quabillion wrote: My truck has 3.73 gears right now, however I am going to change to 4.10 in about 2 weeks. Ill let ya know if I like it.
I doubt you would notice much difference as the gear ratio is quite close. I would leave the 3.73 in considering the cost of the gear swap vs real gain. A super charger would really perk up that 5.4 liter of yours.
The 4:10 ratio will increase pulling power without any additional stress on heads, head gaskets, pistons, rods, crank, torque converter, transmission, engine mts, and drive shaft.
A super charger will increase stress in all points. When something breaks just make sure you then blame the manufacturer.
quabillion wrote: My truck has 3.73 gears right now, however I am going to change to 4.10 in about 2 weeks. Ill let ya know if I like it.
I doubt you would notice much difference as the gear ratio is quite close. I would leave the 3.73 in considering the cost of the gear swap vs real gain. A super charger would really perk up that 5.4 liter of yours.
The 4:10 ratio will increase pulling power without any additional stress on heads, head gaskets, pistons, rods, crank, torque converter, transmission, engine mts, and drive shaft.
A super charger will increase stress in all points. When something breaks just make sure you then blame the manufacturer.
I dont like the idea of stressing a motor and transmission that have 337K miles on them. the gear change is to take a little stress off of the ole girl, hopefuly makin this truck last another 5 years. But the way it is now the transmission is always hunting for the right gear, and i want it to just go into OD and rev to its hearts content.
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Quote: I dont like the idea of stressing a motor and transmission that have 337K miles on them. the gear change is to take a little stress off of the ole girl, hopefuly makin this truck last another 5 years. But the way it is now the transmission is always hunting for the right gear, and i want it to just go into OD and rev to its hearts content.
Then go for the gears. It will make life easier on the truck and won't cost you much more at the pumps if you are able to tow in OD a lot more.
Supercharging a truck with that mileage and then towing with it. OK I guess if you love suspense.
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I have two 3/4 ton pickups, one with 3.54s and one with 4.10s.
I live at 4200 ft and and sedom if ever camp any lower so everything is up hill from here.
I much prefer the 4.10s for towing.
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All I was trying to demonstrate was that 4.10 is not always the right choice. I suspect that it is not the right choice in far more cases than my little corner case here, too.
The point of re-gearing is to give you the ability to run in overdrive at highway speeds without shifting.
If you still can't run in overdrive after going to a 4.10, you wasted your money, and you're going to waste a lot more down the road in higher fuel bills and wear and tear on the engine.
If you still can't run in overdrive after going to a 4.10, you wasted your money, and you're going to waste a lot more down the road in higher fuel bills and wear and tear on the engine.
It seems to me that almost every post I have read in these forums the owners actually saw an increase in gas mileage after changing to the lower gear while towing and when not.
Our truck with the 4.10s gets better mileage towing than the one with 3.54s.
Most trucks are designed to get the best gas mileage empty and not loaded, lugging an engine loaded can decrease mileage and engine life.
"The point of re-gearing is to give you the ability to run in overdrive at highway speeds without shifting."
That's not the reason I did it at all - I don't and won't tow in OD. I got the 4.11 gear in order to allow the motor to operate in its peak performance range when towing and to reduce driveline stress to the lowest possible level.
My 5.7 L van, running solo, will deliver 18 mpg on the highway at 63 mph, and 10 mpg fully loaded and towing our 30' Alumalite at the same speed. It turns at 3000 rpm in 3rd (towing) at 63 mpg; 2050 rpm in OD.
Look at an actual graph above. Since it takes a given horsepower to move a vehicle down the road at a given speed the horsepower required does NOT change with a gearing change to maintain the same speed.
IF the above graphed engine is geared to maintain the speed at 1400 rpm and then regeared to run at 1600rpm the milage will in fact increase due to lower lb/HPh at 1600 rpm. The engine could really be geared for 1800rpm and still give better mpg then at 1400rpm but would have approx 20 more hp available for hill climbing until shifting would be required.
If the above engine is geared to run at 2000rpm and regeared to run at 1600-1800 rpm the mpg would again increase but horsepower available in that gear would be less so shifting would have to be done sooner.
Whether changing from 3.73 to 4.10 increases/decreases mpg will depend where it is now running on the graph for that particular engine. Since we don't have that graph or know where it is on the graph we can't predict whether mpg will increase or decrease, can we?
any automatic tranny's OD is weaker than the direct drive (1:1) gear.
Okay when not heavily loaded, but when towing heavy, I want it in the strongest
gear set, not one of the weaker ones.
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