i was thinking of doing this as well, since my buddy who has that 4.75 itr fd no longer needs his 4.4

[edit] oh yeah, he's selling it to me dirt cheap, and i'm due for a new clutch/flywheel soon anyway. to me, i think its better than getting a mystery history gsr transmission, as well as keeping my transmission that i've taken great care of, with the same VIN too...

 

This is true. I don't hear much talk of import drivers changing gear ratios. It's a fairly common mod for domestics. I run 4.10's on my Cobra and I cruise around 2500-2800 rpms in 6th gear.

However I don't think it would be practical for a daily driven GS to switch to a short gear ratio. Cruising at 75 your tach should be around 3000-3300. Changing to 4.75 (crazy) would mean 4000+ rpms cruising.

 

bottom line, if you have another car that you drive daily or you just dont care about buying gas and listening to your car turn high rpms all the time, change your gear ratios, otherwise, stick to the basics

 

My '92 GSR had a 4.4 final drive and a shorter 5th gear than either the LS transmission or the '94-'01 GSR transmission. 80 mph in 5th gear was about 4600 rpm or so, and I got fine mileage on the highway. Cruising at high rpm with low throttle opening doesn't use a lot of gas.

That said, I can think of plenty of other mods that can be made to an LS before I would go into the transaxle and start changing gears. The reason it's so easy to change axle ratios on trucks or muscle cars is because they're actually in an AXLE that is separate from the transmission. Drop the rear end, pop the housing, swap a couple gears around, relatively little fuss. On a fwd car with a transaxle it's much more of an involved process.

 

yeah, that is a good point.... ease of installation makes for a big argument BUT if you have your engine out anyway or you are installing a clutch or LSD and you want to switch em up, what better time is there? so maybe thats something else you wanna consider before playin around in there...