

I have not driven an sn95 cobra with anything higher than 4.10 gears. Will the 4.30's or 4.56's really make much difference when it comes to 3rd/4th gear pull?

Or maybe I should hunt for a nice Mach 1? (I'm not interested in blowers or IRS)

9746C

 

[19mustang95]

yes, 4.30s or 4.56s will make a huge difference compared to 3.90s..

 

[mystical]

yes, 4.30s or 4.56s will make a huge difference compared to 3.90s..

Agreed, 4.56-4.88 are optimal for these cars.

 

[Boostin01Slobra]

4.30's ftw. 3rd gear pull is awesome!

 

[crash549]

yeah i have 4.30's and by third gear i'm gone.

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

looking at your mods if you want to make some more power get some longtubes and a tune along with some 4:30's

 

[crash549]

i know it's a little off subject but what kind of horsepower gains did you see after installing your shortrunner and imrc deletes? i just did mine and it will be going on the dyno soon so i was just curious.

 

[Boostin01Slobra]

looking at your mods if you want to make some more power get some longtubes and a tune along with some 4:30's

+1, Longtubes,Bassanis,& 4.30's made an incredible difference on my 96.
You would not regret this,well...maybe the headers, if it's your first time doing them lol

 

[LitleWhiteSnake]

looking at your mods if you want to make some more power get some longtubes and a tune along with some 4:30's

yup youll see a full 10-15wrhp lol get some nitrous:banana:

 

[9746Cobra]

Thanks guys I'm thinking about changing the 3.90's out for 4.30's.

The '96 is tuned, I just didn't think to put it in my sig. It made 265 hp and tq, but that was with 45K mile 12 yr old plugs and wires too. It even misfired now and then. I've since changed them out. The car ran much better after I wouldn't be suprised if that was worth 5hp.

I'm using the red speedo gear right now, the white gear should be enough for the 4.30's. It required a bit of shimming to set up the motive 3.90's, so I think there may be more adjustments needed to set up the 4.30's, but who knows.

 

[blackfang]

With 4.30's, 3rd gear would pull so good it would make a woman orgasm. I should have gone 4.56's though.

 

[crash549]

the white gear will get you close to the actual speed but you really need a speed cal if you want to get it right.

 

[Wynn]

I like my 4.30s but I wouldn't go higher. First is insane, second is awesome, and third is pretty good. I don't usually go through third though. Things happen fast enough through first and second lol. BTW with 4.30s, in the 1/8, I'd guess I'm at about 6000 RPM but I never really checked. Third gear is good up to a little above 80 or 85 I think.

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

the other thing that prob needs to be done is that you need to remove your upper and lower intake and clean not only the IMRC'S BUT THE ACTUAL SECONDARY VALVES. Mine were covered in a thick sludge while the primary was nice and clean, my car felt so much smoother once I did that. SEAFOAM will not clean them, it took me multiple bottles of berrymans b-12 and a bruch to clean it all out

 

[9746Cobra]

the other thing that prob needs to be done is that you need to remove your upper and lower intake and clean not only the IMRC'S BUT THE ACTUAL SECONDARY VALVES. Mine were covered in a thick sludge while the primary was nice and clean, my car felt so much smoother once I did that. SEAFOAM will not clean them, it took me multiple bottles of berrymans b-12 and a bruch to clean it all out

Thanks for all the responses guys.

PSUCOBRA96, I'm guessing you had the heads apart and thats how you got to the head valves?

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

nope with the intake off you can see right into the primary and secondary port, the secondary gets gunked in the intake side


I just used a socket and ratchet on the crank pulley and turned it so the vlaves would close and sprayed them down with berrymans, then I used a narrow metal tube attached to a shop vac and would suck out the gunk and repeat until it was clean.

really was not hard at all

 

[Quin]

Do you think the Seafoam would have worked if you kept the RPMs above 3500 to keep the IMRCs open?

 

[harvboi05]

Thanks for all the responses guys.

PSUCOBRA96, I'm guessing you had the heads apart and thats how you got to the head valves?

this is the view psu is talking about..

i seafoamed my engine prior to removing the intake and imrcs and taking these pics...