Gears: Which do you think are the best?

Which Gears Do You Think Are The Best?

  • Stock - 3.55

    Votes: 221 27.7%
  • 3.73

    Votes: 193 24.2%
  • 3.90

    Votes: 137 17.2%
  • 4.10

    Votes: 217 27.2%
  • other - please list

    Votes: 31 3.9%

  • Total voters
    797
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RDJ

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Mine is totally stock IRS with the 4.10 I just had installed. but I don't don't drag race mine.... corner carver it is ...
 

todd4566

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I went 3.73 in my 89' 5.0 (worked well w/ the Kenne Bell), 4.10 in my 00' GT, and I'll probably stay w/ the stock 3.55 for the Mach. I've become lazy and dislike shifting all the time.
 
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flatblack5.0

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ive read 4.30's are the best for the 4.6 DOHC motors, i dunno about how they are for the 4.6 DOHC + eaton, KB, or w/e.. but 3.08's suck, i had them in my thunderbird, and i now have 3.27's and i am a bit happier with those, but i want 4.10's. so for the 03-04 cobras 4.10's seem to be the best?
 

mpe331lx

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T-birdcobramix said:
ive read 4.30's are the best for the 4.6 DOHC motors, i dunno about how they are for the 4.6 DOHC + eaton, KB, or w/e.. but 3.08's suck, i had them in my thunderbird, and i now have 3.27's and i am a bit happier with those, but i want 4.10's. so for the 03-04 cobras 4.10's seem to be the best?

They are known as one of the best for the N/A 4.6 DOHC. For the PD blower cars you really cant go wrong with the stock gears. I put 3.73s in mine because I swapped rear ends. If you have an 03-04 and are not doing a solid axle swap, dont waste your time on doing gears. It may make the car FEEL faster on the street, but the times at the track will not impove with a set of 4.10 or 4.30's!
 

JPIStang

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That's not what I hear. I hear 4.10's make the Terminators true street monsters. I'll have to ask my friend what his times did when he went from stock to 4.10's.
 

ls1hater

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does anyone actually have improvements in et on the track from switching to 410's from stock. I mean I have rode in several diff. types of vehicles over my life with lower gear changes like this and a few times the felt like a monster but never did pick up et. Just trying to see the improvements on a modded cobra with a gear change.
 

JohnsDSGVert

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Gears.....

I put 4:10's in for the seat of the pants.....light to light......0-60.

I have to shift to third at 57mph.........I am either going to a 28" tire or to 3:90's.

For the strip.....I have no idea.....I think most of the winners run 3:55's
 

cdh027

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John Himsel said:
I put 4:10's in for the seat of the pants.....light to light......0-60.

I have to shift to third at 57mph.........I am either going to a 28" tire or to 3:90's.

For the strip.....I have no idea.....I think most of the winners run 3:55's

John, what's with the 000 RWHP 000 RWTQ ? Did you blow your motor ?
 

JohnsDSGVert

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Motor

Yes.....popped # 6 with only about 100 miles on it with my new Whipple. Haven't torn it down yet.....searching for a builder. She has been sitting over a year now.....don't have the WAF to get'r fixed.......something about we're putting a swimming pool in before we are fixing the Cobra motor......I'm patient.....when I do it.....I plan to really do it.....an all out no holds bar built motor.
 

BlownShift

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John Himsel said:
I put 4:10's in for the seat of the pants.....light to light......0-60.

I have to shift to third at 57mph.........I am either going to a 28" tire or to 3:90's.

For the strip.....I have no idea.....I think most of the winners run 3:55's


You should be shifting into 3rd at 66 mph

shrug.gif
 

silvercoffin

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uhhhh

OK if this is here already im sorry but im sick of reading and looking for it!!!

CAN SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY HAS 4:10 GEARS PLEASE GIVE ME SOME INFO?

Do you have to use 5th gear at the drag strip?

I know someone mentioned 4th gear trap speed being an issue but do you have to use 5th?

If so I wouldnt do it because it just lends itself to more inconsistency in bracket racing..not that a manual car is good for it to begin with
 

BlownShift

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silvercoffin said:
OK if this is here already im sorry but im sick of reading and looking for it!!!

CAN SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY HAS 4:10 GEARS PLEASE GIVE ME SOME INFO?

Do you have to use 5th gear at the drag strip?

I know someone mentioned 4th gear trap speed being an issue but do you have to use 5th?

If so I wouldnt do it because it just lends itself to more inconsistency in bracket racing..not that a manual car is good for it to begin with

For 4.10s:

Gear 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Trans Ratio 2.66 1.78 1.30 1.00
Overall Ratio 10.91 7.30 5.33 4.10
Split 1.49 1.37 1.30 1.35 1.48
Rev/Mile 8,809 5,895 4,305 3,312
1500 10 15 21 27
2000 14 20 28 36
2500 17 25 35 45
3000 20 31 42 54
3500 24 36 49 63
4000 27 41 56 72
4500 31 46 63 82
5000 34 51 70 91
5500 37 56 77 100
6000 41 61 84 109
6500 44 66 91 118
7000 48 71 98 127

Should be ok if you raise your rev limiter a little.
 

