quad 4 ho 5th gear question

[sharkey]

i just got my new tranny into the car. its a 92-94 (its actualy from a 93 grand am) quad 4 ho with an ep limited slip and 90 bellhousing. the tranny was labled "3XTX"

anyways, the question i have is in refference to 5th gear. the info in the 282 section says the ho is supposed to have a .72 5th gear and the w41 has a .81 5th. from what i have read, the HO has the code "3XTX" and w41 tranny is "4XTX", am i right???

reason i ask this is im turning ~2800rpm at 100km/h (60mph), were i calculate it should be more around 2600. it gets worse as at 70mph im at 3100rpm. im rather sure i have the .81 5th gear. so is our info wrong??? is the w41 actualy the .72 5th gear??? or is there no difference between the w41 and HO??? i know the tranny had never been apart before (car it came from was under 120000km) so i wouldnt say 5th gear was swapped in it. i know 5th gear can be swapped without an issue, it does however require removing and completly dissasembling the tranny.

any thoughts???

[bszopi]

You know its bad when our resident "tranny expert" asks a tranny question...

Unfortunately I can't help you out. And as far as the info goes, it was something that was posted who knows how long ago and made into an article. So I can't verify the validity of it.

[DEI37]

Wow...that's spinning that engine crazy fast! I wouldn't like that one bit. Why is the gearing so low in that trans, and why would you want it to back up a modified V6? Curious only...not trying to razz anyone with that.

[sharkey]

the 92-94 quad 4 ho tranny is a great way to wake up even a highly modded v6. i find in town the slightly higher rpm from the 3.94 fdr and 1.03 4th gear makes the car a lot nicer to drive. it pulls a lot harder. it makes cruising a lot nicer with a big cam. it also makes the car better for drag and autocross. i can think of at least 5 people with this tranny in a v6.

i did some searching on quad 4 forums and everything i can find confirms what we have in the 282 artical (as far as quad 4 stuff goes), although there seems to be some argument over it.

superdave, i know you have a 3.94 tranny in your car. is it a w41 or q4ho??? what can and year was it from??? what sort of rpm do you turn at 60mph???

[DEI37]

I would have to imagine, that on the street, first and second would be all but useless, though, with gearing THAT steep. I just wouldn't want to cruise at an RPM that high in a V6. I like 72mph @ 1900rpm.

[sharkey]

it does make driving in traffic a lot easier. it actualy pulls pretty good and with the lsd, no one tire spin if i take off hard, it just squeeks and goes. as it is, it does cruise way to high, but a friend of mine (treez24 on here) has the .72 5th gear and it cruises around 2500 at 60mph. and i couldnt even dream of cruising at 1900rpm, its just not possible with my motor, it bucks pretty bad and doesnt have steady enough vacume that low to make it cruise nice.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah 75mph is somewhere around 2000 on my motor and trans. With a new O2 sensor it even stays locked up going up hills, and you can accelerate with it locked up in 4th even at 50mph (turning 1,xxx something crazy low). But you have a rowdy cam. What's the lowest RPM you can do with that cam on the highway?

Even 2500 @60mph is way too high if you ask me. No need to downshift though just punch it to pass haha. Sounds like the trans has to come out either way if you want lower though. Would your old 5th gear be a good swap?

[sharkey]

cruising aroud 1900rpm the thing isnt to happy, and id pretty much have to downshift even to speed up. its very happy around 2300rpm, hence why i had no problem going with the 3.94 final drive. i do have another v6 core i have pulled apart to confirm it had the .72 5th gear (wich is what im supposed to have), and it would bring me down around 2450rpm at 60mph, wich is what i was after.

[Will'sFiero]

I have a '90 Beretta trans. It has 2.19 2nd and 1.03 4th. It *had* the .81 fifth, but I swapped that for a .72 5th. It also has the 3.61 final.

I'd like to try the 3.94 with the .72. You just can't have the best of both worlds (performance and mileage) with GM FWD sticks. Keep in mind that I'm also running a Northstar and I don't mind cruising at 85-90 at 3000 RPM.

[Superdave]

my 3XTX has the .81 5th. Sits at about 3K RPM @ 65 or so MPH

[sharkey]

ok so if your q4 ho tranny is also .81 5th gear, id say a lot of the internet has the wrong info. quad 4 forums even had people talking about it having the .72.

so my question now is if the q4ho has the .81 5th gear, what does the w41 have???

[treeZ24]

the w41 (4xtx) has the .81 5th gear, i know since colin had to press on the cavy .72 5th.

so there's no difference in the HO and the w41 tranny?

ps 60mph at 2500 rpms in a v6 that revs to 7 isnt all that bad. 4th gear gets you movin pretty damm fast lol TOO fast to pass infact.

[sharkey]

if the w41 and q4 ho were the same tranny, gm wouldnt have another code for it. now i had read somewere about a rumored .90 5th gear with the w41, but that may have been for the gm reace prepped w41 cars.

does anyone have a w41 tranny with w41 gearing in there car??? or better yet, w41 tranny apart that they can count the teeth on???