Gears & Axles - Finally ditched the 2.73 gears and went to the track

Not sure if this goes in gears and axles or drag racing results. Just wanted to post my results with the gear swap, maybe someone will find it useful.
Earlier last month I took my car to the strip and was kinda disappointed in my 13.03 @ 107.7 (lame 1.99 60 ft). So after that day I swapped in a complete 3.42 rear end. I went back to the strip yesterday and as expected I dropped about 3 tenths and picked up 2 mph (2 tenths 1 mph if you use corrected times for the DA), 12.76 @ 109.76 on a slightly spinning 1.92 60 ft. DA was 259 so the corrected time is pretty close to the actual time. It's still not as fast as my best time with the 2.73 gears and stock stall (12.72, mineshaft -1,367 DA) or my best with the 2.73 gears and 2800 stall (12.68, -6 DA) but hey, what can I expect with some mild bolt-ons and 183k miles. Pushing it into the lake will be postponed for a while. :D
I'm still a little concerend about the spinning though, I still have a stock converter and when I put the new rear in (new to me, it's a used one) I also put in relocation brackets for the lower control arms. I should be hooking up pretty well on hot Nitto drag radials.

With a stall and sticky tires combined w/ your bolt ons and 3.42 rear, you should get 12.1-12.2s all day. My best was 12.2 w/ worn MTs before I swap my tranny to M6.

what about a tune?? i dont know that you NEED to have one with the gear swap, but it wouldnt hurt at all thats for sure... might look into it.

what about a tune?? i dont know that you NEED to have one with the gear swap, but it wouldnt hurt at all thats for sure... might look into it.

That's the first thing my buddy told me when I called him. I've never had the car tuned, not even after putting in the longtubes.:emb: I've had the speedo and shift points corrected for the gear swap but that's it. I'm sure I may be leaving a lot on the table without a tune, especially with all the torque management that GM puts into these cars.

you are definatly leaving a lot on the table w/o a tune! I just bought HPT for myself and just doing MINOR stuff like removeing TM and adjusting shift points/pressures/speed it feels like a different car. installing a W/B today so its going to get even better.

So swapping to 3.42's from 2.73 you picked up 3 tenth's?

Man you posted this at the right time. I wanted to do 273's an a 2800 tq with my full ls6 package on my motor ,What you guys think I would do in a 1/4 ?

Do a higher stall, Blk. I have a 3600 in mine with 2.73s, daily driven with no problems whatsoever. Especially if you ever plan to run a cam. Before I installed my TR224, the 3600 stall would make the car feel "fat" until I gave it any throttle, and now with the cam it tries to push thru my brakes like it did when the car was stock.

I was afraid to go high because of gas prices.

I have full exhaust, 3600 high stall, TR224 cam.

I just got 15 mpg ALL city driving AND a trip to the drags where I made several passes. I'm not sure what I'd get if I didn't race but I'm sure it's quite a bit better than 15 :)

Dame! That ain't bad bro.

Like I said in my first post, with 2.73 gears and a 2800 stall (Yank Stealth Thrust) I ran 12.68 @ 109 in a near sea level DA earlier this year. That was on a 1.86 60 ft (I got a 1.84 60 ft later that day but I botched the rest of that run). With an LS6 you should be a few tenths faster than that.
Fabian, when I get a cam I'm leaning towards the Thunder Racing 224 that you have, good gains without the headaches of a "big" cam. And as far as the converter is concerned I'm leaning toward the Yank SS3600 or the SS4000. With the steeper gear ratio a bigger stall should now feel a little tighter when driving around town.

Tommy that's some real nice numbers you put up bro really.
See I just had a 224 cam I hated the loping,but before I had a ls6cam with all supporting mods ,so now that's where I'm am now all LS6. dd for sure. an Fast

Thanks! And good luck!