Argonaut

Hi Stoenr - I leave 30 weight in all the time. I know what Ford recommends and I've heard every argument under the sun for both 20W and 30W. But in my opinion - the proof is in the data and thus far the data says 30W is fine. Until someone shows me actual oil analysis that says 30W oil is hurting the car...I'm just not going to listen. Until proven otherwise - I'm of the opinion either is fine for a street car and 30W is preferable for a track car.

Riptide

Just how short is 1st gear with 4:10s? Assuming 27.2" stock tire height.

ptaylor_9849

First gear is so short that I have to shift to second halfway through the light after it turns green. In other words, I'm shifting to second as the light fixture itself is directly over head and let me tell you, Massachusetts intersections are small. They're not like California.

Riptide

Yikes. That's kinda what I'm afraid of.

I've seen vids on youtube where the car had 4:10 gears and there was a cam mounted inside. First gear was practically just a blip. It went by scary fast. Sure the car had a blower and all so it was a screamer. But it just makes me wonder why anyone with FI would recommend 4:10. It looks like it would take a lot of practice just to avoid hitting the limiter when you race. With that much power seems like 3:73 or even 3:55 might be more efficient since you don't have as many shifts.

deekum1627

great info man

Fourth Horseman

Put it this way: with 4.10:1 gears you could launch from 2nd with no problems. I don't, because I think you would probably wear your clutch a little more, but 1st is way short. It sure is a kick in the pants for acceleration, though.

Rubrignitz

The 1/2 quart of makeup oil seemed to have an effect on the 4 track day sample. Higher moly, magnesium, and zinc so you can't get a true representation of oil breakdown on that run. I wouldn't tell you not to top off your oil but it seemed to have spoiled that sample. Thanks for posting though and it seems that 5w-30 M1 works very well in our cars!

Rubrignitz

On the track with 4.10's... you weren't "running out of gear" you were "running out of powerband". I used to run out of "gear" with my stock cams. Now I have the powerband to work with the 4.10's. 6800rpm redline... it's beautiful.

I have to agree with the 3.73's for DD argument, but now that I have a 2000-6500 powerband it's a whole new world. I wouldn't give up my 4.10's now.

Argonaut

I have to disagree slightly on both opinions (thats what opinions are for):

- 1/2 quart make up is nothing. The numbers are higher because the oil was in there longer. I would expect that regardless of any make up. Besides, the reason I told Blackstone is so they can account for this. They tell you to do this in their directions.

- You say "powerband" I say "gears" no biggie. Yes, 4.10s might be okay if my readline was higher but gears are a lot cheaper than cams and head work. All race tracks have straights. Some straights you get up to 3rd. Others to 4th. Very, very few do you ever get up to 5th (VIR's long backstraight is one). On most intermediate straights (i.e. 4th gear straights) I would run out of gear and be stuck on the rev limiter or forced to shift to 5th (which is an over drive) and loose thousands of RPMs, torque and time. Although a higher redline might help this, it might also make it worse. Assuming the higher redline comes with more power, you would accelerate harder and run out of gear sooner. Hard to say, at any rate switching to 3.73s gives me just enough gear for the tracks I frequent so that I finish the short and intermediate straights right about 6K.

Stoenr

Thanks. I think on hot days and abusing the car on the track, the 20 seems like it would be water when I was done. I think I will switch to the 30, at least for track days