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Too Many Cars

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I have several cars with varying 1/4 mile times ranging from 10.05 seconds (351C 82 Mustang) to a 14.9 second quarter (95 Lincoln MK8). I resurrected the 95 MK8 (rebuilt worked tranny with a converter that stalls at about 2500 rpm) figuring that it would be fast enough as an every day driver to keep me amused. Well I need more than the 14.9 second quarters at 96 MPH that it runs! I would like to be at least in the high 13's with this car without sacrficing fuel milage on the highway (that is one of the things that I really like about my MK8!). My thought was a Gear Vendors under/overdrive with 3.91 to 4.11 gears in the rear; however I did a search for "Gear Vendors" and "under overdrive" on this site and didn't get any usefull info. My question is has anyone done a gear vendors swap to a MK8 and what is involved in such a swap? I tried to ask gear vendors through email and they never got back to me! My questionis does the gear vendors unit fit the Lincoln MK8 and if so what is involved? I am pretty sure that considering the trap speed that I still need to make more power to be in the 13's but this would be a good start!
 
Why do you think gears will not sacrifice gas mileage? lol

I went from 26-27 to 22-23 with 3.73. And it will NOT get you into the 13s...

You will need
Gears,
Converter,
Drive shaft,
Exhaust, headers etc.
tune.
 
As already pointed out, Gears alone will not get you into the 13's and you will sacrifice economy for the sake of the gears. To go fast cost $$$. You can buy a vehicle that already does the times that you want or you can look forward to spending some money on mods. A few folks who were looking for a serious boost without NOS went with Super Chargers. I am not a fan of NOS, but you get a lot of bang for the buck, of course too much bang and you will be buying a new motor. Gears, headers, large free flowing exhaust system, would be a good start and a tune to take advantage of it would shave a few tenths off your time. What I just mentioned though is about $2500 worth of mods. It's all related, the faster you want to go the more you will have to spend. Once it's all said and done you can kiss the fuel economy goodbye.
 
I've got the 3000 stall "Lonnie" converter, and Eaton posi. I've also got stock (3.07) gears, but I've put about $650 into other engine mods. My rwhp is at about 240 (torque at 250), which makes me good for very low 14's.

I get 30 mpg at 70mph, and I pass CA emissions with flying colors.

I think I've got one of the best 1/4 mile time and fuel economy combinations on the board.

As far as total cost is concerned, $850 for the converter, $450 for the posi, $650 for the misc engine mods, $250 for the 255lph fuel pump, and $100 for an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Total comes out to $2300 plus labor.
 
Too Many Cars- I'm sure that you know there are formulas on this subject that allow you to plug in your desired 1/4 mile performance, and then show you the respective HP/TRQ required to get there. After you get thru that calc then you need to express what your budget is and what your goal is. There is no magic, everything has a cost/ benefit.
 
http://www.gearvendors.com/

The gearvendors over/underdrive is a two speed transmission that you attach in place of the tailshaft of your present transmission. It has ratio's of 1:1 and .78:1. They claim that you can shift on the fly therefore giving you twice as many gears. With the .78:1 multiplied by 3.90 your final drive ratio would be 3.04 very close to the original 3.07 with 4.11 the final ratio comes out to 3.20:1 very close to the ratio of the LSC that is what I meant by not giving up fuel mileage. Another advantage is that you do what they term "gear splitting" in which you would go from first to first over then second to second over etc. This keeps the engine more in it's usefull power range so that even though you are not making more power you are using the power that you do have more effectively. I realize that I will probably need a bit more HP to get into the 13's but that should get me closer to my goal without giving up fuel mileage and excess noise due to rpm.

I am aware of the formulas for power vs 1/4 mile performance. My car isn't totally stock, my transmission is slightly worked and the converter stall is presently about 2500 rpm. I was estimating that the engine was putting out in the 240 rwhp range because my 300 HP 06 Mustang was 265 rwhp when it was dyno'd totally stock. I can see now I was estimating too high and that is the big disparity between my 300HP Mustang and my 280HP Lincoln. I did realize that I would probably need more power in addition to the gear venders and gears because I only trapped at 96 mph.

Back to what I originally intended to ask does anyone here know if the gear vendors under/overdrive will fit in a MK8. I sent an email to the company and they never responded.

As far as money, I have no problem spending money on my cars (it is a hobbie); however I want to keep this car civilized.
 
Trying to understand the gearvendors' product, I quickly turned to the racing section of their website. In the brief overview I could find no mention of applications to automatic overdrive transmissions... one thing I think their product attempts to deliver.

I used to drive a truck with a six speed transmission and a two speed rear axle that effectively done the same as their product, so I understand the benefits.

What I fail to understand is the benefits of applying the underdrive/overdrive system to our powertrain.

Most cars with 1200hp or less will also find benefit in using 1st-over which will net a really nice 4spd spread of 1.76, 1.33, 1.00, 0.78.
Click to expand...

