American Racing Headers, SCT tune, or 3.55 gears? Where's the biggest gains?

Which ones offers the most gain Gen III?

  • American Racing Headers with high flow cats

    Votes: 12 30.0%
  • 3.55 gears

    Votes: 23 57.5%
  • SCT/ or DC tune

    Votes: 5 12.5%

  • Total voters
    40

fqberful

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The 3.55's make the car way more driveable, make 6th gear usable at reasonable speeds, and give you a pretty good bang for the buck. For a Gen III get a unit from Unitrax with a Quaife and you'll love the improved handling as well. That would be my 1st mod. Then I'd add headers and a tune as well as a cooler TStat which is usually required by the more aggressive tunes. Those 3 will enhance the 3.55's again, or the 3.55's will enhance the other 3, you pick it :2tu:

I have a Gen III ['06] and did a tune and TStat first [ B&G ] and didn't get much from it, a little better torque in the mid range but with the revised fan and TStat much cooler operating temps which is a plus. The 3.55's really woke it up. 3.55's rock! Adding headers [M&M] and the MOPAR track exhaust woke the tune up.
 
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FLATOUT

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Thanks Guys!

I ordered the 3.73's today as it's the right gear for what I am wanting to do with this build ( Bolt on car for the streets, and 1/4 mile ). Next mod will be a set of American Racing Headers, and a tune.

Thanks guys!

Now I need to find an installer in my area for the 3.73's, the tech at Tomball Dodge only wanted to install the gears if I ordered the whole unit with the gears already installed. Didn't want to spend that much so I will look for a shop in the area that is good with the Dana 44's.

Andy:2tu:
 

BAD BOYZZ GARAGE

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FLATOUT,

Do a MGW Shifter upgrade with a new urethane transmission mount. It will really help your shifting speeds. I ran a Unitrax Polished 3.73 ring & pinion set in my GTS and I had alot of fun with the gear ratio, that being said it made me better with my shifting because the revs come up real quick. I called that BAD BOY my Saturday Night Special because it was a stump puller & not much could take me ( stop sign to stop sign ).

Best of luck on finding a good local tech for your build & enjoy your gear ratio choice:usa:

Toddy
 
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Canyon707

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The only draw back with 3.73 drag racing is you hit your 4th gear redline just short of the trap. I acutally thing the perfect gear for a sorta stock viper is about 3.63 that would finish you at your shift point in 4th. I had 60' times of 1.5 with 3.73 and now with my 3.54 I do 60' 1.78 but my trap speeds have hit 123mph It is really hard to get it perfect my best run 11.606 was only 119 mph with 3.54 setup. I actually think my new tires made a big difference running 18" rears M&H Racemasters. First outing with these tires ran 11.85, 11.84, 11.86, 11.85 then I lost on a red light. I had videos on youtube with me running 11.76 and getting scratch in 2nd and 3rd with Mickey Thompsons so I was giving some time up there. Anyway 3.73 gears I loved they would destroy most to 330' 3.54 are better for drag racing IMHO Who can make some 3.63???
Thanks
 
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FLATOUT

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That's always the case isn't it lol. I figured I'd have to make the shift so we'll see how it goes. I do run the mgw shifter as well. I went 11.98@120 bone stock on my 20's lol.

Thanks everyone for your advice.
 

Twister

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Tornado were in the world do you get that gears have never shown an improvement at the track? Dude I have tons of drag strip experience with multiple platforms on real race tracks, not with a g-tech pro strapped to my windshield. You can and absolutely will see gains at the track when you swap gearing. You won't see gains on the dyno but you do see it at the track.

OK we seem to be confused. first and foremost I have over 1000 passes at actual drag strips.

Secondly I think we are useing the word track differantly. At a drag strip I belieave their is no gain.

On a road course however or "track" I belieave their is substantial gain.

I can say with a straight face that their are not many people as interested in bolt on viper performance as I am. I dont care much for turbos or SC's or juice. But I LOVE bolt on performance and H/C applications..

After numerous studying and even races against other vipers that had 3.55 gears while I had stock 3.07 gears and both at similar power levels..

Their is just no proven gain in 1/4 mile performance with gears..

Show one time slip were a gen3 was running 122 stock and then after gears was running 125 mph...How about going from 122 to 124 mph..

can you even show me were someone honestly picked up any mph from gears???

Their is just to real gain.

If my studying had showed their was a gain then I would have them on my todo list..

