PolishX

how do I find out what gears came in my 04 GT premium ?

REDFIRESNAKE

lookss like 355's

http://ford.jbcarpages.com/Mustang/2004/index4.php

Scothew

3.55's are correct.

PolishX

so what are the better gears ? everyone keeps talking about gears

REDFIRESNAKE

The best gears depends on what you want to do with the car and your situation. If you are looking for better off the line performance 4.10's will definitely wake up your ride. The downside is that it decreases your gas mileage.
Scott has 4.10's on his '96 Cobra. Maybe he can elaborate further

Scothew

OK before i go into a long spill about all this, the first thing we need to know is what do you want from the car in the long run.

Also something to note before you get gears, you have to have a computer chip or flash to recalibrate the computer/speedo for the gear change. I cannot remember off the top of my head if an 04 can use a speedcal or not from Dallas Mustang Performance. If you can, it is somewhat cheaper than a chip, but you also get better performance from a chip in the way of more power, better fan turn on/off times, better fuel mileage etc.

Now for the gears part.

Gears are good for one thing. They help accelerate. This one simple mod can make the car feel like it gained 50+hp although you actually gained none. The taller the gear (numerically higher) the faster the engine will accelerate, at the same time you loose some top end speed.

You will find with a taller gear that cruise speeds are now at a higher rpm, therefore using some more gas. Also something to think about if you go with a taller gear (say 4.10 or higher), traction is going to be much more of a problem than you had before. The engine can spin the tires much easier now with the same amount of power than it did before.

If you are a drag racer and visit the track a few times a month or seriously want to play with other cars and dont mind getting drag radials on the back or to swap out at the track, then something like 4.10's are great for you. They are a great street/strip gear providing very good gains and quick accel off the line, assuming you dont blow the tires off the back. Expect 80mph in 5th to be around 3,000 rpm or so.

If you are more into just street cruising, occasional drag strip stuff, or you are into corner carving, from my experience I would go with 3.73's or keep the 3.55's. These give you a tad more play in your rpm ranges so you can hold a gear out longer going through the apex of a sweeping turn or something like that. It will still give you better acceleration off hte line over the older GT's with 3.27 stock gears, but it may not be as noticeable in the Seat Of The Pants dyno as the 4.10's would give.

I run 4.10's, but I also have a 32v motor which is more towards top end. My car doesnt make near the low end power a 99+ GT does, so 4.10's are almost the minimum for it. I could run 4.30s on the street and still be ok. 4.10's are a great all around gear, but you may find yourself wanting to be running less rpm's than what you would be.

PolishX

I have the superchips tuner already so regearing and the speedo/ odometer is easy stuff ..my wife uses it as a DD in the summer is all , and would like to maximize the "feeling " of HP and having some get up to it is prefered ... I think 3.73 sounds like the best blend since I will not be at a drag track or whatever , I like stop light off the line kindo go- jo ...now the question is , Ford Racing parts ? Richmond gear ? who do I go with

Scothew

Ford Racing hands down!!! I've had friends use other gears and the FRPP ones are always the most reliable and the quietest. Trust me on this one.

joker

some may argue this but FRPP gears are the best in my opinion. I have seen some gear installers that simply would not install anything other than frpp gears because of problems with noise from other companies gears.

PolishX

cool thanks fellas wasnt sure if the FRPP stuff was really worth it