So I'm currently running 2.79 gears in the rear (5.0L EFI), and i don't wanna spend the exorbitant amount of money to get different gears... so the next logical solution would be to raise the torque curve. Right now the peak torque is right around 1,500 or 2,200 right? Well I heard that shorter intake runners can raise those numbers. Would simply removing the EGR spacer(that i'm not using) have a similiar effect? What kind of modification(cheap ones) could i make that would help raise my torque curve?
longer runners increase low end torque. decreasing plunum volume also increases low end perfomance. the egr spacer represents plenum volume not runner length. so to increase the low end torque perfomance of your intake, put a thick phenolic spacer between the upper and lower intake and the egr spacer eliminator plate in. rember the throttle cable bracket bolts to the spacer. accufab makes spacer that is 1/2 thick. now will you feel any difference..... most likely no.
X 2 on this. It's a complete waste of time trying to correct the axle ratio by trying to vary the intake runner length.
Gear change is the best bang for the dollar, but like you said…it’s a big dollar. Personally I don't think you will feel any seat of the pants difference by removing the EGR spacer. You might see a slight difference in your ET on the drag strip. The cheapest way to 'feel' performance is use a lighter spring on your advance weights inside your distributor.
I am not sure which rearend you have, but what about going to wrecking yard or pick-pull yard and getting a pumpkin with 3.5's. You certainly don't need to spend the money for a posi unit, but this should cost a lot less than buying gears and having them setup for you. Too bad you don't live closer to Bryant, I'm sure he would make you a great deal on gears and setting up the third member. With that said, and everyone else has said the same thing, changing the torque curve with a different intake, or modifiying headers...........or pretty much anything else you can try will just not make any difference. On my 408 Drag motor I spent a pile of money to modify the equal lenght headers to give me a little more bottom end, but .1 or .2 seconds is all I am looking for along with loosening up my convertor..............I have spend more money trying to gain 1/10ths of a second than it would to buy two pumpkins for your car....................I don't mean to be harsh here, but we are all friends on this forum..................and what you are trying to do is just not going to work. Plain and simple, you do need to change gears................otherwise you will just be chasing your tail...and probably become more frustrated..............................IMHO
Doing more research i also realized the only way to really get big changes in Torque band is cam and intake right? I guess I'm just throwing questino out there trying to learn more. Thank You all.
As bmcdaniel said, and I had not even thought about, changing the gears in the trans could give you the same benefits as changing the rearend gears, but not sure what the cost differential would be..no pun intended. Sure, you can increase torque with a cam and intake, and in a fuel injected motor like yours a good fresh air intake will also help, but one of the most efective ways of increasing torque is to bore and stroke, along with increasing compression. And don't forget the exhaust system, you can increase torque by modifing the headers, or building headers for that specific purpose. I had my equal lenght headers redesigned to put a little more grunt at the tree which should improve my 60' times, so it's just not about adding a cam and intake, remember, you need to make sure all of the components of the motor work together, also remember, that a motor is nothing other than an "Air Pump", the more air you put..........the more you need to get out..............IMHO
My tranny is a T-5. and somebody on here did the conversion and seem like my gears come out to be about the same as a C4 i think they said... which don't make sense to me think they'd be alot higher... Also I'm trying to build the "right" Motor I guess. but I also don't wanna build it to much(stock is usually more bullet proof). More torque higher in the band and higher gears I think. Maybe more spread out in the tranny, for good cruising and accel... I don't know. I'm just thinking of it all at once, not really focused at the moment.
What did the T-5 come out of? Some of those had pretty low first gear, they were made to run with a 3.07:1 axle ratio in the late 80's mustangs. The best thing you can do is look up exactly what you have and work from there, look at the tag on the transmission, and do an internet search for the number. That can tell you if you have the 3.35:1 first gear or the 2.95:1 first gear. (hopefully you dont have one of the other ratios they were put behind 4 bangers)
Your best bang for the buck is going to be found in gears, heads and cam. Intake spacers are preety much a waste of time and money for the results you get. They're easily changed parts, that's why they got such a popular thing to do, along with cold air intakes, but they yeild so little benefit, especially on a V8.
Yep, time to change rear gears. The T5's first gear is stiff (torquey). Note the gears I'm running with my T5 in my sig., the OD lets you get away with that. Even the Mustang's gears caused the engine to lug. Seems to me a 3.50 to 3.89 gear is about optimum with a T5 in our light cars.
