quick question, changing gears, i hear that that will increase your acceleration but wont it decrease your overall top end speed? just curious as im new to all of this and i just want to get an idea before i do all of these mods

 

I just put new gears in 3.73's, I love the accelaration and the way it moves when I pass but I don't know about top end speed. I have never gone over 115 with my car and to be truthful with out a new drive shaft I wouldn't want to.
You won't be sorry if you put a t-loc or auburn or the like and change your gears. RPM's are higher at free way speeds but not bad about 1500 at 80 MPH.
GOOD LUCK

 

what do you mean when you say t-loc and auborn?

 

A t-lock is Ford's version of a posi rear-end (power delivered to both wheels). It is a clutch style differential. An Auburn and a Detroit Tru-Track are a different design sold by the auto aftermarket. The latter two are of a higher quality design, so they are reportedly more durable in high HP applications.

Ron, did you make a typo in your post? I think you meant 2,500 RPM at 80mp, right?

 

Ive heard that it may slightly drop the top end speed but why would you be worried, you shouldnt need to go top speed anyways lol. Depending on the gears the RPM's i think are a tiny bit higher with 4.10's and 3.73's are a bit lower, they both raise the rpm's compared to stock gears but 4.10's raise it more. T-lok is cheaper and then the others so its quiet popular, although they have been known to wear after sometime, some people have reportedly been using a t-lok with for over 40,000 which they race the car with so it must hold up alright.

 

yea if your car is a daily driver with alot of highway driving your better off staying with 3.73s because they will lower top end only because they raise rpms faster. so it mean you will be in 5th gear sooner. but it is not noticeable. yes they will greatly help accelaration as will the t-lok. you can get both of these installed at most local ford dealers. they are a great upgrade. ro if you want to tackle the job yourself you can get an 8.8 rear end with 3.73 installed and already coems posi. (they aree out of a GT) it is beefier will hold up longer, and take more of a beating. but yes i would say 3.73s would be great if you do a lot of highway ro parkway driving and t-lok is a great upgrade help get your car moving quicker. also if you dont have a CAI(cold air intake) get one with a tuner combo and you can use the tuner to adjust speedo for gears. this will really help wake up your car.

 

YEP good catch. 2500 at 80MPH

 

well yes and no, even with 4.10 gears, your car wont have the power to reach the redline in 5th gear, however, if you were driving in a vaccume, it would be lower

+1 for the lsd
stangmods.com has tloks
drivetrainspecialists.com has detroit true tracs (i recomend)
mpsautosalvage.com has used 3.73s for $50, (recomended if your tight on cash)
americanmuscle.com has new 4.10s (i recomend)

 

so for a daily driver (city), would you recommend 3.73s or 4.10s? could you tell me the difference briefly?

 

Putting taller gears in moves your available power to lower speeds. This means that there is a small RPM increase at speed X in all gears. Technically this would limit your top end at max RPM in 5th gear, however our cars are speed governed so in an otherwise stock configuration you wouldn't notice.

EXAMPLE: (not to scale, exaggerated to show differences)
Lets say in first gear your car is moving at 20mph @ 2500RPM. If you up the gear ratio then you mightsee 20mph @ 3000RPM. now, how this benefits you is that our cars make more torque at 3000RPM then it doesat 2500RPM and thuswill accelerate better.Likewise, at redlinein 1stwe might only be at 40mph instead of 45mph as we might have seen in the stock configuration. It's a tradeoff in top end for acceleration.