Joe wrote:
> I thought steeper gears meant faster??? Joe
Not necessarily. This is one of the two major mistakes hotrodders
make when trying to make their ride faster (number one is overcamming
the engine.)
Steeper gears will only make your truck faster IF and only IF the
gears help the engine to stay in it's powerband longer. Since a stock
DAK makes most of it's power in the low to mid range, the steeper
gears will hurt performance because the engine will tend to stay out
of its powerband (higher revs.) Now, WHILE you're in the powerband,
the steep gears will multiply that torque more, giving you more
"power" (ie, more torque multiplication) in the limited window
between 2000 and 4400 RPM, or whatever the 318 works best at.
Unfortunately, your engine will stay in that band a much shorter
period of time because of the gears, thus negating any benefits.
Now, the short gears may help throttle response and make it easier to
launch, with a cleaner, smoother, step off on throttle tip-in, and it
may be easier to launch because you don't have to walk the fine line
between engine bog and tire smoke, but unless you've done something
to the motor to create more power higher in the rev range, you'll
just be spinning your wheels (hey, cool pun.)
For example, I just swapped out my stock 3.42's for a set of 4.10's
in the Firebird, but my engine makes gobs of torque all OVER the rev
range, and the addition of headers, exhaust, and intake help it
breathe well past the 6000 RPM mark. In this case, the gears really
help because I can use the upper reaches of the engine rev range
(since that's where my mods have helped the most.) That, and I have a
6-speed, so I'm not revving the bejeezus out of the engine when I'm
just cruising on the highway. (I hope to run 13.0 flat in February
with street tires!)
Also, you may want to check out Alan's times in his 3.21 geared Dak.
14.8 at 92 or something like that. Because of his tall gears, he's
able to cross the line in 3rd (shifting to 4th eats up precious
time...) But because he's modified his exhaust and intake, it's
getting to where he'll be needing to shift to fourth to finish out
the quarter (if he gets any more powerful.) At this point, it would
be wise to swap gear ratios so that he's at his HP peak when he
crosses the finish line. If you're gonna have to shift anyway,
you want your engine in the fat part of the powerband as much as
possible while you're gliding down the 1320. Then again, it may suck
for high speed highway cruising.
Carl (damn, I'm long-winded sometimes) Vidos
13.4 & 105
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:08:07 EDT