I am anxiously awaiting my factory ordered Black RT. I had Corvettes and recently sold my last one, a 96 collectors edition LT4 6speed, in favor of my 03 chevy truck that seats a few more people. Man, do I miss that vette. Trucks suck. No handling, no speed. Long story short, I drove the RT and it was the best of both worlds. I can't wait for mine.

My first noobie question...It seems to me that the easiest way to get some additional performance out of the RT would be to step up the gearing in the rear end. 2.82 seems really tall, especially with a 5 speed auto. Jumping up to around 3.5 would really give it some acceleration. Anyone know anything about this? A supercharger is on my list but I think we'll be waiting a little while for that one.

Thanks

 

There should be no problem getting the gears from the V6 models. 3.46 and 3.90's i believe. But no confirmation as of yet if they are the same.

 

Yes. I am hoping that using the gears from the SE or SXT will be possible. I guess this is assuming that all three models use the same diferential. I was disapointed that a rear end ratio wasnt an option.

On a similar note...Does anyone know the gear ratios for the 5 speed auto? I'm trying to calculate the pro and cons of a gear swap.

 

5 speed gears are
1st - 3.59
2nd 2.19
3rd - 1.41
4th - 1.00
5th - .83

Rear gears available are
2.82 (r/t)
3.64 (sxt)
3.90 (se)

 

I wouldn't be swapping the rear ends out with the V6's without having it checked out first. Mostly because I bet the axels aren't strong enough as is. It just means we will probably have a blue print to work off of, but we will have to get the computer redone too. And who knows how hard it will be to reprogram this computer....

 

I agree with the others who have concerns related to the strength and suitability of the gears from the SE and SXT. I have another possible solution though...

As I have said elsewhere on this forum, with around 5000 ticks on the odometer, I am completely dissatisfied with the stock Continentals on the RT. My biggest beef is their tendancy to hydroplane (especially the fronts) in heavy rain. This does not bode well for winter handling. A quick search of the Tire Rack's inventory shows that the only tires in factory size are, you guessed it, Continentals. However, stepping down in aspect ratio to a 225/40 gives you an entire range of good tires (including ultra high performance all seasons). The 225/40 aspect ratio also effectively changes your gear ratio to from 2.82 to 3.21 (225/40's go from a circumference of 89.94 inches to 78.81 inches) which should provide noticable low end boost. Now this does not effect true hp or torque numbers but math is math and the effect is the same. This will lead to a speedometer that reads 56.9 when you are going 65 but that can be corrected.

Any thoughts?

 

Swapping out the tires is a great idea. Especially if the speedometer is recalibrated easily. My only concer would be the stance of the Magnum. It has such massive wheel wells as it is I would hate for there to be even more space.

As far as everyone's concern with the rear end wap out here's my thoughts...It is my guess that the rear ends are all the same, just the gearing is different to make up for the lack of torque from the smaller engines. So swaping out the gears should be easy. As far as reprograming the computers...I think that this should be unnessesary other than the speedometer. Swapping out tires makes a big diference as blackmagnumrt pointed out previously and no one would worry about computer reprograming after they slap on the set of dub.

So other than strength and compatibilty issues I think a gear change would be very easliy done.

One other thought and I haven't done the math at all...but are the rear end gears actual or might they be the same gear and then calculated based on tire diameter? Something to think about.

 

The gear numbers would be actual, not calculated based of tire size.

 

You shouldn't have to recal the speedometer with the mangum's gear change, assuming it has antilock brakes in the rear. My 01 dakota is going to get new gears real soon, and the sensor that determines the speed of the axle resides in the right hand part of the differential. You can change to any gears, and it reads the correct speed. Tires are a different story......

 

I wouldn't count on us having the same system. As far as I can tell our car isn't even that close to the HEMI Rams.