what gears should I use?

[darthvegagt]

I am looking to swap gears in the 10 bolt in my 69 camaro. I am looking at making the car 95% reliable driver and maybe take to the track once a year or two. Anyways, I have a mild 454/th400 thats going in it. The 8.2 10 bolt has 2.73's in it right now, but I am thinking that a 3.55 or so would be a great gear to go with, what do you guys think??? anyone have a set of gears lying around they want to sell.?

I don't have the money to swap out the rear for a ford 9 inch so I am just sticking with the 8.2 for now.

thanks!

[chicane67]

Wow..... Yuma huh ?? I'm sorry..... I spent a few years down there and was glad when my EAS came up. Not to many shops down there in Yuma can do gear changes reliably..... unless Gordy knows a local cat the will do them.

IMO, I would not run anything more than a 3.36 or 3.55 with the 454. It make's enough torque that it will spin just about anything off the rim without trying. The 3.36 is deep enough to make a real difference (a half a point change), but not too deep as to really effect your mileage. The 3.36 is a great all around gear for city driving and not too bad at all for distance cruzing.

Now on the other hand, I have had 3.55's (with a small block) in my 67 for so many years I have forgotten they were even in there. I like them and would have gone with even more gear if I could have with the four speed.... but its a real limiter for any distance driving. I used to go to San Diego every weekend and the 3.55's were not too bad, but kinda killed the mileage to and fro. But they were great for in town driving as well.

That is the thing with big blocks. They make so much more torque than that of a typical small block that they are a little more forgiving with gearing. But.... you do load the trans more and that alone creates enough heat to worry about. That and if you ever brake traction (like that never happends) it will spin the tires until the sun goes down. But too much gear will kill any (if there was any to begin with) mileage. Kinda of a toss up........

I say go with the 3.55's if your not looking at doing any distance driving and you are just looking at a great in town car. Not to mention, if you were ever to do a trans upgrade and use a 2004R or say a 4L60E, the 3.55 would be more suited to that over the 3.36 ratio. But if you were looking at doing some distance driving without a trans upgrade, you might want to consider the 3.36. I guess it depends on your use.

Any ratio you change to however, will require that you change out the differential carrier as well. The carriers are 2.92 and numerically lower and 3.08 and numerically higher. So guess you could pick up an Eaton posi for it at the same time you do the gears. :idea:

[ProBell]

The gear you want depends on a lot of things. What trans do you have. What size tire do you have. What rpm do you want the motor to turn at any given speed. What rpm will you go through the traps or long straightaway at, Depending on type of track and gear.
They have speed calculators that will help make the proper choice. Just fill in the info you know and it will tell you the gear.
I believe their one at the LS1 Tech web site. I know Morose also has one.Randy

[darthvegagt]

There is a couple of people that do gears setups here in yuma. I am not that technical when it comes to things so I am not worried about trap speed or anything like that. I would love to cruise a 1700rpm with a bbc on the freeway at 80 but I don't want 250 gears either. I eventually would like to swap out to a 700r4 that I have laying around, but I need to put quite a bit of money into the trans and its just not practical with the other 400 things that I need. I think that I will go with the 3.55's because I want the car to be a cruiser mainly but its going to be driven 95% in town. I would love to take it on the power tour one day but it may never happen. thanks for eveyones help. Jordan