3.73 installation time

[bag91]

Originally Posted by 97cavalier

I have the same year and style car, a 91 r.s camaro tbi, and i got a quote for 3.73 and he said $250 labor and $110 for gears. And another great mod for the tbi is heads and headers. I am going to go to a junk yard and get some tpi heads and have them redone, to rebuild them it is going to be like $210 for both.

It should be more than that.....but thats just my opinion.
Anyways, got em in......very sweet. Has anyone noticed with the stock 2.73 when you put a muffler on it, you lose some low end torque.....well I did and it was very noticeable. My car would shift down too low....out of the torque range and it would take a few valuable seconds to get to the range. With the 3.73's though, its like you press the gas pedal down less to about half way down and you stay right in the torque range its sweet. I actually did my first wheel spin with em from a stop, with the 2.73's it was almost impossible. The only downside is I dont have the money at this point to change the speedo and its way WAY off. Doing 65, the speedo says like 100/ 105, dont know exactely....lol. The guy said to multiply something by three and subtract to figure it out but I forgot what he said, if anyone knows let me know..........

[97cavalier]

Originally Posted by bag91

It should be more than that.....but thats just my opinion.
Anyways, got em in......very sweet. Has anyone noticed with the stock 2.73 when you put a muffler on it, you lose some low end torque.....well I did and it was very noticeable. My car would shift down too low....out of the torque range and it would take a few valuable seconds to get to the range. With the 3.73's though, its like you press the gas pedal down less to about half way down and you stay right in the torque range its sweet. I actually did my first wheel spin with em from a stop, with the 2.73's it was almost impossible. The only downside is I dont have the money at this point to change the speedo and its way WAY off. Doing 65, the speedo says like 100/ 105, dont know exactely....lol. The guy said to multiply something by three and subtract to figure it out but I forgot what he said, if anyone knows let me know..........

Great, i will have to get the spedo fixed, how much does it cost?

[Link85x]

That's awesome bag. Whats your next move? You got headers yet?

[bag91]

Originally Posted by Link85x

That's awesome bag. Whats your next move? You got headers yet?

I dont know how much the speedo is but its ok for now, Im figuring it out the more I drive, and those signs on the streets that tell your speed really help, everytime I see a cop I freak and try to go pretty slow....lol

My next move......probably a new torque converter, but not for a while.
No headers yet......debating because I want to spend most for performance, and I dont see enough reason to spend money on em.....yet

[Savage Messiah]

tq verter is a good choice!

[bag91]

yup......eventually.

[Savage Messiah]

I'm going with 3200

[bag91]

Does that seem a little high.........
Me, probably 2000 something.......

[bag91]

Oh wait, yours can get higher RPM's right, whats your redline?

[Genopsyde]

uhh, header will prolly be one of the most performance beneficial things to do.

[Nate355RS]

Headers on the l03 help out a lot. But if you can't afford to have you car out of commission for at least a full day than you probably want to look for a shop to put them on if you can find one that will do it. Mine took about three days of off and on work, but I had just about no idea what I was doing either.

[bag91]

What kind of headers......I was thinking some Flowtech.......if I were to get them and how much would the labor be?

[Link85x]

Bag, Geno is right. They are one of the most beneficial mods you can do for our cars. They wake the hell out of them. When i installed mine (it was out of comish for the weekend, 1st time install, but pretty easy), there was a major difference in performance and economy. 0-60 was much quicker, throttle response is excellent, mgas mileage increased, i can even get sideways with the 305 when i punch from a dig (due to the 4.11 and posi, thank god!!) I went with edelbrock tes ceramic coat $500! Spent my whole paycheck on them, but i assume that any header will vastly improve and give you the grin you want. Our stock exhaust manifolds are very, very restrictive.

[Nate355RS]

If you don't like the sight of rusted metal in your engine bay get ceramic coated headers. Mine had the paint on them any they were rusted all over in a couple weeks. It's worth the extra money.

[DVS LT1]

I think the speed sensor for the 3rd gens was mechanical - on the 4th gens you had to modify the computer. From 2.73 to 3.73 the changes in speedo will be quite a lot - not so much at lower speeds but its a ratio so the faster you go the more out of whack it will get.

I did a similar swap about two years ago - on the street I can say the car woke up and then some... I was always getting killed being stuck in the wrong gear (A4) but now it was insane the amount of torque it made. Shredding tires all through first and then screaming into second for like 4 seconds...

On the track though "I" personally didn't get to see that much of a difference. My best with the 2.93's I had (yes not 2.73's) was 13.8 @ 101 mph - that was a hot summer day on BFG G-Force. A few years later when I tired out the 3.73's it was a cold and damp Oct. day on much harder Firestone Firehawk tires... best time was 13.7 @ 102 Mph, with lots of violent wheel hop down the line and the car getting slightly sideways shifting in second. I know it could have done better had the conditions been better but it wouldn't have been that better... half a second maybe.



ANyhow, changing gears is indeed a very complicated job. If done right there should be NO gear whine... they should install them with special paint on the gears, drive it around , take them out so see the wear pattern on the gears, then shim the gears within the differential accordingly.