Spring keeps teasing us here in the Mitten. I got out my car the other day, hooked up the battery, poured some gas down the throat of the Edelbrock and the 327 fired right up. A good cleaning and she was on the road. The work we started last summer was complete except for one thing - the 2.73 gears in the ten-bolt needed to go, they just don't work well with a close-ratio Muncie. The weather, of course, immediately changed for the week and I left the car at home when I returned to school. Friday, overworked from a major project, I was sitting, staring at my wall when my phone rang. Answering I hear - "David, I just took your car for a drive with the new gears... HOLY*****!!" *click* Meanwhile, like an idiot, I'm trying to ask questions to a dead phone line. Calling back my dad I get the scoop - he had a friend install my Randy's Ring and Pinion 3.42:1 gears and ring spacer for us (we don't do rear ends). He claims it's "scary quick" now. Needless to say, I can't wait to get home. Unfortunately I can't go home (two hours away) until I schedule at 3:27 that afternoon (no joke). It was then perhaps eleven in the morning. I agonized all day, excited to go home. When I finally got there, the car was nowhere to be seen. My brother returned a few minutes later - with a grin from ear to ear. I gotta tell you, he hated driving the car before. After a few words of warning to be careful from my dad, I took off. "Scary quick" is right. This car went from performing well to performing great. It will lay rubber (on the right rear, anyway) in the first two gears, probably three (I wasn't flogging her hard as there was a lot of traffic). I can see why the L79 Novas were the terrors of street and strip in the late-1960s as the 327 is just a honey of a motor. Small drum brakes, on the other hand, are a bit nerve wracking... Gearing, my friends, makes all the difference (I know I'm preaching to the choir). This weekend was too short. I just can't wait to go home and drive again!!!
<font color="green">I know that feeling. When I chewed up the carrier in the 41 I went from 3.08's to 3.42's. You wouldn't think there would be that much difference but....DAMN!! I guess that's why they make so many different combo's. </font>
2.73s are cool if ya got a GRUNT motor...which a 327 aint! My first car was a 69 Chevelle with a very mild, but torquey 350 and 2.73 gears. When I got the car, someone had hacked a Muncie M-21 into it...the car would fry one tire at will...but the trans was noisy and beat. I put in a TH-375 auto trans with a shift kit and Vette converter...and the car was the Instant Burnout King around town! If you got the tire spinning against the brake, then floored it and went...shifting manualy...it would smoke the one tire until you let off... (The longest one I ever laid was a solid two-blocker next to a rival high school...right through a stop sign with smoke pouring off the one tire...the loooonnnnnngggg tire mark was visible there for MONTHS!!!) The highway gears keep your motor in the torque band forever...allowing for long, smokey burnouts if you got the motor for it...taller gears are better for acceleration...but they rev the motor through it's torque band so fast that you just can't impress the dudes and chicks with 100-yard smokers as easily!!!
[ QUOTE ] 2.73s are cool if ya got a GRUNT motor...which a 327 aint! [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, someday I'll use my 2.56:1 geared LeMans rear and our built 396 to build something crazy. I just can't think of my ideal vehicle for that - '54 Chevy, maybe?
My buddy had a Cutlass with a special order factor 2.26:1 rearend! I wanted SO bad to see him dump the 260 (which he did) and drop a 455 Olds into that beast! He went the OTHER way...dropped a W-30 (or W-31?) 350 Olds motor in it out of a 69 Cutlass with a 4.30 geared Ford nine inch...the car launches like a rabbit, but it's outta breath by 40mph! THAT car needs a screamin' 327 or something!!!
Good grief, sounds like an eighth-mile drag car. What's the point of that? Speaking of which, they're ripping out the end of the local quarter-mile and making it an eighth, imagine my disappointment!
