[ddashtrois]

just wanted to say i spent about 30mins searching before posting this couldn't find much

I've heard the phrase "Power Shifting" thrown around a few times and I'm wondering if I'm missing out on some big shifting secret?

also, does anyone have some general tips on shifting. I've owned the stang for several months and before that it was a manual '92 Nissan. ive been on this forum for probably a month or so now and i've heard a few threads where people are talking about slipping the clutch and things that people just do wrong in general. maybe we could compile some shifting info and make an informative sticky on good shifting habits? how fast to let off clutch, how to launch nicely? how to keep a healthy clutch and transmission through good shifting. i personally dont know any solid facts. i learned how to shift by teaching myself in my grandpa's '87 jeep CJ-7, and its been all me from there.

anyone who contributes, thank you

[HMUSN]

good post.

everyone learns how to shift differently so there is no "way" how to do it if you know what i mean.
as far as power shifting goes.. that is very bad your your car man.

[neckbonekat]

Originally Posted by HMUSN good post. everyone learns how to shift differently so there is no "way" how to do it if you know what i mean. as far as power shifting goes.. that is very bad your your car man.

+1
Power shifting is when you shift without taking your foot off the gas while shifting. Funny to see this post here because I tried it for the first time last night. I didn't lke the sound my car made at all. Don't think we'll be trying that again any time soon.

[ddashtrois]

ok, yea ive also heard poeple say its bad for the car, i guess my biggest question about it is WHAT IS IT? lol

also, any tips on smoother shifting or how to keep the transmission and clutch in better condition? are there any straight-cut things that are good or bad?

[ddashtrois]

someone posted the answer to power shifting while i was typing >.> lol

thx for the responses

[neckbonekat]

Originally Posted by ddashtrois ok, yea ive also heard poeple say its bad for the car, i guess my biggest question about it is WHAT IS IT? lol also, any tips on smoother shifting or how to keep the transmission and clutch in better condition? are there any straight-cut things that are good or bad?

Don't grind the gears. Try not to ride the clutch. Don't try to down shift too far for the speed you're in. (Going from 5th to 2nd at 80 MPH) Be sure to press the clutch down far enough. That's all I can think of right now.

[bransdaman78]

Originally Posted by neckbonekat Originally Posted by HMUSN good post. everyone learns how to shift differently so there is no "way" how to do it if you know what i mean. as far as power shifting goes.. that is very bad your your car man. +1 Power shifting is when you shift without taking your foot off the gas while shifting. Funny to see this post here because I tried it for the first time last night. I didn't lke the sound my car made at all. Don't think we'll be trying that again any time soon.

this is not true, power shifting will not hurt your car if you do it properly, if you do it and hear funny noises, your not doing it right.... people say "it will mess up your synchros" Bullshit, the snychros still have to speed up to the same level when you do a quick shift, as opposed to when you power shift. The only difference is the power level and rpm drop associated with shifting, that said powershifting you NA mustang is not going to hurt anything. Even once you s/c your car to the 400rwhp range, you will still be within power specs when power shifting as the 3650 is rated at 500/500. The truth, about the 3650 is that it is a great transmission, the reason so many of them are fuked is because of idiots "dropping" gears all the time. In the 3650 if you do not rev match before you drop... you WILL mess up your synrchos - the powershifting you did has absolutly nothing to do it 99.9% of the time.

all that said, you have to power shift correctly to get any benefit, and not damage your MOTOR. Powershifting at 6400 rpm is a bad idea, doing at 5800-6000 is fine, but if when you do powershift it, if you hear or see the tach rise more than lets say 100 rpm, your not doing it right. You should not hear the motor rev any higher then before the shift, and also be calm and do not "jam" the gear in their, often we get too excited and try to force gears, which ends up bending forks and missing gears. Its a good idea NOT to miss a gear when power shifting, but thats why your limiter should be no higher than 6k anyway.
Ive powershifted many many times, with no ill results. There is a .2-.4 gain to be had from perfectly powershifting you car with traction.

sorrry to be coming off hard on this, but its just a wide spread misnomer about this, also for all of you 3650 owners out there, your tranny can hold alot of power, so long as you dont run more than a Dr or street radial, "depending upon power level" I personally know of three 3650 cars around here in the 650-750 rwhp range that are on stock 3650's (new clutches of course), as long as the tires dont dead hook with that much power from a dig, it will last for several years.

but then again anything can blow at any given moment, so dont take any of this stuff as a gaurantee, but we can minimize our risks by knowing factual info about our cars and there limits.

