Recently James posted,
<<i bought an aluminum differential case for my ford 8.8, and id like to have
a shop swap my guts into the new case. should i bother to change to 3.55
from 3.27 gears too, oh well, why not.>>
Sounds like the answer I give on computer questions too: What do you want to
use it for?
In your case, the answer is "autocross" at least a lot of the time. So work
out your tire size, and gearing! What's the fastest that you go (not
counting wheelspin :-) on the "typical" course, was 2nd gear enough for that?
If you want to avoid shifting I'd make a huge guess and say that your 2nd is
probably good for somewhere in the 60-70 range, right? (my car does ~70 in
2nd except for the Azenis which are shorter, so maybe actual 64-66 - but yours
is a lazy V8 in a light car vs. mine is a screaming 7000+RPM V6 in a heavy
car).
I'd swear that I've heard you start runs in 2nd. It must be nice to have to
worry about random wheelspin :D So if you can avoid a shift by staying with
a 3.27, stay there. My old 350 Nova with a 3.73 didn't have a reliable
speedo, but I don't think that it would have done 70 in 2nd. You probably
have to do 70 more than once/season due to better corner speed and
acceleration, so gear for the courses. The extra shift near 70 is going to be
annoying and you'll almost immediately have to change back down, so avoid it.
My $0.02, Paul
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