The reality is that a stock gen2 or stock gen3 is VERY capable of running 1.7 60 foots on the stock tires with great driving. But 98% of the time the torque added with the 3.07 gearing will just spin the tires to hell and 2.0 60 foots will occur.

So if we cant even put the power down with the 3.07 gears then what the heck do we acomplish with 3.33's or 3.55's?

Most SPORTS cars are around 300 torque sae. my vette was and had 2.73 gears. On this car you couldnt spin the tires if you tried while launching..

The 2.73 geared C5's constanytly trapped 103 mph while the 3.15 geared vettes trapped 105. this ius auto to auto so in this case gears made a noticable diferance. the 3.42 geared manual c5's trapped 107..

Again same car with 3 differant gear sets..But the thing is they all had such lil torque that the gears really helped..

With vipers you are talking aboiut any were from 450-540 torque sae on a dyno get from gen1 to gen4...

They spin the tire at will..Most of the time on accident and thats why we wreck them so easily.

The viper has never been proven to be faster with gearing. Everytime I read a review of some one who went to the drag strip after adding gears I get all excited and then see that they ran no faster than before they had the gears as far as mph...Then they HAVE to make that shift to 4th were with the stock 3.07's it's 50/50
 

Twister

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OK I see you went ahead with the 3.73's..

You have a documented 11.98 at 120 mph. it would be nice to know if you will be running the 3.73 gear set up at the same strip and the weather conditions in comparison.I wish you well and it would be GREAT to see some documented 1/4 mile improvemnt from a gen3 gear swap
 
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FLATOUT

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You have got to be the biggest idiot on the web Turdnado. Your right gears offer zero gain in acceleration. So every enthusiast as well as the majority of the people in this thread buy them simply for "feel" and nothing else. You have totaled what 2 vipers now and have been destroyed by every Nissan GTR on the planet.

Wait aren't you also the genius that keeps a list of Bolton dynos? You do realize that every dyno even when corrected will be different from other numbers from across the country.

Also if you are still running your stock gear set how would you even compare the performance gains? You do realize with a set of 4.10's you might lose 10 rwhp on your dynos but reduce your et by 2-3 tenths.

Way to shoot down half a century of automotive know how. I heard twin turbos offer no real gain either you might want to stay away from those as well.
 
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FLATOUT

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Also my viper is considerably slower, and makes less torque than my last three modded cars so the whole 500 ftlbs of uncontrollable torque is relative to what your used to. Also they do make big boy tires if you can't handle the gear swap.
 

Twister

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No reason for chidish name calling ect. I have raced a buddies viper that had 3.55 gears to my 3.07s and I tell you their is no gain. You compare all these other cars ect. Vipers are quite differant. Again show me the timeslips of before and after were some one added gears and was faster in a viper.
 

Canyon707

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my data logger shows every shift .4 seconds x3 and you have 1.2 seconds of flat excelleration. Make that something to improve on. I think the 3.07 are just a pain in the butt and way less fun for normal driving. the 3.73 qre way more exciting at the bottom and the 3.55 are in between.
 

Twister

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Canyon I defiently agree with you. no one could dispute the funner to drive argument. EVERYONE reports that the gear change feels like 50 more HP.

Im hopeing Flatout will report an 11.6 at 124 mph with nothing but the gear change and still on his 20 inch rims he used for his 11.98 at 120.

Then I will belieave it
 
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FLATOUT

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Man you are thick.

You really think all these viper
owners would change their gears because of a more "fun" feeling?

In all my years on automotive forums this ranks as the number one most ridiculous debate I have ever been a part of.
 

Twister

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all those viper owners..

How many people even on this viper forum actually drag race their Gen3 SRT10 cars??

what 10 of them???

Ill **** when you prove me wrong..Right now are you are doing is ignoreing facts and talking
 

Twister

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A flat out...I found some AMAZING day time vids of the following on youtube...

a 2009 ssg coupe with the only mod being 4.10 gears

a 2009 ssg convertable with No mods


first race...40-140 mph..Both starting in second gear the 4.10'd coupe is 3 cars ahead at 140 mph.....

wait Im gonna go look at the vids again before I say anymore
 

Twister

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I had posted the 3 vids but I eliminated them..Im gonna check with the modeerator first to see what he says about german vids..


Again it is hard to say if one is really faster than the othger..just depends on the mph start point and gear selection from what Im seeing
 
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tucker

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I had posted the 3 vids but I eliminated them..Im gonna check with the modeerator first to see what he says about german vids..

German vids are expressly prohibited. Please see the German block symbol below.

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