I’ve been wanting to change my 3.0 gears and found a complete 8.8 from a fox body 3.73 lsd locally a lot cheaper than a 3rd member. Has anyone done this? What’s involved?
Personally, I think the 3.73 gear set works pretty good in a Fox body Mustang because the transmission has overdrive. I think you will be disappointed with a 302 and no overdrive, it will accelerate better but be too slow for any type of cruise on the freeway.
I think the 3.00 gears are nearly ideal. Just add horsepower.
Thank you sir. I’ve actually been set on a 3.5 gear change with a locker but a buddy mentioned the 8.8 and I went down the rabbit hole.
Personally the 3.50 gears are too tall for freeway cruising too. Even with the 427 / 428 cars they are screaming with no overdrive on the freeway. I had 3.25 to one gears in a Cougar with a 302 in the 1990’s and it was fine in town but had to turn off the AC to drive on the freeway due to overheating even with a 4 core 24 inch radiator.
I agree that without an overdrive trans, 3:73’s are too steep for anything other than just around the neighborhood.
My G-body wagon came with 3:73s. Going down a neighboring street, I think I’m doing 40 mph. The speedometer was reading 80 MPH and the tach was reading 4 GRAND! I’ve since switched out that rear gear.
Now, in my Cougar, I’ve driven all over the eastern half of the USA with 3:50s in the 9" rear and no overdrive in the C6. However, the rear tires are 27.5" tall which helped tremendously. At freeway speeds, it was taching between 2500 and 2800 at most.
I have a C-4 with the transgo 2 stage shift kit. I’m a weekend driver and don’t hit the freeway. I was looking for a better street light change and a lot of folks say changing the gears will wake up the car before anything else so that’s why I asked instead of spending a ton on motor upgrades.
With the motor upgrades the previous owner has done I’d imagine spinning the tires from a stop would be fairly easy….not so much though.
Spinning the tires also depends how good of traction you have.
No matter how good the engine components are, they have to be in proper tune.
Gear change for more leverage will certainly help acceleration As mentioned, the trade off is highway cruising.
Change your gear to a 4.11. Then you will be motivated to put in an overdrive trans to have the best of both worlds.
Easy swap. Cut off all ears on 8.8. Smooth it out. Get 2 driver side ford ranger 8.8 axles for cheap 5 lug conversion, drum brakes also. Get new u bolts, possibly pinion u joint if you don’t use the factory flange. A 2wd explorer has a good driveshaft that goes right in to c-4 and flange. New spring perches, set up driveline angle, tack perches, weld up perches and axle tubes. Done.