alright, ive been meaning to ask this question for a long time. Been searching around forums for the past few weeks but never found a question, with the answer I was really looking for.

Alright, I have 97 V6 Automatic. NOW, with everything aside, meaning forget about how must faster acceleration I would get, how well it would do on the track, how slow or how fast it is personally for you, ... WHICH gear would be best for FUEL economy considering roughly 10-15 miles round trip Monday to Friday in the city. and the weekend sometimes taking the car out on the highway like 45 minutes each way (twice in a weekend lets say).

3.73 or 4.10s? Mine does come with 2.73's so im sure a 3.73 would be a big step none the less, but RPMs on what I calculated ARENT that much higher for 4.10s then 3.73s.

I am not looking to race on the track or anything. I'm not looking to get a Traction lock... but again, with all the race feelings aside, would a T-LOK GREATLY improve start offs at the light when i accelerate time to time? like is $200 worth it, considering i have been driving this car for many years now with no T-LOK on a 2.73 and would drive it, or think i would drive it , somewhat similar when I would get the new gears.

To sum it all up, since 3.73 is quite the distance away from the 2.73, and other than even faster acceleration ability with a 4.10 and higher RPM (which is a negative here), are there any other positive's with going with a 4.10?

LAST but not LEAST.. is it advisable to change the transmission fluid before the gear install??... also that royal purple gear oil i hear is also recommended... is that something i bring to the shop for them to put into the car and how often to you have to oil the new gears??

Thanks everyone for any input you may have. I want to clear all this stuff up right away so i can get going on this mod cuz I wannnnnnts it already

UPDATE!! ONE MORE QUESTION..... That master bearing gear kit; is it needed if I do not want to install a T-LOK ?

 

anyone?

 

virtually no difference in the 2! so little difference it isnt worth the question!
it isnt a must on the changing the fluid in the tranny, that is a normal maintenace issue!

 

Ok...Yeah. Fluid in the transmission in the front of the car has nothing to do with the gears in the rear end of the car. It is a good thing to do at least every 60k miles. I reccomend red line synthetic for your transmission and rear end. Just make sure they put the correct kind in each. Ok, I have 3.73 gears and a manual. I can say it is a big improvement over stock. Now having said that, an auto will react differently because of different gear ratios in transmission, much short than a manual I believe. I would stick with a 3.73 gear, 4.10's will suck you dry on the highway. City really does not matter too much. Your rpms are fairly low anyhow and you usually are not even in the top gear around town. So you should not really lose anything around town. I get an average 16 city and 20 mpg highway. I am not sure if my driving is normal or not, I gun it every so often but mainly stay out of the throttle. An auto will average just a mpg or two lower. Go with some 3.73s, a shift improver kit, and a transmission flush/filter. I cannot remember my highway rpms...sorry. Small area and not too much highway travel.