The Gear Vendors installation LOOKS easier on paper. Any thoughts?
Your A833 ratios should be 2.66-1.92-1.40-1.00
The GVod has a ratio of .78
With 25.4" tires(79.8 roll-out) and 3.55s, 65= 3050 by the math.
The GVod would drop that to .78, =2380
To get to 2200 you would need 2200/2380 x 3.55s =3.28s, which rounds to 3.23s; and 65=2170rpm.
Your shift splits are/ would be;
.72-.73-.71 and .78 into od.
But I shift mine into 3-od after third and then into 4od. This changes the splits to
.72-.73-.78-.71 giving you a short 4th, and a near-normal overdrive drop. ( the A500/518s have a .69od)
Now, if you were to swap in a Commando 3.09 low gearset, and 3.23s, AND shift like I do; then your ratios would be;
3.09-1.92-1.40-1.09-.78 and an excellent split-progression of
.62-.73-.78-.71 into od. and your roadgears would be
9.98-6.20-4.52-3.52-2.52 compared to the current
9.44-6.82-4.97-3.55.. As you can see, the New Combo, gives you
~6% more First gear,
~9% less Second and Third,
the same Fourth,
and then the deep-overdrive
I love mine.
But, with 3.23s, your 340 is gonna notice the slight handicap in Second and Third.
Possibly a better solution is 3.73s for roadgears of
11.52-7.16-5.22-3.73-2.91 and 65=2500rpm compared to the current
>9.44-6.82-4.97-3.55 of course, with 3.73s you might not need the Commando Low, so then
9.82-7.16-5.22-3.73-2.91
The 3.73s will get you 3.73/3.55=Plus 5.1% in every gear, yet cruise at minus 18%..
Plus 5% TM/Torque Multiplication will make your 340 feel like it just grew 17.3 cubes.
As to cruising at 2500;
it is much easier to give the engine the ignition timing it so desperately wants ( maybe high 50s or more), than is 2200. Once the engine has what it wants, it will be making more power at cruise rpm, more than it needs, much more..... so you can then lean it out for cruising....... and get some decent mpgs. Bonus.
I have been enjoying mine since 2004.
Having said that, if I had the money to buy an actual 5-speed, I think I would rather have the od in the box. And the reason is this; with the GVod, and the supplied computer module, the shift into od is pretty slow.
You can bypass the module, and it shifts faster than anything you can do, and faster than any automatic I have ever shifted. Now;
You can upshift into od at full power no problem. And you can outshift it no problem, But you cannot allow the driveshaft to have more torque than the engine. So to backshift, you gotta clutch it. If you don't, the unit will instantly toast itself. AND, you cannot have it engaged when backing up; again it will instantly break.
Finally, it outshifts slightly slower than it engages.
The module protects the unit against all these things.
I ran the module for like a day.
Then I hot-wired it, lol. That was in 2004.
Yes I broke it......... But just once lol.
After that, I put a red LED on my tach to tell me when the unit was engaged, and I wired it, thru a relay, to my back-up circuit, so it automatically powers down in reverse. Problems solved.
==================
Until you have the notion to split shift it........
The regular 2.66-low 4-speed does not lend itself well to splitting. The ratios are crappy. So yur Ok on that.
But BOTH the A833od, and the Commando, have a wide-enough 1-2 split to use the splitter more or less to run up the middle. The od unit is better but I found that the 2-3 split in that box is pretty wide, even for my hi-pressure 367. So I more or less, ended up having, that is HAVING, to split every gear all the time. And while having SEVEN usable gears sounds Neat-O, the truth is that for me, Second gear is the gear of choice, and I like the road-ratio to be close to but not much over 7.00, and that is impossible to achieve with the A833-od box, unless I ran 4.10s to 4.30s. I ran the 4.30s, which made the starter-gear to be ~13.29 which I found unacceptable. I tried it for about a year but that was enough.
But splitting works dang good with the Commando gears, and 3.55s.. The roadgears are;
10.97-
8.56-6.82-
5.32 ; 4.97-
3.88-
3.55-
2.77; GV in red.
When I want to show off, I use the first four in sequence, and 93=6170rpm; this is what the car does in the Eighth-Mile.
The rest of the time, I shift; 10.97-6.82-4.97-3.88-2.77 (65=2240rpm with 27" tires). 3.55 gear is rarely used now. The splits are nicely progressive at; .62-.73-.78-.71into od
The first four ratios split thus; .78-.80-.78 that's pretty tight.
So, I mean, I'm not sorry I ever bought the GVod, cuz it is definitely fun, and versatile; and at the time (2004) IMO it was the best choice.
