Lowering gears effecting top speed

I want to lower the gears in my Z28 to 3.73, but I am concerned about it effecting my top speed. I know a lot of people do this, so could someone tell me how fast they were able to go afterward?

well my car has 3.73 gears and i must say you accelerate real fast i know i got it over 100 but dunno how fast i was goin speedo stops at 85 on my car :eek7:

the top speed on my Z is listed as 160, but the fastest I have ever gotten it is just over 135. I am just concerned because I still want to be able to get to at least 140.

lol i dont think you can oyou get 140 with your speed limiter , you should figure out what you really want , a good take off , or top speed? what is this car gunna be used for daily driver? i heard 3.73 can get high on the freeway

Thats where your wrong... '94's don't have speed limiters. I think thats the last year before they put them in. The limiters are set up at just about 120-125, and I have gotten to 135. Also I saw a stock '94 go 155.

damm really? i thought they all had speed limiters

I've been wondering the same exact thing. I've got 2.73s in my 96 Z28, no top speed limiter. I've had it to 147 (check out my cardomain) and that was in 3rd gear (4 speed auto trannsmission). I would really like 3.73s, but I'd still like to be able to hit 150 if possible. Someone has to know the answer to this...

I have 3.73's with a Auto and in Third your done at about 110 -120 MPH and 4th your done somewhere around 145 -150 MPH. I havn't hit top in forth just what I heard from other F-body owner with same gears but I have hit 3rd and I was hitting the Rev limiter at somewhere around 110 -120.

Why worry about how much it affects your top speed. I mean honestly, how ofen do you go abou 100 MPH. ( If you say all the time you are a retard because noone does and the people that do are sitting in jail right now because they are retards.)

Well of course I rarely go above 100, but it's still nice to know you can hit 150 if you have to show someone else what's up...

The major concern with doing gears should be gas milleage as to what rpm's your going to be at highway speed and if its a strip car trap speed in 1/4 as you don't want to top out before you hit the 1/4 which won't be a problem in your case

Well of course I rarely go above 100, but it's still nice to know you can hit 150 if you have to show someone else what's up...


sorry eck but ur cars a piece, ud never be able to show anyone up! Love, Camarochick:grinno:

The main thing I would worry about would be cruising RPM. Its bad on gas when your doing say 80 miles an hour and your engine is spinning at 4k, plus its loud and gets annoying after a long drive.

Try going here and using the RPM calculater to figure out how high your car would be cruising at.

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/calculations.shtml

If you have a 6 spd 3.73s shouldnt be a big deal but I would stick with something around 3.42s or something with an automatic.

94camaroZ28, If you decide to get 3.42's I have a spare set in excellent condition I will let go real cheap and I have a install kit sitting around here also with a Richmond install video. Let me know

Hypsi87, that was a really lame comment dude. I go about 125 everyday on my way to work in the morning... and I am yet to get a ticket in my Z28 for the last 4 years.

Thanks for the offer Formula, but I am going with 3.73 if I do... first comes the heads and cam.

damm really? i thought they all had speed limiters
umm in your picture you were about at 6k rpm lol
and you were in 3rd gear? i thought there was usually one OD gear bah i dont know but i dont think your gunna hit 147 with your 3.73's lol but why would you want to?

Geeze... I like driving 130 down the freeway, and I wanna be even faster off the line. Thats why I asked the original question... whats the big deal folks.

well, its true that lowering gears will reduce top end speed, however it has much more impact on lower power vehicles, for instance, in my 89 RS with 170hp, putting the 3.73 gears in place of the 2.73 would KILL my top end, id probly max out at my speed limiter at 115mph. maybe less. but off the line would be killer. however i think that 94camaroZ28 has enough power on tap, and in the works, to power through to 150 with the gears. but i still throw out, that i recomend no more than 3.42's for a daily driver. especially with gas prices going the way they are.

gas is finally goin down tho last week it was 2.15 here and now its down to 2.03

Hypsi87, that was a really lame comment dude. I go about 125 everyday on my way to work in the morning... and I am yet to get a ticket in my Z28 for the last 4 years.

Thanks for the offer Formula, but I am going with 3.73 if I do... first comes the heads and cam.
true... you just gotta know when and where to do it. i got pulled over once but that was park police, and it was cuz i was doing donuts in their parking lot :iceslolan i was goin about 110 but i slowed down to 80 for them.. i plead not guilty cuz they had no lasers. ill just pay a lawyer $100 to get it dismissed, for now its postponed till next year. 110 isnt really that much when everyone around u is going 80-90.

lol, wow, so just because you havent got nailed, or crashed your car, its normal and perfectly ok????? its not, driving over 100 on any road with other traffic is recless, i hope nothing bad ever happens to any of yall who do it, but when it does, oh man, youre gonna be hatin life, my preaching is over. wheres the peanuts????

hahaha look at my gallery , believe me i know pain.........
thats actually pretty good looking that was like a month after the accident.. man i miss my car more then any thing..

Hey formula did, did ur car come with the 3.73's?
did u feel a big difference?
I recently put some in my car and i originaly had 3.23's. The thing is i really didn't feel much of a difference but it could be that i am just not used to driving my car. i don't use it very often.

Yeah I noticed a difference, especially in my shifts , I have a Transgo shift kit so it use to chirp the tires from 1-2 Shift and nothing in the 2-3 under WOT but after the gears I have smoke from my 1-2 and a chirp in 2-3 plus my 1st gear you have to be gentile with

yeah i bet u got to be careful especially considering that u have an LT1 being that u already have a good lowend.

Well the thing is that my car already spun the tires on the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts while in drive while racing.

Wow impressive. I don't think I have raced a Auto LS1 that could do that yet on the 2-3. Did it always or have you had work done?

It started doing it after i put the Hpp3 and the 160 degree stat. It has always done the 1-2 shift.

The only thing is that i have always had a sorry low end. All my friends in their LS1's would lay some mean burnouts while i would always chicken out cause my car wouldn't that well. The good thing is that i they don't stand a chance when we race cause i don't peel out.

Yeah those LS1's come pretty strong right from the factory and with some small mods they become pretty Bad A$$. That 40 - 50 advantage they have over the LT1 really shows on Top end.