[orangeRcode]

Originally Posted by bransdaman78 this is not true, power shifting will not hurt your car if you do it properly, if you do it and hear funny noises, your not doing it right.... people say "it will mess up your synchros" Bullshit, the snychros still have to speed up to the same level when you do a quick shift, as opposed to when you power shift. The only difference is the power level and rpm drop associated with shifting, that said powershifting you NA mustang is not going to hurt anything. Even once you s/c your car to the 400rwhp range, you will still be within power specs when power shifting as the 3650 is rated at 500/500. The truth, about the 3650 is that it is a great transmission, the reason so many of them are fuked is because of idiots "dropping" gears all the time. In the 3650 if you do not rev match before you drop... you WILL mess up your synrchos - the powershifting you did has absolutly nothing to do it 99.9% of the time. all that said, you have to power shift correctly to get any benefit, and not damage your MOTOR. Powershifting at 6400 rpm is a bad idea, doing at 5800-6000 is fine, but if when you do powershift it, if you hear or see the tach rise more than lets say 100 rpm, your not doing it right. You should not hear the motor rev any higher then before the shift, and also be calm and do not "jam" the gear in their, often we get too excited and try to force gears, which ends up bending forks and missing gears. Its a good idea NOT to miss a gear when power shifting, but thats why your limiter should be no higher than 6k anyway. Ive powershifted many many times, with no ill results. There is a .2-.4 gain to be had from perfectly powershifting you car with traction. sorrry to be coming off hard on this, but its just a wide spread misnomer about this, also for all of you 3650 owners out there, your tranny can hold alot of power, so long as you dont run more than a Dr or street radial, "depending upon power level" I personally know of three 3650 cars around here in the 650-750 rwhp range that are on stock 3650's (new clutches of course), as long as the tires dont dead hook with that much power from a dig, it will last for several years. but then again anything can blow at any given moment, so dont take any of this stuff as a gaurantee, but we can minimize our risks by knowing factual info about our cars and there limits.

Okay, calling bs on the 500/500 statement. In stock form, the 3650 is rated at 360 ft/lbs torque. You go throwing more hp/tq at it under extreme conditions such as high rpm launches and power shifting and it is going to break on you. That being said, it will hold up pretty well to a bolt-on car. I abuse mine with 6000 launches and power shifting. Sooner or later, it will give out but that is a price I am willing to take for a mid 12 second full weight NA mach with bolt-ons. One of the good things about running a stock clutch is many times it will fail and spare your tranny.

[neckbonekat]

Originally Posted by bransdaman78 Originally Posted by neckbonekat Originally Posted by HMUSN good post. everyone learns how to shift differently so there is no "way" how to do it if you know what i mean. as far as power shifting goes.. that is very bad your your car man. +1 Power shifting is when you shift without taking your foot off the gas while shifting. Funny to see this post here because I tried it for the first time last night. I didn't lke the sound my car made at all. Don't think we'll be trying that again any time soon. this is not true, power shifting will not hurt your car if you do it properly, if you do it and hear funny noises, your not doing it right.... people say "it will mess up your synchros" Bullshit, the snychros still have to speed up to the same level when you do a quick shift, as opposed to when you power shift. The only difference is the power level and rpm drop associated with shifting, that said powershifting you NA mustang is not going to hurt anything. Even once you s/c your car to the 400rwhp range, you will still be within power specs when power shifting as the 3650 is rated at 500/500. The truth, about the 3650 is that it is a great transmission, the reason so many of them are fuked is because of idiots "dropping" gears all the time. In the 3650 if you do not rev match before you drop... you WILL mess up your synrchos - the powershifting you did has absolutly nothing to do it 99.9% of the time. all that said, you have to power shift correctly to get any benefit, and not damage your MOTOR. Powershifting at 6400 rpm is a bad idea, doing at 5800-6000 is fine, but if when you do powershift it, if you hear or see the tach rise more than lets say 100 rpm, your not doing it right. You should not hear the motor rev any higher then before the shift, and also be calm and do not "jam" the gear in their, often we get too excited and try to force gears, which ends up bending forks and missing gears. Its a good idea NOT to miss a gear when power shifting, but thats why your limiter should be no higher than 6k anyway. Ive powershifted many many times, with no ill results. There is a .2-.4 gain to be had from perfectly powershifting you car with traction. sorrry to be coming off hard on this, but its just a wide spread misnomer about this, also for all of you 3650 owners out there, your tranny can hold alot of power, so long as you dont run more than a Dr or street radial, "depending upon power level" I personally know of three 3650 cars around here in the 650-750 rwhp range that are on stock 3650's (new clutches of course), as long as the tires dont dead hook with that much power from a dig, it will last for several years. but then again anything can blow at any given moment, so dont take any of this stuff as a gaurantee, but we can minimize our risks by knowing factual info about our cars and there limits.

