What's new
By:
Filters

Chevy S10 gear ratio

Trashman

Trashman

Trainwreck
Joined
Oct 13, 2021
Member Number
4472
Messages
404
94 Chevy S10
4.3l with either the NV3500 or HM290 (unsure which)
HP dana 30 front
8.8 rear
33" tires.

Highly undecided on gearing. Currently its at 3.73s.

Debating 4.11 or 4.56s.

Given that its kinda an oddball all my searching seems to bring up Jeeps or Toyota application answers. The Toyota guys like 4.56 or deeper and Jeeps seem to favor higher (4.11 and 3.73 are fine)

Lost a bit of oomph going from 235s to 33s. Truck stock was 3.73. Im guessing 4.56 may be the ticket but seems awful low maybe????
 
Is this a wheeler or you daily driver? For a wheeler I would not hesitate to run 5.13s, and it still won't be that bad on the interstate. You will only be spinning 2860 RPM at 75.

4.56 will put you slightly lower than 3.73s with the stock tires, which you will want to make up for the extra inertia. I wouldn't go higher than 4.56, even on a primarily street-driven rig since you have overdrive.

4.10s arent a big enough change from the 3.73s you currently have to make it worth the cost and effort to re-gear.
 
Last edited:
'84 Bronco II said:
Is this a wheeler or you daily driver? For a wheeler I would not hesitate to run 5.13s, and it still won't be that bad on the interstate. 4.56 will put you slightly lower than 3.73s with the stock tires, which you will want to make up for the extra inertia. I wouldn't go higher than 4.56, even on a primarily street-dreven rig since you have overdrive.
Click to expand...
Daily but very small commute, like 7min of 55-65mph. I live maybe a total of 18min from my workplace.
 
I had a YJ before with a 435 trans. Great setup for crawling, but 70mph was about it (for me) unless I wanted to push the ole 4.0l.

Im looking to stay within reasonable rpms.
 
Go with the 5.13s. Too deep is way better than too tall. The only people who complain about too deep are idiots that would rather lug down the freeway than install a proper muffler.
 
Trashman said:
Kinda my thinking, but I also dont want to run 4000rpm in 5th gear at 55 😄
Click to expand...

Calcs say you'd be running 2150rpm at 55 in 5th with 5.13s.

Trashman said:
I had a YJ before with a 435 trans. Great setup for crawling, but 70mph was about it (for me) unless I wanted to push the ole 4.0l.

Im looking to stay within reasonable rpms.
Click to expand...

What you're saying is understandable but you're aware that an NP435 doesn't have an overdrive and an NV3500 does, right?

Will Scarlet said:
Maybe this will help you:

Click to expand...
Best gear calculator out there. People put too much guess work into gearing. It's easily calculated with all sorts of cruise rpms easily available on that thing.
 
Can't have too much gear....go as low as bearable.

What the gearing calc lacks is the tires being much heavier, a truck losing power as it ages, all the extra armor you add on, and the wind drag going up.

You will always be better off turning a few extra RPMs at speed then not having the nut to accelerate after spending the money on gearing the diffs.
 
I have 5.38's in my TJ with 35's. I've driven it two hours on the freeway at 70-75 a few times, its fine. It's pretty sporty even around town. 5.13 with your overdrive and 33's should run around the same rpm and if anything I'm sure the 4.3l likes rpm better than the 4.0l.

Mine is 2k ish at 55, 2400ish at 65 and 2750ish at 75. It really seems happy around 70, around 80 it starts feeling buzzy, it's still fine though for passing even up to 85 or so.
 
The Yota guys have OHC engines that rev more/easier than the 4.3L.

Isn't there a hp30 ratio limitation where the pinion gets small/weak?
 
u2slow said:
The Yota guys have OHC engines that rev more/easier than the 4.3L.

Isn't there a hp30 ratio limitation where the pinion gets small/weak?
Click to expand...

