ive heard changing gears can help get more power to the wheels and improve mileage. What gear ratio does better on the 4.9?
My dad swapped his gears on his 97 with im not sure what but its a 4.6 and you could feel a difference.
any feedback is appreciated, thanks.

 

i think 3:55, not sure though. a easy, well kind of easy, way is to tape a string to the drive shaft then push the truck forward one full rotation of the tires, then count the number of time the string has wrapped around the drive shaft. 3 and 1/2 times will be 3:50.

 

It all depends on your intended use. Towing or wheeling will benifit from lower gears like 4.10s but highway use will see a mpg improvement if you stick with higher gears.

 

What transmission do you have? How about tire size? Do you know what gear ratio you have now?

 

At the risk of being mean, your question is kinda dumb. "Best" gearing means so many different things depending on what you want from the truck. You mention fuel mileage, but then you mention getting more power to the wheels. The two are somewhat conflicting goals as one objective wants to see you turning the fewest RPM's while the other wants high RPM's.

 

From one 300 guy to another...

3.55 nuff said.

 

If your truck has the stock tire size then I agree with this man here.

 

It's been said before but it will depend on what trans, what tire size and whether you are using it for commuting (empty) or towing /hauling heavy loads. 3:55 is a good compromise unless all you driving is heavy hauling or towing..

 

The 300 makes power at low RPM and doesn't rev very high so a 3.55 on a stock truck is a good ratio to allow the engine to cruise at highway speed but not kill the low-end grunt they're famous for. However what trans you have is important. My dad has an '87 bronco with a 300 mated to the old t19 4-speed which has a granny first gear and no OD so it has 3.08:1 gears which is a good match, I might even say he could go taller to get lower highway RPM since the granny low could overcome the tall gears if need be, being a bone-stock bronco.

Trans, intended use, and tire size are important things to consider when selecting gears.

 

A ZF-5 transmission and 3.08 gears would be the setup I'd go for, if I could have anything, with close-to-stock tire size.

With an OD automatic or M5OD 5 speed 3.55:1 is a good compromise.

 

X2 3.55 nuff said I have 31 inch tires I swapped to manual trans and 3.55 I love it mpg is great!!!

 

should have been more specific,
2.73, M5OD 5 speed
Best, as in most power
But it looks like 3.55s go good for mpg too
also, stock tires as of right now 235/75/15
thanks for the input all

 

I'm glad I checked this thread out. I've got a 96 with the 4.9, M5OD, and 3.08 gears. I was going to go with either 3.31 or 3.55 gears, but now it looks like the 3.55's are the way to go. I thought 3.08 was a high ratio, but 2.73 is insane with this transmission and stock tires.

 

Yeah it's anybodys guess what Ford was thinking, a truck with that configuration had a 0 lbs tow rating, no that's not a misprint the truck is not rated to tow anything.. ZERO. What was the point?

 

regardless....I still tow a ton with the 2.73s in mine. Once it gets moving everythings fine.