Movingalong with my 52 F1 and have decided rather than using the 283 with powerglide I'm going to Chevy 350 with 350 turbo ******. Found an explorer rear axle with 355 ratio and limited slip that's priced right. Not looking to race it but rather wll be traveling around town and some hwy driving. Would this be a good ratio considering? As for a cam, nothing radical but more for sound. Thanks forthe adivse...
That's a good all-around ratio for what you'll be doing. I run a 3:73 in my T Bucket. It's great around town, but screams on the highway. If I was smart, I'd have a 3:55, but stop light to stop light is just too damn awesome. My mileage isn't great, but I didn't build this to save gas.
Tire height? Cam selection? Maybe good for around town might be a little high rpms on the hwy. Not a bad ratio for an overdrive trans depending on the answers to the first two ?'s
15 inch tires and cam is open as of now. Looking for something not to radical as its going to more for show but also want some go. I'm open to and wold apreciate any suggestions here also... Also thanks for the info on the t-bucket.
Do you own a tape measure to measure how tall your rear tires are? Tire diameter is what's being asked for.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/speedcalc.html Go to this site. It will give you the information you're looking for.
With that size tire you'll have real snappy performance around town but the motor will be 'busy' at speed on the highway. Personally, I'd go for a 3.0 or 3.25 gear. A 3.55 will get you almost 3200 rpm @ 70, 3.25 = 2900, 3.0 = 2600.
I agree with the 3.0 (preferred) or 3.25 gear. And with that cam the milder gears should work fine. Expect to be buzzing the engine well over 3000 rpm at 75 with the 3.55 gears.
what happened to the good old days? cars came with 283,327,350's and powerglides or t350,t400's with 3.73 gears. some even had small 14 inch tires. one of my favorite cars to drive was a 67 chevelle 327 4 bbl with powerglide and 3.73 posi. drove it every day. mileage was 14 mpg. switched to 3.08 gears and went to 18mpg. wasn't near as fun to drive so i switched back. 3.55 will be fine.
My old 68 GTO had 3.55s with a mild cam, 28 inch tall tires and it was pleasant to drive both around town and on the freeways.
Daily drove a '68 Camaro w/ a 12.5/1 355, 4 speed, and 4.11 rear end from 1982-2000. The gears allowed me to get away with the compression, and it never broke anything. Turned around 3500 on the highway and got about 12 mpg, but never hurt it. Ran 12:30 on slicks. Just depends on what you want and what your willing to put up with. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
what we once had doesn't count i had 4.88 in my daily driver and 5.67 in my nova but so did everyone else around one guy had 6.17 in a 67 firebird but to day i'd run 3.55 to 3.00 with a powerglide or turbo 350 and 4.10 to 3.55 with and overdrive and it depends on tire height, weight of vehicle were you drive town/city or highway is it flat or hilly. all this to say you are probably good.
Why tire height Is important ? Because here's the difference. 60 mph/ 3.55 gears /26" tire / 1:1 final Rpms will be 2752 60 mph/ 3.55 gears/ 31" tire / 1:1 final Rpms will be 2300
As has already been mentioned. Stop light to stop light will scoot out pretty good and be fun, but the engine will be working at 65 mph.
i agree with fastcar53, 3.70 is a nice ratio for the street. these young whippersnappers? are used to 2 grand going down the interstae in there suv's and think the 302 ford or 327 chevy is incapable of 4 grand at 60MPH> hell, I love the sound of my 351c ford at 4 grand! won't hurt a thing
The Explorer rear axle is a great choice, but you'll be hard pressed to find a limited slip Explorer axle in anything taller than the 3.55 you're looking at. I'd use it if most of your driving is not at 65-70 mph, as whatever little you do at freeway speeds probably wont be a big deal. I've got 3.73 in both my cars. One is 28" tires, and the other is 30" tires. I can definitely see the rpm difference between the two when cruising at 65 mph on the freeway, but even the car with smaller tires isn't a big deal to cruise at around 2800 rpm for a 30 mile. Most of our local freeways are 55 mph, so I rarely hit the interstate and do 65 mph.
Here's a little tid bit to file in the memory bank. The 8.8 exploder housing can easily be narrowed with an extra short side axle. all 8.8 rears use the same size carriers regardless of gear ratio or LS. Earlier explorers have drum brakes and later ones have disk and the late models have IRS but the carrier is still the same. You can swap any ge****t onto any carrier and then into any housing. ford racing sells a 8.8 LSD rebuild kit relatively cheap. So on your pull a part adventures grab an exploder housing with LSD, a short side exploder axle, any ge****t you want from any 8.8. And you can have a 56.5" WMS, almost center pinion rear with any LSD gear set you want. The lowest gear set in an exploder is 3.27, and only a few were LSD. That 3.27 is more common in The earlier drum brake rears than the later disk rears. Maybe 1 out of 1000 disk rears have 3.27 gear and few were LSD. vs 1 out of 20 drum rears having 3.27 and half of them might be LSD. The gear ratios are on the door tags and the secret decoder ring is all over the net.
Now my wheels are turning for sure... I rememeber the old days when whenone of the best cars i ever owned was a 67 Ols Custl*** with a 330 v8 and powerglide ****** and it ran like a top amd for bone stock was pretty bad *** for its day! Bought this project with a 64-66 283, 2bbl carb, power pack heads and stubby headers with gl*** packs, powerglide ****** anwhine original 52 Ford F1 rear axle. Was able to drive a short distance and drive out pretty good but can tell the old motor is tired and carb is bad. Now I'm really considering just doing a rebuild on the 283, going thru the powerglide and changing out the rear Alex with the 8.8 with 3.55. If I don't like it I can always change out the ring and pinion for something else. I'm doing a complete frame off and adding Mustang II with power steering, new coloum and power disc front and rear. Like the axle I found because its disc brake setup and that's why I asked. I can always runs taller tire amd to make up for the 3.55 gear and might be better considering the weight of the truck, keeping it wll steel so will be heavy.
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