ViciousJay

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o3SnakeBite said:
I had 4.10's in my GT and it made the car an animal.... But I mean i have traction problems now with the 3.55's I couldnt imagine a gear that would make the tires spin even faster... 3.55 seems to be the all around perfect gear for the car... Although I would take a solid rear with 3.90's any day of the week :)

x2 :rockon:
 

marcseidler

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You can not generalize at all. At the track with 3.55's and 26" rear tires I go through the traps at 133 in 4th. Not much mph head room left. I will either need larger tires or have to shift into 5th to go much faster. If I screwed up and installed 4.10's like some of your are saying are the way to go I would lose mph and never get traction. I spin through 1st at the track now with ET Streets with 3.55's. I screwed up and installed 4.10's, because of recomendation like these, in my 97 Cobra that was stock and it was useless with street tires (285/40/17's by the way). Considering that car made less than 1/2 of the power of my 04 I cannot imaging that 4.10's would make any sense unless you went to 28" tall rear slicks at least if not 29" or 30". We make so much tq we do not need the gears. Remember that 4.10's are 15% higher and in 4th gear which is 1.0 to 1 you will go 15% slower at any given rpm with the same size rear tires. That is a dramatic amount. That means with 4.10's I would be going 113 instead of 133 in 4th through the traps at the same rpm. I guess this might be Ok if you made 400 hp or less (similar to stock or so) and only trapped 115 or so. By the way for those who say these are the gears for a street monster, traction on the street typically is much worse than at the track and this will only make the traction problem in 1st worse. Also I do not see how you think you will pull 2 cars from a 3.55 car fro a roll. This depends on what gear and mph. If you pick a mph where a 3.55 car is within it's power band you will be in trouble as you will have to shift or will be out of your power band. This is why big power race cars use 2 or 3 speed transmissions. Shifts cost you time.
 

SCT2003

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Hammer said:
Like Matt said, 4.10's are AWESOME on the street. From a roll, your car will pull with sheer neck-snapping acceleration.

But at the track, they will only be effective with tires - tires that are taller than stock. There is NO WAY to keep the stock tires glued with 4.10's.

And only gears that are improperly installed make noise. It's a common thing because proper installation of ring and pinion requires lots of expensive specialty tools and lots of experience with gear swaps.

For the NJ/PA boys, I recommend Crazy Horse Racing for the task. Their gear installs are second to none and Matt can attest to that.

:beer:

I use to live in NJ and go to Crazy Horse Racing back in my old 5.0 days. Chris Winter(owner) worked on many of my 5.0's...I agree they have awesome service and up to the gear swap task!!!

Later...Dave
 

SCT2003

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hwystr said:
Crazy - No. A pain to deal with - yes.

Go to stangnet and search the product revies for axle ratio comments. You'll see the 3.08 and 4.10's tend to have "driveline" droans/periods that are magically fixed when they go to 3.73's. Won't happen in every car to the same degree, but you take your chances. Put on some 4.10's, dump the axle damper, great for performance, but not for driveline droan/periods.

Not to change the subject but I noticed you mention the axle damper that is located under the axle of my 03' Cobra...I've removed that "dead weight" on my previous solid axle 5.0's with no ill effects...Is there any reason why I shouldn't remove it from my 03' Cobra???

Does it really make a difference in the vibration back there??? I never could feel a difference when I took it off any of my previous 5.0's!!!

Some say the axle damper is "tuned" or "weighted" for the particular application you have. So, if you change your gears...the axle damper is no longer "tuned" for your particular application and should be removed.

Is there any truth to this...can anybody chime in on this???

The thought of a 8-10 lb weight back there doing nothing really irks me...

Later...Dave
 
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Charles236

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The axle damper is not calibrated so closely as Ford might have intended, at least on the Cobra IRS. I installed a new set of FRPP 4.10s, and they ran quiet with no vibration until 65 mph. Above 65mph there was a slight viberation, noticeable only in the door mounted mirrors. I had previously removed the vibration damper with no ill effects, but after running into the vibration with the new gears, I re-installed the damper. Although the damper is supposedly calibrated for the stock 3.55 gears, it eliminated the slight vibration that I was experiencing.
 

SCT2003

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Mach1chuck said:
The axle damper is not calibrated so closely as Ford might have intended, at least on the Cobra IRS. I installed a new set of FRPP 4.10s, and they ran quiet with no vibration until 65 mph. Above 65mph there was a slight viberation, noticeable only in the door mounted mirrors. I had previously removed the vibration damper with no ill effects, but after running into the vibration with the new gears, I re-installed the damper. Although the damper is supposedly calibrated for the stock 3.55 gears, it eliminated the slight vibration that I was experiencing.

Thanks for the info...

Later...Dave
 
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