In the end, only two things matter;
1) that you can put down a decent amount of torque, at the roadspeed you need it to be at. and
2) that the car cruises at an rpm that you can live with.
These two together conspire to either require an overdrive, or a stupid high hiway gear.
A close ratio is nice, but you can only make use of it, if the circumstances are right. and, you can overcome that with torque.
The truth is that a hi-stall convertor with a 4-speed auto and performance gears will satisfy every streeter's needs; crappy splits or not.
Whereas a Mopar 4-speed plus GVod will not satisfy, unless your engine has gobs of midrange torque, which with an SBM, you can only get with very high Cylinder Pressure, and then it will be crazy fun, with the right rear gear.
But you still run into the issue of having the right amount of torque at the right roadspeed.
To that end, for most of us streeters, Second gear is where it's at.
If you need power at 35 mph, yur gunna need the ratios to be just right, and you can get away with just torque multiplication. But
If you need it at 45mph, now you'll also need some serious actual engine torque
Finally, I have not ever tested a 5-speed manual, but manuals suffer from one fatal handicap, the loss of the convertor means no torque-multiplication from it, which takes you back to the rear end having to be increased in compensation.......... which is fine until it negatively affects your cruise rpm.
Don't get me wrong, I've been a stick man since 1970. And I have managed to try just about every combo possible of gear ratios, with a sbm. and I know exactly what my combos like, when it comes to torque-multiplication. So, I'm a happy guy. But, my engine with a cam like yours, put out about 195psi.
When I changed cams, the pressure dropped to 187, and all the fun went away. It took me all summer to get it back, and it ended with a different transmission and gears. and that was just ONE cam size from the same manufacturer! So I know how easy it is to screw up a combo, when you have a manual trans.
Here's the automatic thing.
Your cam probably peaks around 5000/5200, or should if it had adequate cylinder pressure. and that means, it's gunna torque peak around 3500 .
For me, I always gear the car to be at shift-rpm at the Top of Second at 60mph. Thus I can run thru the power-peak twice and still be under the speed limit..
For a power peak of 5000, you might shift that at say 5400. To get 60mph, at 8% slip, in 1.45 Second gear, you would need a rear gear of 4.56s, with 28" tires. You see the problem right. You need an overdrive. But even then, are you gunna run 4.56s on the street? You may have heating issues, like boiling away your gearoil.
Lets see what happens in First gear. 5400 in 2.45 first will get you to 37mph and on the shift, the Rs drop to 3200. You got torque down there? Well maybe you do, but will it be enough? But worse is, what happens if yur at 35mph, in Second gear just tooling along , minding your own business...... and you suddenly get the urge to hit the gas.
Consider what's about to happen .
You were at 2780. If the trans does NOT kickdown, that will increase to ~3000. Got torque?
But if she backshifts to first, the Rs will scream to 5070, and then she'll upshift in about a second and drop to 2990, got torque?
And listen, this is with 4.56s and 28"tires.
Thus you see that this combo will never be very satisfying, except it cruses at 65=2450, in .69od.
Or will it.
In the above scenario, the convertor stall is let's say stock.
But lets say your engine torque-peaks at 3500, so you get a 3500 stall. Now, your minimum rpm at WOT is gunna be close to that, so then, that's as good as it gets.
But now those 4.56s are all wrong for first gear, but if you change them, Second gear will get choked.
The point is, of course, to gear the car to torque peak at or near the speed you travel at, for most of the time, and let the other gears be what they will be.
Not so
with a nice tight 5-speed manual, or as in my case, using the GearVender as a gear splitter, behind the Commando 4-speed..It has a ratio of .78, which is about a close as you'll ever find.
With the right trans, in front of it, you can keep your engine on the pipe all thru the Eighth mile. which means that you can run a smaller engine or a smaller cam, and still have gobs of fun.
Choosing a manual or a stick, for the street, is kindof a personal thing.
Some guys are born to clutch, and some to not, and some just like what they like.
If I had money, I'd have a 5speed auto with a clutch.
And i was wondering earlier today why mopar used such long tailshafts on trains.. help not have super long driveshaft?