[ QUOTE ] Good grief, sounds like an eighth-mile drag car. What's the point of that? Speaking of which, they're ripping out the end of the local quarter-mile and making it an eighth, imagine my disappointment! [/ QUOTE ] Ha Ha...I dunno, man...he just quit working on the car and left it to rot...it's STILL sitting in the backyard at his Mom's house...along with his long dormant 1970 Super Bee. The Dodge hasn't been registered since 1989, and I was actually the last one to drive the poor Cutlass! (I was over his house about 12 years ago while he was working on his truck. The Cutlass had been parked there for a couple years, and I asked what it needed to run again. he said "I dunno...a battery and an alternator I guess...". While he worked on his truck, I rumaged around in his junk and found a GM alternator, re-clocked it for the Olds motor, bolted it on, dropped in a battery he had laying around, checked the fluids, then fired it up. After setting the timing and everything, I just got in the car and backed out of his driveway...then took off as he shook his head and laughed! About an hour later I came back with bald rear tires and and told him the car was an absolute ANIMAL off the line...and a blast around town...and that he should really DRIVE the damn thing. It's still sitting right where I parked it that day!!!)
That 79 malibu I had ran 2.73 in the rear, and a torque monster of a 350 through a TH350. I'd literially run out of road before finishing a burnout... we counted one off one time, it was over 300 feet, one legged. I figure it's because the tire would spin so fast that it would never grab the road. On the top end, it would go faster than the car could handle... even on interstate, you had to watch out for the curves. It's the only car i've heard of that would downshift at 80mph, and spin the tires enogh to break a little loose. I really miss that thing..
I have a 2:53 or a 2:73 in my wagon (its out of a malibu) and I want to put some better gears in it bad as it is a dog off the line (even with my hopped up 327).. I have been told the best i can do is 3:08 as the carriers are different??. 3:42 would be a perfect choice Any idea what a shop charges to do a gear change...
My buddy, Darwin, and I traded labor. He redid my kitchen and I built him a killer 436 Poncho motor...a 0.030 over 428. While he had the car torn down he bought a 3.42 Posi disc brake rear to replace the 2.73 single-go. It's all in a 40 Poncho sedan and after the improvements, the first time he drove it, it went sideways in front of his house, on the street and he ended up on his own lawn. He leaped out of it shaking! Hadda sit down for a little while. Scared the***** outa him... He has a little more respect for it now....
I retained my 3.08 and up carrier by using a ring spacer. When I originally contacted Randy's they said they made an extra-thick ring gear for the application. It turned out that the guy had actually been referring to third-generation F-body rear ends not first. They sent me the correct parts too late in the season to get it done last year.
Yeah, the gears make a hell of a difference. I went the other way though. I put a new 350 in my F100 a couple months ago. 10:1 compression, good heads, and the ZZ4 Roller Cam. With the 3.90 Geared Detroit Locker that was in it at the time, it was pretty quick. I got the bright idea of switching to 3.08 Gears in anticipation of the higher gas prices and now its a PIG. Didn't help the mileage much either, so I think the 3.90's are going back in.
I used to have a hot rod Camaro with an old style LT1 (warmed over) and 4:11 gears and swapped out the rear end to 2.73 to try and get some gas mileage. It still ran 14.60's at 106 .........in second gear!!!!! It would run well over 150 wound out!!!
Yep. Don't believe too much of that gas milage talk.... You have to figure out where you'll do most of your driving. My 78 malibu went from 2.56's to 3.42's, and while I did LOSE about 1.5 MPG on the x-way, I picked up a solid 5 mpg in city driving, which I did WAY more than the Xway, so it was a great trade off for me! BTW: I have also used the ring gear spacers and had GREAT results. Actually, I'm not positive, but I may even have one for a 7.5" 10 bolt (malibus, s-10's, etc...)out in the garage if anyone needs one...
Enjenjo just dropped off a 2.47 Ford 9" when he was here for Denises Big Olds thrash. I'm thinking it should go in my "48 F1 with the 401 nailhead (with a T-400/ switch pitch converter from another source) I got from Kustombuilder. I'm going to have to lower it and put something else for front brakes (maybe different suspension to) but I'm thinking it should have no trouble keeping up with X-way traffic. Frank
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