GEAR IT AND HAVE SOME FUN!!
I never dragged with my old 3.36 rear end ,but when i installed my 3.9 it felt like I had added another 30 HP to the engine.The torque multiplication in the lower gears was INCREDIBLE.Also the nicest benefit is that you dont have to spin your tires to get good off the line performance! This much I can tell you.When I got my nitto drag tires I was not impressed with my 1/8 mile times with the stock 82 ZX 5 speed and 3.9 rear end in my 71 240Z.I had run BETTER times with my normal street tires,the lack of wheel spin was not allowing the engine to get in its powerband before the tires hooked up. So ,I installed a 79 transmission input shaft and front counter shaft gear on my 82 zx 5 speed.This modification essentially changed my 3.9 reargear ratio on the first 3 gears to an effective 4.356. This may be a little confusing but changing the shaft on the tranny increases the 1st,2nd,3rd,and 5th gear ratios 11.7%.4th is not affected because it is 1:1. The math 3.9 x 1.117=4.356 4.356-3.9=0.456 increase in gear ratio Anyway after doing this my 1/8 mile time went from an 8.85 to a best of 8.55! So you can see that by changing from a 3.54 to 3.9 gear should pick you up nearly 2-2.5 tenths in the 1/8 mile!!! Going from 3.54 to 3.9 will give you about a 10% increase in torque in all 5 gears because you will actually be changing the rear gear ratio!! You should change your 3.54 to 3.9, it is the cheapest thing you can do to any Z car for a REAL noticable improvement in off the line acceleration and is mandatory when going to bigger cams which hurt off the line performance!! Later,norm
I never dragged with my old 3.36 rear end ,but when i installed my 3.9 it felt like I had added another 30 HP to the engine.The torque multiplication in the lower gears was INCREDIBLE.Also the nicest benefit is that you dont have to spin your tires to get good off the line performance! This much I can tell you.When I got my nitto drag tires I was not impressed with my 1/8 mile times with the stock 82 ZX 5 speed and 3.9 rear end in my 71 240Z.I had run BETTER times with my normal street tires,the lack of wheel spin was not allowing the engine to get in its powerband before the tires hooked up. So ,I installed a 79 transmission input shaft and front counter shaft gear on my 82 zx 5 speed.This modification essentially changed my 3.9 reargear ratio on the first 3 gears to an effective 4.356. This may be a little confusing but changing the shaft on the tranny increases the 1st,2nd,3rd,and 5th gear ratios 11.7%.4th is not affected because it is 1:1. The math 3.9 x 1.117=4.356 4.356-3.9=0.456 increase in gear ratio Anyway after doing this my 1/8 mile time went from an 8.85 to a best of 8.55! So you can see that by changing from a 3.54 to 3.9 gear should pick you up nearly 2-2.5 tenths in the 1/8 mile!!! Going from 3.54 to 3.9 will give you about a 10% increase in torque in all 5 gears because you will actually be changing the rear gear ratio!! You should change your 3.54 to 3.9, it is the cheapest thing you can do to any Z car for a REAL noticable improvement in off the line acceleration and is mandatory when going to bigger cams which hurt off the line performance!! Later,norm
