Am finally back on the road in the T/A after shorty headers and a torsen/gear upgrade... I removed the 2.73 open in favor for a 3.42 slp torsen set-up. I honestly CAN'T say it makes a difference in off the line pull...The motor is a cc carbed305 lg4 with a 268 compcam, true roller chain and an open element. The cam swap made a good mid rpm power difference with the 2.73's so I though I would see a great performance increase with more gear...It just pulls about the same now except I don't have any tire spin hardly. I also went into the ignition with a Accel brute thunder coil and control module. I guess the spark is hotter, it does fire right up at the turn of the key. So, do I need to look at getting a different torque convertor or something? Any experience out there with such a poor resulting gear swap?

 

To me it sounds like the cam is out of range of the stock converter. I'd go with a higher stall, one that matches the powerband of the cam.

We went from 2.73's to 3.42's on my friends LO3 91 Firebird and that made a huge difference with off the line acceleration.

 

Well, after fixing a collector gasket leak today I took it back out and put some fresh fuel in the tank. Driving home I could tell the fuel was part of it, but it could have better results. It seems like it's just outta 1st gear then on to 2nd before you can get your foot in it. Should I try a shift kit in the trans? or manually put it in 1st when I want to maximize the gears?

 

I went from 3.08/open to 3.42/posi and saw a noticeable difference.

 

i went from a 2.73 to a 3.23 and even there saw a difference. then from there upgraded to a 3.73 and then there was a noticible difference.

 

Hey, I can now say it was definately bad gas along with a high temp running engine. The car sat for 8 months in a damp garage with less than an 1/8th tank full. After a few fill-ups the punch! has returned, but have noticed that the fan switch has to go so I can make use of my 180* t-stat. So far highway mileage seems the same and in town mileage is better. The speed really picks up fast from 2400 to 4000rpm. So I guess the swap was worth it and it now appears the transmission is the weaker. Can someone give me some step by step on getting some performance there?