The stock 4R70W has ratios of 2.84, 1.55, 1.00 and 0.70. So with the underdrive/overdrive system your ratios would be 2.84, 2.22, 1.55, 1.21, 1.00, 0.78, 0.70 and 0.55? :confused:

Now if you want to take into consideration using the 0.78 overdrive with 4.10s to effectively have 3.20 gearing for highway cruising, you need to consider the cost payback period of the capital expense depreciated against the mileage gains achieved(in this case the mileage difference between 4.10s and 3.20s).

I guess I look at it like this... if I could clap three times at the track and have my 4.30s revert back to stock gearing(3.08) for the 2-1/2 hour ride home, would it be worth it? In my mind no. The car is so transformed in driving manner with the steeper gears, I actually find it more pleasureable to drive on the streets and the highway.

As far as fit is concerned, IF the product bolts up to the transmission in place of the tailshaft assembly, there should be adequate room for it. Depending upon length, a special driveshaft may need to be made.
 
Posi, Drag radials, Supercharger, fuel pump, injectors, MAF, tune, and A BUILT UP 98-02 trans. (At the very least a lightly built 99-02 5.4L F150 trans, with BIG cooler) You're now in the 13s with stock gearing and a top speed nearly 3 times the speed limits around here. You will probably gain 1-2 mpg if you drive it right.

The GV OD unit is expensive, more expensive than a used supercharger with most of the stuff aforementioned (basically everything minus the trans, although very close if you put a 4R70W together yourself) and far less cool.


The supercharger w/stock gears will pull like crazy on the highway, mine would peg the speedo EASILY and keep pulling hard. If you can find a mile or two of straight road you will need to buy a GPS to get any clue how fast you're going. It will drive like stock though, and it doesn't have that slam you in your seat, its like driving the car stock, except you get up to 150+ very quickly. Talking about a centrifugal of course, I had a Novi 1000.
 
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sweet...

sweet...

Too Many Cars said:
http://www.gearvendors.com/

Pretty sweet. I've never seen or heard of them before, but i agree its definately a step in the right direction. They make one for my Chevy, but do they make one for the Mark? For less money you can get a whole blown racing transmission built with Lonnies convertor and upgrades for under 4 grand i would think. But for towing applications, i agree 100 percent. Worth it in my book, after i read the whole article.

I want one for my 4L80E chev dually. hmmm 9-10MPG towing or 4000.00 for a mod. 9-10 miles per gallon, or 4000.00 for a mod :eek: . I think in the long run it would pay for itself with longevity and also fuel savings. I'll have to look into them more when i get extra cash rollin in. Thanks for the link.!!!! :) (save as future truck mod file..bzzzzz).
Click to expand...
 
All good suggestions; however I am not trying to make the Lincoln into a race car; (Maybe a tow car for my race car or my boat though). Actually if I was going to go the forced induction route I would be partial to turbocharging (not sure about emissions laws because they are getting strict around here and I couldn't get someone to pass the 82 Mustang even though it is 25 years old)! I am amazed how fast the Turbo cars are going at the track these days! The problem that I have with the forced induction route is the fact that the MK8 engine comes equipped with a cast crank, powdered metal rods, and 10:1 hypereutectic pistons (The Teksid block is almost indestructable though!). Not that I didn't think of the forced induction approach; however I did promise myself that I wouldn't go overboard with the Lincoln! If I ran forced induction I know that I couldn't leave well enough alone and it would no longer be streetable or only run 13's. I would be buying a forged crank, aftermarket forged rods, forced induction specific pistons etc and while I am at it a ported Cobra intake, aftermarket cams to maximize the forced induction and I would spend several days with a grinder porting the heads.

I built a 2.3 liter Capri Turbo this way several years ago and had real fun with it!

As far as the Lincoln is concerned I am very happy with the fuel consumption not only because it costs less to run but because I can drive over 400 miles on the highway at a time before I have to re-fuel the car (very important for me)! That is a good feeling when you are driving to Florida from New York in the middle of the night!
I am really not looking for a return on my investment because I learned long ago that any time that you build a car to your liking you are going to lose money unless it is a rare car!
 
There is at least one turbo that is CARB certified...meaning it would pass smog in CA.

If it can pass in CA, I figure it can pass in anywhere...
 
This is a turbo kit for a MK8 or is it for a Mustang Cobra? If it's for a Cobra I may have problems. You may be surprised at how strict it is around here! They wanted me to run EGR, CATS, Fuel evaporative nonsense etc on my 1982 Mustang that I swapped a 351C in. The car is exempt from emissions testing but it still needs all of the original emissions equipment! The heads are aftermarket and even if they weren't I don't believe that the 4 barrel cleveland heads had EGR passages. I will have to look at one of my sets of heads to verify. My 1982 Mustang doesn't belong on the street anyway!

Even though I promised myself that I would not go crazy with the Lincoln what could a few pounds of boost hurt? Besides I never could leave well enough alone! Can you give me info about this kit perhaps a website?
 
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