After putting together a 383 for my 86 ta, i decided it would be easier on my wallet to swap a 350 turbo into my bird as to have the 700 beefed up to handle the motor. Before i decided this, i bought a set of 3.73 gears for the car.
This brings me to my questions

1. Are any of you running this set up? I have 27 inch tires, and I would like to know the cruise RPM at about 55 or 60

2. Would I see better performance from a set of 3.42's or 3.55's?
If so, is anyone out there willing to trade?


3. And finally, does anyone have a drive shaft to fit my application. My tranny is a short tail shaft 350, and my driveshaft needs to be 45' from center to center on the u joints

 

You figured in the cost of losing the OD in daily driving situations or is this a race only car?

 

It will be street/strip, but i was looking at lump sum. Althought i might go with an 700 later, the initial money was too much, especially with all of the other stuff that i had bought ( ie the motor and rear end, new suspension and such). I don't trust any shop around here to build one strong enough, and I haven't seen any performance 700s for less than $1500 or so. I got a 350 that I am pretty confident that for around 500 I can have a tough tranny that I'm not worried about destroying. But then I am still looking at my crusing. I know that I am looking about somewhere towards 3 grand at 55-60, so I would like to cut it down a bit.

 

Ok. but your gas mileage will suck and you will end up paying more at the pump unless you drasticall cut down your driving and also drop your gear ratio to 3.23 or 3.42 which is high for that tranny to do a street. How about leaving the tranny you got and fixing it up later when it breaks. Drive it around for a week in D and see how you like the gas situation. You are right about the cost but my 700 lasted for 3.5 years with me giving it a daily beating. It works out in the long run.

 

The tranny was stock with 110,000 miles on it. Plus, my cam specs say that i need at least a 2400 stall. And I am guessing at anywhere between 350-400 hp from my new motor. I didn't want to waste the time of tearing the car apart, then putting it back together, then tearing the tranny out, and having to do it again. It was cheeper to have it done now, while everythign else was out.

And I don't want to sound like I'm arguing with you, because i would much rather have the 700, and someday i probally will, but now I'm stuck with what I can afford.

 

Sorry if it seemed like argueing. I wish someone hit me on the head when I did the head project. I had to do heads and cam. bought what I thought was ok. TFS heads. 5000 miles later, I had to redo the engine because it was blowing smoke. 40000 miles later I had to redo the engine because the cheaper heads caused a problem and broke the motor. Just hate to see someone spending more money that they have to.

Have you tried taking a tranny class at a local tech college? That is what I did when I was doing an R&R and rebuild on my motor. The instructor was not impressed because it was a "Minor Repair" class which had nothing to do with removing heads and doing an R&R.

 

My big thing is that when i get the motor broken in, I want to beat on it. I'm sure i'm going to be hard on it, and I don't want to have to worry about frying the tranny. And if I do burn up the 350, I have a lot less expense to fix it. I have a good friend who does mechanic work, and he said he can put together a strong tranny for about 700 (labor=parts) but i still worry about it. Also, I have no intention on selling the car, so It will always be a work in progress. If I'm not happy with what I got all I have to do is save up and fix it.