We are talking about cruising sub-3,000 RPM at interstate speeds, I am pretty sure any automotive engine made in the last 100 years can handle that OHC or not :homer: Most naturally aspirated gas engines don't make peak torque below 2,000 RPM either, and an old 4.3L isn't exactly a powerhouse that is going to happily lug a solid axle S10 along at interstate speeds.

Yes, lower gears generally get weaker, but it is not like any given ratio is suddenly an order of magnitude weaker. I had a buddy that beat the piss out of his XJ on 33s and later 36s. In that time he broke a front axle shaft, a 31 spline 8.8 axle shaft, the 8.8 ring and pinion, a Teralow 4:1, and twisted off a rear drive shaft from torque. He may have broke other stuff I wasn't aware of. The point being, he never broke the 5.13 China-special gears I set up in his Dana 30.
 
Trashman said:
94 Chevy S10
4.3l with either the NV3500 or HM290 (unsure which)
HP dana 30 front
8.8 rear
33" tires.

Highly undecided on gearing. Currently its at 3.73s.

Debating 4.11 or 4.56s.

Given that its kinda an oddball all my searching seems to bring up Jeeps or Toyota application answers. The Toyota guys like 4.56 or deeper and Jeeps seem to favor higher (4.11 and 3.73 are fine)

Lost a bit of oomph going from 235s to 33s. Truck stock was 3.73. Im guessing 4.56 may be the ticket but seems awful low maybe????
Click to expand...

Have a tacoma with 2.7 and 33's. Has 4.30's. For something thats mainly a driver, I wouldnt want a gear much lower than that.
 
Steve300xcw said:
Have a tacoma with 2.7 and 33's. Has 4.30's. For something thats mainly a driver, I wouldnt want a gear much lower than that.
Click to expand...

You left out what transmission you are using which makes a huge difference, but I'll bite, why wouldn't you want to go any lower? From a quick Google search, the 2.7L only makes 160-182 ftLbs at 3,800-4,000 RPM depending on year, so I imagine you are going to want to be around 3,000+ RPM if you don't want to be down shifting for every mole hill on the highway.
 
Steve300xcw said:
Have a tacoma with 2.7 and 33's. Has 4.30's. For something thats mainly a driver, I wouldnt want a gear much lower than that.
Click to expand...
Depends what you're into. The truck in my avatar (back when it was stockish) got thousands of miles put on it with 28s and 4.56s with a 22re.

It was still a gutless pig that needed downshifting for hills, and the extra 3-500 rpm on the freeway didn't change anything about the truck that I noticed.
 
Trashman Take a drive and leave it in 4th and that will be almost exactly the same as 5.13s in 5th gear. If that seems too much to you, go with 4.56 or 4.88. Like I said, 4.56 is the absolute highest gears I would personally consider with your combo, but if this is a trail toy, I would run 5.13s without thinking twice about it.
 
'84 Bronco II said:
Trashman Take a drive and leave it in 4th and that will be almost exactly the same as 5.13s in 5th gear. If that seems too much to you, go with 4.56 or 4.88. Like I said, 4.56 is the absolute highest gears I would personally consider with your combo, but if this is a trail toy, I would run 5.13s without thinking twice about it.
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea, Ill give it a try
 
I ran 35s with 3.55s it sucked. I also fucked up putting my driveshaft back together and destroyed the five-speed. I could only find a four-speed and I sure as hell didn't miss the overdrive.
 
4.56 minimum. I went to 5.38s but I added a lot of weight with the tons and 205

Edit: and 42" pitbulls.
 
Last edited:
I had a tbi 4.3/ 5 speed s10 with a 5 speed and 36's. It was a decent combo for everything besides big rocks. A doubler is much more usable than super low gears, decent mild trail/ mud ratio with super low for the big rocks. I have a 4.0/ 5 speed TJ with 4.88's and a a 4:1 t-case, it's nice in the big rocks though too much for mud/ snow/ mild trails.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh