3.31 vs 3.55 vs. 3.73

[DanielIvan]

Hi all,

So my purchase date is approaching soon and I have a question. Before we get into the question though, I need to explain how the car will be driven. From point A to point B with mixed highway and street driving. To car meets an hour away from home every now and then, highway driving. Road tripping and canyon cruising. Occasionally, but not very often a straight 30,40, or 50 mph roll - very occasional though. Overall happy driving - but nothing intense.

I'd also like a decent fuel economy. Not sure how good a V8's fuel economy is going to be with my heavy foot, but if I could at least get a couple of extra miles to the gallon, even better.

So my question is 3.31 gears, 3.55 gears, or 3.73 gears and why?

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[Khyber]

you're gonna get every excuse in this thread but in a dd driving speed limit you're still shifting at low rpms if you want to have any mpg at all no matter what the diff is. it's really not a big deal but someone will chime in here whining about 3.73's for the most stupidest reasons ever. lol it happens every time this is asked.

3.73 and pp is what I got and I can get up to 19 in town and about 24 on interstate.

 

[Brad]

If you are going to go FI stray away from 3.73's.

 

[Five0GT]

I have 3.31 and get 10mpg around town. 13 highway.
I want to swap my gears to 3.73 for better acceleration. For what you're doing since you don't seem to do much drag type races and care about mpg I'd go 3.55. It's right in between and you can't really go wrong. Also only $400 more than base. The 3.73 you'd have to buy a performance pack car

 

[evo8904]

If you are going to go FI stray away from 3.73's.

This...I am swapping to 3.31 soon.

 

[DanielIvan]

Good responses from all of you and so far, it sounds like you're all telling me to stay away from 3.73 gears. Noted.

I'm not going for PP because I'd be changing out everything. So i just figured stick to premium and get the black accent pack instead. No plans for forced induction either. It's not a race car that I'm idealizing here, it's a show car/daily driver. I live in LA where traffic sucks like 17 out of 24 hours a day and most car mods are illegal anyway. With that said, I've been doing some research outside of Mustang 6G and have found that other's also feel the same way in regards to 3.73 vs 3.55 in that it looks like 3.73 is a good all around ratio with a little extra oomph for dragging and 3.55 is just a good ratio all around.

I think 3.55s are definitely for me but the forum is still open for everyone to chime in...

 

[rio16]

they are all good gears... depends on what your goal is... etc... either DD, NA, FI then its all matter of preference...

 

[BmacIL]

I'm very happy with 3.31s as a DD gear. You have enough torque so you can be in nearly any gear at any time. Also gets 27-28 mpg on the highway.

 

[ManBearPig]

The 3.73 feels awfully short until you get to top gear cruising. The car will barely pull 6th gear, I can't imagine what a 3.3x or 3.5x would be like. Ideally I would like a slightly taller final drive with a shorter OD gear in the trans.

Then again I've never driven a new GT other than my own car so my opinion (as most here) will be virtually worthless without anything else to compare against.

 

[IvanCRF]

With 3.55s:

From memory, at 75mph and in 6th gear, the car is at around 2350 RPM. It would not be too fun using I-10 to go across Texas with the 85MPH speed limit for hours on end. I have regularly gotten over 26MPG on long road trips through New Mexico. The car can lug around in 3rd gear without any gas and roll out in 2nd without any gas. Traction is easily lost at will with the stock tires, going into 2nd gear readily loses traction and 3rd gear still chirps the tires. 6th gear has no guts when driving around on the highway and I use it as a super overdrive.

 

[Ultrakla$$ic]

Auto & 3.55 gears


/end thread

 

[GT Pony]

I have 3.31 and get 10mpg around town. 13 highway.

Say what? Are you cruising around in only gears 1 thru 3?

 

[pilot0987]

I must be crazy. I am running 3.73 with 1100WHP

 

[GT Pony]

I'm very happy with 3.31s as a DD gear. You have enough torque so you can be in nearly any gear at any time. Also gets 27-28 mpg on the highway.

Same here ... 3.31 with the close ratio MT82 gearing for 1st through 5th works well for a DD car. 5th gear in the MT82 is 1:1, which is usually 4th gear on other transmissions.

 

[BBB]

I like my 3.73's

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