Well ddashtrois if you're a track kind of guy and it is that important you, and you think you can pull off this James Bond shit above, have at it. The only people I know that practice power shifting regularly have rebuilt rear ends. Of course alot of them now have rebuilt rear ends because they practiced power shifting on the stock one and killed it. I guess it all depends on what you bought your car for. If that .2 seconds or whatever it gives you is worth all that by all means power shift until your hearts content.

[SWEET2KSTANG]

tthe hardest thing about power shifting is timing, to get the clutch disengaged and engaged at the right times. to early you will grind to late you cant make the shift. you will have to have a trans that can hold the power that is being made and at the rpm's that the motor turns.

[zerofx150]

dropping gears? what is this term?

[HMUSN]

Originally Posted by zerofx150 dropping gears? what is this term?

it means breaking them or downshifting

[lofter]

I'm an old dude.....way back in the day it was called a "flat shift" not power shifting. But the princple is the same....it helps to have your clutch adjusted so the fingers are almost touching the release bearing. This shortens the release and engauge time between shifts. I just changed my trans oil to full synthetic and the trans feels much smoother. It's more importent to be able to "powershift" for consistant times if you have an N/A car to keep the engine in the powerband. S/C motors especially twin screws don't rely as much on rpm's for there power. Ok you're free to heckle the old man now... :lala

[zkid01]

Power shifting is great for picking up time.. it IS harder on your tranny and rear end. IMO you should not be power shifting a stock tranny, but that is your judgement and opinion. And the "old dude" gave a better description of what it is (sorry i couldnt help it). For you.. i would recomend working on quick shifting.

[ddashtrois]

yea i didnt plan on power shifting unless it was just another way of more efficient shifting, which from the info im gathering its just something that is generally wearing on the vehicle, and doesn't make much of a difference. im no track guy, not yet anyways lol, so I think ill stick with the way im shifting now

thx for all the responses

[bransdaman78]

well you can call "bs" all you want on the 500/500, then you can come to concord and go to harris racing or custom performance and see around 8-10 stock 3650's over 500 rwhp and again the rear end is REALLY nothing to worry about on street radials.

[ATLmustang]

i just try and shift as fast as i can without grinding the gears

[MeZ]

Not saying I'm a pro, but I'm not a newbie to blowing up trannies by pushing the limits, but I will say that I have no problem power shifting my stangs right now stock, and I'm sure it will be that much more fun once the Blower is on, ..... if it goes, it goes and isn't that the fun part of life .. Pushing the limits ..
but really .. if you know what you're doing and you know what throttle and clutch control are .. power shifting is only gonna be hard on your car if you suck at it and tack the shit out of it everytime, its all about hand eye foot coordination, and luckily mine isn't too bad sober !!!

[orangeRcode]

Originally Posted by bransdaman78 well you can call "bs" all you want on the 500/500, then you can come to concord and go to harris racing or custom performance and see around 8-10 stock 3650's over 500 rwhp and again the rear end is REALLY nothing to worry about on street radials.

Simma down there killer. I didn't say a stock 3650 wouldn't handle 500 hp for some time. If you are not doing high rpm launches on stickies, it will survive for a while. Your statement is still invalid as the 3650 in stock form is only rated for 360 torque and is living on borrowed time at the 500 rwhp mark. If you want to baby them around, they will probably last a good long time but what the fun is that with 500+ hp?

Hard street tires will go up in smoke before they will likely snap an axle. However, the crappy cast 28 spline axles will not hold up to stock power level Machs with MT drag radails. I have personally witnessed 3 snapped axles. 2 on launches and one while doing a burnout in the water box. Just a little bit of friendly advice.