gear ratios

malachi · January 25th, 2010, 3:39 am

I find it very odd that my GT rpms are so high compared to my SE. The V6 has shorter gearing that the I4 cars? I am used to V6 cars always being much lower, especially at cruising speed. 5th gear I am near 3k at 60mph. (give or take a couple hundred rpms)

Power band is smooth and all, but lacks much torque too. I chalk that upto higher milage. Both cars have 169k on them.

mattkane123 · January 25th, 2010, 8:53 am

hmm, well that does sound quite high for cruising at 60mph.
but the KL loves to rev, chock it up to the VRIS.

michaelknight · January 25th, 2010, 9:19 am

KLs are for revving, not for low rpm torque.

talios · January 25th, 2010, 4:45 pm

Sounds about right to me. An easy way to bring the rpms down would be to just throw taller tires onto the car...be a lil slower in a drag, but if it's a DD, meh...

HaggardBlaze · January 25th, 2010, 4:56 pm

Yeah, the 2.0L and the 2.5L have different gearings. I thought the 2.5 was for mid to high end power. Thats why people make fun of probes actually, the low end torque is kinda sad when compared to other comparable cars.

talios · January 25th, 2010, 6:07 pm

Not sure what else is in the catigory would be a low-end beast compared to a Probe? Certainly not Hondas...

malachi · January 30th, 2010, 9:09 pm

I just found it odd that the gearing was like that. I am used to I4 needing 4k to roll at 80mph and a V6 needing like 2500-3000 to do the same....not 4k.

Our SE is only an auto and while I forget the rpms at 80, is mat maybe 3k or so.

Moot point at this time as the timing belt fragged on me. I think the cracked up timing cover fell in somehow and the brand new timing belt was destroyed. Timing cover looks like it was attcked from the inside by 4 special ed. kids with pick axes.
Oh well, it is warm this weekend with highs close to 20* out, so should only take 2 hours or so. I pulled a good cover from the junkyard today and will install tomorrow with new belt.

As far as i know Mazda does not make interference engines, so things should be ok.

thedrumbum · January 31st, 2010, 6:15 pm

the 2.0 motor in the ford probes is a interfenace motor

SALEEN961 · January 31st, 2010, 6:24 pm

You can always swap out the fifth gear for one from a first gen GL on a second gen SE. It would lower your RPM's at 80mph from 3750rpm to about 3450rpm. Fifth gear is easy to swap, you can get a bigger difference if you swap out the final drive to but that's much more involved and time consuming.