Rear gear and stall converter not working together

[dirtybird]

Car is a 68 firebird convertible with pontiac 461 stroker engine. comp cam xe274. Running a 2004r transmission with a 2500 stall converter. Original rear end with 2.56 gears. The car is very sluggish at takeoff and remains in first gear until about 3000 rpm, then it will shift out. I don't know if this is just a really bad combination or if somethings wrong. I'm very new to this so I could be missing something very obvious. The car is mainly a cruiser so I didnt think 2.56 gears would be so bad, but now I think I need to go lower. Would switching to 3.55 or 3.73 gears make it pep up? I just dont want to be cruising around at 3000 rpm's. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[drc270]

Sounds like throttle valve cable is out of adjustment. I would not drive it until cable is adjusted properly
as it could possibly kill tranny.
Under moderate pedal, you should have a crisp shift to 2nd at 20-30 mph
2.56 gears are really high, you would really wake up your ride with 3.50 or higher
I went from 2.73 to 3.55 and was one of the best improvements made to my car.

[TheJDMan]

A 2.56 gear will be sluggish no matter what drive train you have. If you don't want to cruse at 3000rpm don't go with a 3.73. I am running a 3.50 and the engine rpm is 2500 at 55mph. Any gear in the 3's will wake up your performance compared to the 2.56.

[dirtybird]

Thanks for the input guys. Greatly appreciated.

[drc270]

with a 27' tire, 2004r overdrive, you should be about 2100 rpm @60mph with a 3.55
that is a good all around gear for a street rod.
I would be more focused on tranny adjustment for now