[Mark42]

Originally Posted by Slow-V6

So do you gain power from gears like you stated earlier or not?

The engine is making the same hp and tq now as it did before the gear change. When I said it was because of more hp, I was referring to the fact that the rpm is higher with the lower gears, therefore the engine is into a higher hp rpm range than before. Not that installing gears magically creates more hp output.

Originally Posted by Slow-V6

Wheel hop is not spinning tires!! If you could spin tires at will with your new rear then why are you complaining that everytime you try to do a burnout or just get on it the car wheel hops?

Well, yes you can have spinning tires and wheel hop at the same time. Unfortunately for me, that is exactly what I experience, and the pavement proves it by showing a foot of solid rubber mark, then a 3" gap, then 6" of rubber, 3" gap, etc.

I'm not trying to do smokey burnouts. Just trying to launch the car as hard as I can to get the best 0-60 time. In my other cars, the best acceleration usually came with a small amount of wheel spin.

I don't want to throw money at a lot of heavy duty suspension upgrades, like LCA relocation brackets, new tubular LCA's, new springs, heim ends, etc, when a stock V8 camaro/firebird making more hp and tq than my car, can launch hard and have no wheel hop. The factory setup works for thousands of V8 Fbodies, and it should work for my V6 making considerably less hp and tq.

So experience tells me that there is probably something wrong, worn or broken that is preventing the rear suspension from performing properly. So before spending hundreds on race grade parts, I want to be sure that the parts I have are good, because they should be doing the job.

Regarding the discussion of torque and the affect of gears, think of this: A bolt that requires 90 ft/lbs of torque to unscrew it has a 1 foot long box end wrench on it with a 10 lb weight attached to the end of the wrench. That is 10 ft/lbs of torque and will not unscrew the bolt. Hang 100 lbs on the box wrench, and the bolt will unscrew. But if you put a 10 foot extension on the box wrench, and hang the 10 lb weight on it, it will also unscrew the bolt.

Why? Its still just the same 10 lbs pulling on the bolt. So why did 10 lbs break the bolt free on a 10 foot long wrench, but not a 1 foot long wrench?

Because of leverage. The extension multiplies the torque x 10, creating 100 ft/lbs of torque from the same 10 lb weight.

Gears do the same they multiply the available torque. Same as the trans does, etc.

But even with the approx. 20% increase in gear ratio, I think the stock parts should handle the job.

Thanks for all your responses. You have made some great points that have made me rethink a few things. And that's what these forums are all about, no?