I have a 305 92 camaro and it has 2.73 gears in the rear end, ive hear that going to 3.73 is too much with out alot of mods, what would 3.43 gears do? any other facts or sugestions would be much appriciated

 

Installing a lower ratio gearset will increase the overall force at the tires that the engine can generate in a specific gear, basically helping the car to accelerate better if the ratio of the gearing is within reason. Too low a ratio on a mostly stock motor that doesnt rev will actually slow you down sice the rotating mass takes alot of enery to spin up rapidly and the stock trans isnt a real quicj shifter. IMHO 3.73's are a tad to much if your going to be using the car for commuting but 3.42's and a limited slip unit are a good mod for a mostly stock car.

 

A numerically higher gear puts your engine at a higher RPM per given speed than a lower set of gears. The power is actually less and the parasitic power loss is higher for higher gears, over the entire powerband. Not much but can be up to 5hp at peak levels. Anyways since you will launch at a higher RPM you motor will be higher in its powerband and will help you get off the line quicker. The same amount of force is applied to the wheels it is just further in the RPM range so you are starting out at a different power. No biggy because the benifits outway the parasitic losses and your car will scoot off the line and through the first few gesar quit nicely. Now as for top end, numerically higher gears hinder top speed. But that is another benifit of a higher reving cam. You regain some of that lower RPm loss and gain it up top.

 

Not really for the sake of argument, more to just toss this out there...

Having the lower ratio (numerically higher) gearset does produce more force at the wheels at a specific rpm and trans gear verses higher ratio gears. Its simple torque multiplication. The fundimentals of gear operation. They also make it feasable to use a more aggressive cam (along with all the other usual stuff) since the engine will be able to get underway sooner and wont bog down from the increased load thats outside of its power band that it would have with, say, 2.73's. Since the engine has a higher rpm band of operation it can adiquatly utilize a lower gear ratio. You wouldnt run a 4 cyl. VTEC from an S2000 with the ratios our V8's would have because it just doesnt have the low end torque to get teh car in motion. The same holds true for the stock V8. With teh 4.55's or whatever the S2000 has, it would spend all its time either spinning the tires or jsut getting spun up. This is especially true with the stock transmissions since some of them, like mine, can take some time to complete a shift putting the shifts in closer succession will cost time at the track. This isnt as much of an issue with a raised rpm band and a quick shifting aftermarket trans. The whole car has to be set up for a good gearset. All the parts have to match or itll just be slow. Parasitic losses are significant... Just for my own info, i ran through first and second gear while data logging and worked back using the data to figure out what the power output at the wheels was and found that in first gear the peak power at the wheels was 35% less then what the peak power was in second due to the losses from the rotating mass having to be spun up. Also, other people have put 4.10's and such in LG4's with abysmal results. Along the same lines i also wouldnt put a numerically higher gearset in my car because it wouldnt match my engines power band. With a set of 4.10's, or maybe even 3.73's, it would bake the tires down to the cords in first. Come up to 4k and hover there for a while, sit there for a little while more, shift and race through second, hover there for a while, and then finally get into third. Even though it would pull real hard, it woudl jsut waste alot of time shifting and what not and spend less time going since my engine is all torque and no power. Gears are good, but as with any other part, you have to choose them to match your setup.