I saw the thread on lowering the gearing in 1st/2nd, and lord knows my 03 can use some help in that area, but this concerns the other end of the spectrum. I would really like to see a taller 6th gear for hiway cruising.
Right now, mine runs 3000 to 3200 at freeway speed. I would think that something in the range of 2200-2500 would be far more economical and
performance would suffer little if at all.
Anything like that available?

 

OK, apparently I'm invisible.
Just for fun, while cruising @40MPH in 4th, I shifted into 6th. Big whopping 200 rpm decrease! Yes, gentle readers, 2 gears up and 200 RPM difference!
Is that spaced a little too close, or am I being too picky?

I'll be over in the corner muttering to myself if anyone is looking for me....

 

I'll agree that there could be some better optimizations to the gear ratios. I, too, would like a lower 1st, 2nd, and 3rd; and then a raised 6th. From what I've seen, there is nothing that will do this. There is a lower final drive available (substantial $$$) that will lower all gears equally but that would make cruising in 6th around 4k rpm. I haven't seen any actual gear replacements out there.

 

How about the Lowered Final Drive Gears offered by Helix

http://www.helix13.com/mini/products/suspension-chasis

Scroll down towards the bottom. The description says it lowers the gear ratios...

 

a lowerd final drive will yeild higher RPMs

 

from my experiance in other cars... the lower the rpm does not always yeild better fuel consumption. Some cars run more efficently at particular rpms, sometimes a little higher than one might expect. I know it sounds wierd... but ask some mustang owners with lower gear ratios... they will tell you that they are getting better MPG! yes even after considering there speedos are off...

 

Just the post I was looking for and it looks like there is little help out there from what you are saying.

If you have found something please reply to me.

I'm looking for the same thing, a given the 6-spd Getrag trans design is a 2 layshaft it is not a simple ring gear change. Also I like the feel of 1&2 gear and only want to swap 5th & 6th. Since 1,2,5,6 are on the same layshaft it means the final drive will effect all. What I want is a lower 6th gear and swap 6th into 5th gear.

I've noticed that 6th gear is good on MPG at 60-70 (3000PRM) MPG and as you get to 80+ (3500-4000RPM) the MPG just drops from 27MPG to 22MPG. My daily drive consist of 2 freeways, 1 is a runs 50-60MPH while the other has a limit of 70MPH but you will get killed if you don't drive 80ish.

Since I live in SE Mich their are a few Ford Focuses running around and I've heard they have the same basic trans. Some guys are even using Mini gearing from the sites I've visited. I wonder if the Focus has a 6th gear ratio that is better for our needs. I'll look around but hope you may have found something.