Lower and higher at the same time
Well, first I would like to thank James, Shannon, and Max for the inviting hospitality during the weekend. Good thing James is married or we would have never eaten anything! James, thanks for the endless knowledge given and the use of your tools and garage. And I would like to thank God... j/k!
We started tearing into my VX about midnight Friday, after all our intial meeting and B.S.ing. We didn't really stop working, planning, and acquiring parts and tools until Sunday at about 4:00am when we finally got some sleep. I was up 45 hours straight! We started up again 4 or 5 hours later and worked through the day until 8:30 Sunday night when I finally took the 6 hour drive back home. We installed the OME 912's, added some bump stops, and cranked the T-bars at the same time but this amount of time we worked should give a person an idea on how involved the 3rd member swap is. I would recommend spraying penetrating oil on every bolt and part you are going to touch - do this a week in advance and just before you start to tear into things! My VX was very reluctant to give up good stock parts!
You should know we did not retain my limited slip in the rear and I am now running an open diff so that sucks but that is all that sucks!!! I have 285/60R18's (31.5") tires BTW. The first full tank after the swap got me 16.3 highway mpg according to the odometer while mostly doing 80 in the rain - (3000 rpm at 80 mph). I'll let someone else do the actual calculating but that seems to be on par with my typical mileage so I would say I have not lost any highway mileage. City mileage may suffer (at least intially) because the added torque feels GREAT in the seat of the pants. I can whip my VX around "cotton tops" and buses with ease again. Merging onto the highway is the greatest improvement so far; the dead spot I used to have at 60 to 65 mph is completely gone. I am easily speeding before I even need to look in the mirrors to get over! The gears in the axle seem to take so much of the work away from the tranny gears and things are smoother, crisper now. Off the line, I have spun the rear tires and since the limited slip is not there, it just won't stop raining, and I am lifted... I am driving a whole new animal that needs new concentration! While in cruise control with the 31.5's, I would hit the power mode before I approached a hill to make sure the tranny wasn't shifting back and forth while trying to get over it. This is no longer necessary; when it does need to downshift on the steepest hills, power is very noticable throughout the use of that gear.
If you have 31.5" to 33" tires I would highly advise finding 4.77's. My speedo seems to be really close to accurate now. I was telling SPAZZ the Ironman edition should have come the way my VX is now - 4.77's, 285/60/18's, 2.5" lift... of course he listed many more things he would like to have seen on the stock Ironman but he is out of control!
Anyway, I might compare the 4.77's with 31.5's to stock tires and an added exhaust and air intake kit. It is hard to say if the new lift or if the gearing is the reason for it but I notice flooring it off the line the front end unloads and comes up further than it used to - it's probably a combo of the two. It's cool either way though!
In all seriousness, if you are going to go through the trouble of swapping 3rd members... go for the 4.77's or greater and add a locker or something at the same time... I wish I would have had the money for ARB's at the time of install! I am going to have to save up for a rear one now and I never ever want to touch the front axle again! But I might for dual ARB's I guess...
Or you can just wait a few months and see what a solid front D44 axle swap with 5.38's looks like on a VX... James, hurry the F#@& up!
I need to go get my VX out of the alignment shop - hopefully they didn't run it into the ceiling again!
Got any questions - fire away...
Sent from my "two hands on a keyboard"
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