ok so i am wanting a 5 inch susp lift with 33 inch tires
i have a 2.3 and was told im going to need to regear the rear-end
and i was told to put it at 4.56 w/e that means...
now just with the regearing is my truck gonna be ok or do i need to get more done to it?
i dont wanna mess it up.

 

yes that is plenty.
and 4.56 is how many times the engine must turn for your tires to spin once(i think?)
and with 4.56s you will have crappy milage

 

ohhh
like how bad is it going to get then?
like i imagined it would be worste. i just didnt know how much worste.
and in adding HP would that end up helping or hurting?

 

The 4.56's will not be affecting your mileage, you will be FD geared pretty much the same, maybe just a tiny bit lower when you include the fact that going to 33's is going to raise your overall gear ratio.

The thing that will hurt your mileage is going to be increased wind resistance due to being higher and the fact that 33's weigh a lot more than what you have now. That is going to hurt but not too much. The gears however will help. If you tried that lift and tire combo on stock gears, it would eat gas because of all the extra work it was doing moving the setup with no mechanical help.

 

ohh ok then that makes sense..
yeah i was kinda worried thanks for explaining it to me
so i was wondering is shifting going to be any different for me now?
this is my first stick. and i do fine with it so far.
but with the lift and t4he bigger tires is that gonna throw me off?
or should i not really worry about that?

 

When you add taller, heavier tires, your engine has to put out more power in order to compensate for the added weight and tire diameter. Most people offset this problem by using a lower (higher number) gear ratio. In your case, you're looking at a 4.56 ratio. This means that the pinion gear (i.e. the driveshaft coming from your transmission) will turn 4.56 times for every time that the wheel turns once. This gives you a greater mechanical advantage in applying torque to the wheels and getting them to start rolling.

Your shift points should remain pretty much the same. If you add the tires before you regear, you will need to 'launch' with higher RPMs and more power because the engine must work harder to spin those big tires. If you regear before you put the new tires on, you'll notice alot more 'oomph' when you launch and you'll notice quicker acceleration. You'll notice your top speed will be slightly reduced also because of the gears. The idea with them is to get the whole 'system' back to as close to stock as possible, so you shouldn't have a problem adapting to driving with the larger tires or gears, if you don't install them at the same time.

Your speedometer will be incorrect though, and you will need to find a way to determine your actual speed. You're a 1994 model, so you don't have OBD to get a custom tune that can correct your speedo. You may need to just have a friend drive alongside you at certain speeds so you can make a mental correlation between the speed your speedo shows and your actual speed, and pay attention to it. I got a ticket once because with my taller tires I was going faster than I thought I was!

 

ok so if i regear, and dont add the tires my trucks gonna have a little more of a kick to it? but it will have a lower top speed (which wont bother me). and if i dont regear and get the tires im gonna have a harder time to get going?
so then larger tires, with the regearing everything will balance out?
is that what u were trying to say or did i get that wrong?

 

Yeah sorry I got a little long-winded. I was typing and carrying on a conversation at the same time and repeated myself.

Only adding lower gears (numerically higher) will give you some better off-the-line acceleration. it will be better for towing and such also because of the extra torque the gears provide. The trade-off is that you'll have a lower top speed, and your highway gas mileage will suffer also b/c the engine will be at higher rpms for the same speed.

Adding larger tires by themselves will act in just the opposite. You'll lose some low-end power and your city mileage will probably decrease some. But on the highway your mileage shouldn't be affected (or might get SLIGHTLY better due to the larger circumference of the tire).

The whole idea behind regearing is using these basic principles to achieve an end goal you have in mind. Drag racing cars will sometimes install lower gears to help with their acceleration off the line. Off-road trucks will install lower gears to help turn larger tires and deal with the added stress and difficulty of off-road driving. Someone who drives their vehicle primarily on the highway might install taller gears to help them conserve gas mileage. Your goal is probably to install larger tires and lower gears to get your overall outcome to be as close to stock as possible, so the gears and the tires should balance eachother out nicely.

 

OK that makes total sense to me now!
thanks now i understand why these things need to be done and what does what....thank you!

 

Anytime man. Glad I could help