Put them in last night at work since its been slow. Friend of mine (30yrs exp, racing exp, ford certified) helped me put them in. Had it all apart in about 20mins or so. Overall took about 2hrs or so getting it all set up right. All new bearings etc too since I have 112k on the car. Ran it around for 30 miles or so before I really started gettin into it. He told me just to get them hot first but I went a little longer than that. When I finally dropped the hammer in 1st, it was just all worth it! Felt like I put it on a 800lb diet. Really just moves better in the lower RPMs without having to give it much throttle. My SCT X3 should be here in a few days so I can rap it all up. I was just too anxious to wait for the tuner to get in. I'll have new times when the tracks open back up. Good: Feels much more driveable around town. More peppy. Acceleration MUCH improved. Bad: Bad traction and highway cruising. Neither are really a big deal though.
Yeah it sure does run out of gear quick, haha. I remember the first time I got on mine (the morning after I had them installed) I was like WTF!!!!! I was leaving a light (no traffic) and eased into it, wound 1st out, grabbed 2nd and I was blown away by how quickly it got right back into the powerband... not too low of an RPM, and not too high of an RPM... woo boy I had a big smile on my face. Traction does suck really bad though. If I really tried with 3.27's I could break loose in second for a bit, but with 4.10's even if im not WOT just driving agressivley second gear breaks loose. If I hammer on it I can hit the rev limiter spinning in second... its fun, but annoying when your actually trying to get traction.
Gears do make a difference. Glad to hear you are very happy with your installation. I drive 95% highway so I will stick with my 3.27 gears.
4.10's are great! No complaints here after a year of dd'ing the car with them. If you want your traction back, try a set of Nitto drag radials. They are a great sticky street tire. If you are worried about they're durability, I drove on mine last year for abou 11,000 miles and probably did about 40+ burnouts at the track on mine. They still have a few months of life left. If you do alot of track racing, you may want to try the BFG or MT drag radials instead.
Oh man I was bout to install some 4.10's on my 01 GT..Its my main commuter (30 freeway miles each way everyday) so I will have to rethink this..I have an automatic would that make a difference?
At 70-75mph (approx, keeping with traffic) I'm only turning 2500rpm. T3650 would be a little less. Its really not bad, and actually going around 45-50 I can put it into 5th comfortably instead of having it in 4th, give me a 300rpm drop for local roads where the speed limit is 45. Dont feer the gear! Seriously it was a big difference, but if I spent 650 for the whole deal like I did to do it right and got anything less, I wouldnt be too happy.
Go with 3.73 don't get the 3.55s. I'm at 2,900 RPM at 80mph and I have an automatic so manuals will be even lower.
3.73s are great for highway. i still get 24mpg and at 80 its only reving like 2300 or so. at 70 its like right at 2
I wouldn't even bother going with the 3.55's, unless you currently have a 2.73 rear gear. There isn't going to be enough difference between the 3.55's and 3.27's to be worth the trouble. BTW I have 4.10's with a 5speed T-3650 and I only turn 2300 rpm at 70 mph. With the addition of a few other mods I still get around 21 mpg. (23-24 mpg before gears)
yea with my setup I love the 4.10's only trouble is Hwy! I get 20 mpg straight hwy with a 93 octane tune. and 17 city/hwy. With bfg kdw 285/40/17's I get very!! good traction considering I have 4.10's.
Cliff note. 96-00 cars with T-45's (and 3.27 gears) will tach slightly higher than mid-01-04 cars with the T-3650 in 5th gear.
4.10's are great. the traction problem is not your tires/or gears its your 4 link rear setup,if you want to hook up get a MM torque arm/panhard bar setup.I run the MM heavy duty torque arm/panhard bar and have no traction problems.I do a lot of autox and road racing though.
I gots the auto so I dont need any more issues with the gas mileage LOL. I think my next mod is going to be a manual trans though. then I will think about gears and what not
I originally placed my order for 4.10s but quickly canceled and got the 3.73s. As I said in my previous post 3.73s with an auto will be at 2,900 RPM at 80mph. If you had 4.10s it will probably be around 3,100-3,200 RPM at 80. I will post a video tonight what my speeds and RPMs are.
