gearing and tires suggestions.

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:08 am

On I have an 88 bronco with 351W in her. I am going to be putting on a 4" suspension lift here shortly and will also be doing new tires. Where I am stuck at is deciding tire size and gearing. I figured I would wait till the lift was on it to see if I want to go with 33's or 35's. At the moment I am leaning towards the 35 just for the clearance. The bronco will mostly be used as a river rat. I will play down in the river bottoms and do a little wheelin with a local group.

Next, I am looking into changing the gearing. I am not quite sure what stock is on this but do know I have the ford limited slip rear end in it. With a 35 I was thinking about 488 gears and with 33" I was thinking 456. I want to make sure I have plenty of torque and power to the ground without putting major strain on the tranny.

Please let me know what you think. ALSO where to look to try and find what I need to change out gearing.

robertcrav · Post by **robertcrav** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:19 am

Well...you're '88 has a C6 non-overdrive trans so you may want to back the gearing down a bit...4.88s with 35s and no overdrive means your engine will be spinning at 3200 rpm at 70mph...4.10s would probably be enough

If you aren't familiar with changing gears I would suggest a shop near you set them up as it takes experience to set them up correctly

Andy Jones · Post by **Andy Jones** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:49 am

What gears would be recommended for a 95 351 with a e4od and 37's?

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The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:01 pm

robertcrav wrote:Well...you're '88 has a C6 non-overdrive trans so you may want to back the gearing down a bit...4.88s with 35s and no overdrive means your engine will be spinning at 3200 rpm at 70mph...4.10s would probably be enough

If you aren't familiar with changing gears I would suggest a shop near you set them up as it takes experience to set them up correctly

I def will be having the help of my local wheeling club to install anything like that. tHank you for the input so far... keep it coming.

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:07 pm

Everyone ive ralked to said 4.10 for 35s with a c6

robertcrav · Post by **robertcrav** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:48 pm

Andy Jones wrote:What gears would be recommended for a 95 351 with a e4od and 37's?

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If you have OD, I think 4.88s Andy...4.56s are numerically closer via the calculator but given the weight I would gear a bit lower

I posted up this Calculator the other day in the Gears thread, you can select your transmission, tcase, and tire size and gives you a bunch of different calculations not to mention you can put two combinations side by side
http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

D1cker1 · Post by **D1cker1** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 5:45 pm

Andy Jones wrote:What gears would be recommended for a 95 351 with a e4od and 37's?

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Im with you

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 6:49 pm

well after a little more research my bronco has OD..... its OD, D and 1st

Deleted Account · Post by **Deleted Account** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:46 am

its an aod... should be a 302 then as well.

robertcrav · Post by **robertcrav** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:48 am

He said 351 which should be a c6 tho...weird

Polarcub · Post by **Polarcub** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 4:29 pm

Andy Jones wrote:What gears would be recommended for a 95 351 with a e4od and 37's?

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4.88s.....5.13 you start losing strength in the pinion. For a real world I went to 4.88s with 33's and it was tolerable with the e4od you just had to limit freeway speed to about 65ish but great power, with 35's the 4.88s are great I can tow well with it and even pulling small trailers can pull cajon grade quite easily I do drop out of OD on grades (on purpose) but 65 is an easy speed to keep...with 37's I dont expect to lose much and I think highway mileage will improve slightly. FWIW with 35s and a tired 5.8 I see about 14 on the highway when I keep it under 70 and even towing I usually stay around 12. In the dirt 6-8 depending on how hard I am playing.

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:54 pm

Polarcub wrote:
Andy Jones wrote:What gears would be recommended for a 95 351 with a e4od and 37's?

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4.88s.....5.13 you start losing strength in the pinion. For a real world I went to 4.88s with 33's and it was tolerable with the e4od you just had to limit freeway speed to about 65ish but great power, with 35's the 4.88s are great I can tow well with it and even pulling small trailers can pull cajon grade quite easily I do drop out of OD on grades (on purpose) but 65 is an easy speed to keep...with 37's I dont expect to lose much and I think highway mileage will improve slightly. FWIW with 35s and a tired 5.8 I see about 14 on the highway when I keep it under 70 and even towing I usually stay around 12. In the dirt 6-8 depending on how hard I am playing.

This is the info i am getting from my local guys too.......And to those who are saying 88's should be one thing or the other I did a little research and in 88 the 351W came with the Od tranny in the XLT and a couple other models.

Were should I look for the parts to swap out to 488

Polarcub · Post by **Polarcub** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 6:21 am

There are several great manufacturers.....we deal with Nitro gear and axle and yukon primarily. I dont recomend you attempt to set your gears up unless you have someone that knows how to do it. You will also need a new carrier for both the 8.8 and the D44 as well as master install kits. Usually you can get the parts through the shop your having the work done at and their prices will be comperable to what you can find on your own (generally) since they get better pricing and make most of their money on the labor.

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:44 am

Polarcub wrote:There are several great manufacturers.....we deal with Nitro gear and axle and yukon primarily. I dont recomend you attempt to set your gears up unless you have someone that knows how to do it. You will also need a new carrier for both the 8.8 and the D44 as well as master install kits. Usually you can get the parts through the shop your having the work done at and their prices will be comperable to what you can find on your own (generally) since they get better pricing and make most of their money on the labor.

definitely not doing it myself. Hoping one of my 4x4 buddys know how

Deleted Account · Post by **Deleted Account** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:52 am

the 8.8 dosent need a carrier. Unless you want a locker

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:46 am

mkiefer wrote:the 8.8 dosent need a carrier. Unless you want a locker

I wont need a carrier even with the ford factory limited slip?

AussieRod · Post by **AussieRod** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:01 pm

Nope

The Legend · Post by **The Legend** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:47 pm

good deal