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What are the advantages and disadvantages to installing 4.10 gears?
Hello, I'm a newbie and I see some people like them some don't. For those that have them , please let me know what to expect (or not ) in performance and reliability. If I had ford racing gears installed by the dealer , would they be covered by the factory warranty?. Thanks
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I don't have them, but I will suggest that since you are considering them to do a little speeds-in-gears math to make sure they will be a 'fit' for your usage. Use the tire mfr data for revs per mile, not the online calculators, because the online ones all give anywhere from 2% to 3.5% too many mph. In some cases, that small difference matters.
Consider your hard driving usage - for autocross 4.10's are way too deep unless you run on either postage-stamp lots or really huge high-speed ones where you're already grabbing 3rd. Probably too deep for road course track day use, too, since acceleration drops way off in 5th gear. Consensus for a street/strip car seems to be 4.10's for manual transmissions, 3.73 for automatics - which tranny do you have?
All I can find out from the FRPP catalog is that the 3.73's are apparently emissions-legal for a GT while the 4.10's aren't. FWIW.
Using the search function you will find that 4.10gears are one of the most discussed items.
Are you a stick or auto? The following comments are for the 5spd:
As you have probably noticed, on a performance oriented forum such as this 4.10s are the "bomb" and thus you are going to get lots of "don't fear the gear" comments.
I started out with 3.55s, went to 4.10s for a year and recently changed to 3.73s. Everyone has an opinion and this is a highly subjective subject...but here is mine: for a low mile street toy I prefer the 4.10s. They are FUN. They give you a little more torque and you hit the powerband much quicker. There is a lot of punch right off idle. The drawbacks are 1st gear is very short, you have to shift right away. Another small drawback is at highway speeds the engine turns at a little higher RPM and thus decreases gas mileage slightly (IMO this really isn't a drawback, just something to think about).
For a high mileage daily driver I'd personally prefer the 3.73s - first gear is more useful, less shifting in traffic yet they still have good torque. It is a good compromise gear ratio. Again - this is a personal opinion having used both, you will get lots of other responses disagreeing...that fine, thats what opinions are for.
If you are going to use the car for any high performance driving -autocross or track - do not get 4.10s. This is the primary reason I switched back to a taller gear. On race tracks I found myself running out of gear before running out of straight aways far too often. I was in the rev limiter constantly. Moving to 3.73 gave me just a little more top end speed in each gear and I much prefer it on the track. Note that tire size has an impact here also (I use short tires - 275/40/17 - on the track).
I think the bottom line is it depends what you want to do with the car now and in the future. For example, if you ever plan to boost the car consider carefully before opting for 4.10s.
Regarding reliability - the Ford 8.8 rear end is pretty much bulletproof at reasonable power levels. No worries here. Also keep in mind that 4.10s are a tight gear and can be tricky to set up so they don't whine. There are tons of posts on gear whine. Proper setup can greatly reduce or eliminate any whine but beaware that it may take more than 1 trip to the installer to get it right (my installer had 3 attempts before they got it right, it was a big hassle).
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07 GT 5spd: stock > road racing > stock.
If you're mostly street driving, as you said, you can't beat 4.10s. Yes, you will shift more often, but you reach 5th gear faster=better gas mileage on the street. They also multiple your engine torque rating=more fun! On the highway, driving at speeds exceeding 70 miles per hour, you'll lose maybe 1 mpg. This doesn't affect me because I've reduced two hundred and fifty pounds from the car. There is one benefit of 4.10s for highway driving, you can accelerate in 5th gear without downshifting to fourth gear. Last, I've heard the dreaded gear whine for all types of aftermarket gear installs, but this is due to poor installation. I found a reputable installer and so should you. So far no gear whine with 4.10s, one year after they were installed..
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2007 Gt Premium: Steeda CAI, CMCV deletes, UDPs, BBK shorty headers, Pypes x-pipe, MGW shifter, Fidanza aluminum flywheel, Spydershaft, FRPP 4.10s, J&M LCAs, adjustable UCA and panhard bar, Eibach sways, Rotorpros brake discs, Hawk HPS pads, Steeda stainless steel brake lines and Magnaflow axlebacks, tuned by ST Motorsports: 313 rwp/318 rwtq.
If you're mostly street driving, as you said, you can't beat 4.10s. Yes, you will shift more often, but you reach 5th gear faster=better gas mileage on the street. . . . <snip> . . . On the highway, driving at speeds exceeding 70 miles per hour, you'll lose maybe 1 mpg.
That's pretty close to what I experienced when I did a gear swap in a different car that amounted to the same thing as going from 3.55's to 4.10's in a S197 would do for you. Roughly the same, maybe a tiny bit higher around-town gas mileage as long as I kept my upshifts at about the same rpm (meaning at slightly lower road speeds). For example, 4th gear at barely over 30 mph actually became a reasonable choice.
Looks like 2005stang.com doesn't know about tire tread compression either, as they're all about 3.5% too high. This doesn't really matter in any normal street use, except that for zero to 60 mph bragging rights with 4.10's and those tires you'll actually need just over 6300 rpm to hit 60 in 2nd and avoid an upshift to 3rd.
Frankly I'm having a hard time deciding on this one. I have the 3.55s right now and I know I want more. We don't really have any tracks around here except for a single drag strip. But I hate being limited like I would with the 4.10s in the sense that if an actual road track opened up somewhere and I decided to try it out I would be at a disadvantage. But going with 3.73s over the 3.55s - it becomes questionable whether it's even worth doing since the difference is minimal when we're talking $500+.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages to installing 4.10 gears?
