Street Gear Poll

Which street gear?

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    443
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Dragonbat13

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OK, Been driving around in my toyota tundra with the overdrive off to see what I think about 3.91 gears on the street/highway.

My trips are about 20 miles of 70 MPH driving. My truck rolls along at about 3200 RPM at 70MPH. IT has a VVTI V6 in it.

My plans for my a body are a mild 318 with a low first 904 and custom converter. Whatever engine goes in is gonna have a hyd roller. Exhaust will be quite, but dont let that effect the poll. However keep in mind that priority will go to the gear, and the exhaust can be quieted down if necessary. There is plenty of ways to get rid of the interior drone if you do enough research.

And also please remember this is not a cross country car. The idea is to leave the country haul butt and have fun on the way, burn a ton of gas, upset all the hybrids, rice burners and chevys and go back to the house in the country.

EDIT: Lets assume a 28 inch tall 275/60R15,
ALSO, i intended for this to be a very general poll. Not something to decided on what exactly gear I should use on this car. Personal experience is the main factor. IF you had a car with 4.10 gears and wanted more then by all means post.
 
I would vote for a 3:55 with a tall tire. I have a 3:23 in my 66 4 speed car and when I put a taller 15" tire on I could feel the difference. It isn't as quick out of the gate but it cruises nicer on the highway. Overdrive trannys are the ticket. You can run a 3:73 or 3:91 with a tall tire and still run 2,000 r's @ 60mph. It all depends what you use your car for. tmm
 
I am fine with between 3000 and 3500. But I dont know how that adjusts other things on the car, such as converter heat and such.

Kinda wondering what the folks on here that run the lower gears actually run. I was considering 3.55 but now that I have been driving around those 3.91 are looking pretty good. Maybe even the 4.10 gears.

To give a better idea, I like the Blues Mobile through Chicago type of driving on the highway. :D
 
It is tough to get a 28" tall tire on some A Body's if not duster type quarter panel.
 
rsaun191 said:
It is tough to get a 28" tall tire on some A Body's if not duster type quarter panel.
Click to expand...

Im gonna play the devils advocate on this, and say:

If you cant do the work to get a 28 inch tall tire under a 68 dart, perhaps you dont need the lower gears.

This is gonna go under a 73 Dart Sport
 
You can easily run a 28" tall tire (275/60-15) on a Duster/Demon....don't know about a Dart.

To do this you may want to run a 1/4" shim on the front spring hanger to body mounting point for extra
clearance. Mancini has the shims. May have to stack two 1/8" ones.

See 62bt409's Hemi Demon, HemiMarks Hemi Duster and HemiDenny's Hemi Duster and Hooshpuppy's
383 Duster pictured below. All four are set up the same and all with 275/60-15's......No issues.

JD3%20c_zps4dyessqv.jpg

11%20c_zpskunhvptp.jpg

gold%20Duster%203%20006%20c_zpsa5n9ecvd.jpg

210720_546ddd576d_low_res_zps3btldxks.jpg
 
I run a 275/60/15 tire in my Duster with 4.10 gears. My car is a street/strip deal so the gears are OK with me. Cruising at 55 was around 3,200 RPM. All the cool-guy hot rods have gears.

Small blocks, especially stock stroke need gear to get moving. If you're not drag racing it, I'd say a 3.73 -3.91 would be good. Hyd. roller cams are not known for high RPMS.

Low gear set will get get it off the line but once it's moving the gears are the same as a regular trans. The difference is the wide ratio between shifts so if if you re on it out of the hole and shift into 2nd, you will drop more rpm than you would if you had a standard gear. You probably wouldn't notice it that much but if you pay attention to that sort of thing, it is something to consider.

I had a low gear set in my last combo (340) but opted to go with a regular ratio with the new combo (416) since it will be making a lot more torque.
 
Your "poll" like ALL polls, is skewed from the outset, is statistically unprovable and unarguable, and in the extreme is even "politically incorrect."

"Gear?" You should have picked a "target" or "range" of acceptable engine RPM, and specified your favorite cruising speed.

For many, casual use of classic cars, that's 55-65. "Around here" 55-75. In some places, "over 75" So right there we can't agree

Next there's acceptable engine RPM. Some guys have it in their head "barely over" 2K, I think. My old RR used to run (factory) 3K at 70. That probably wasn't wise "in the long run." Many for intermittent, casual use will accept up to 3500, maybe more.

TIRE SIZE. Well geez. Isn't THAT a subject?

TRANSMISSION. Well is it "straight through," OD, or about a 4K stall converter?

So we get done "discussing" all the factors above, and we finally get down to gear ratio.
 
You are right in that I should have picked an RPM range,

HOWEVER, How many times do you see 3.23 would be a good gear for the street, without any other info.

SO....

I just want to know what everybody else is running.

And I left the first post wishy washy to get all these ideas, such as yours.
 
The idea is to leave the country haul butt and have fun on the way, burn a ton of gas, upset all the hybrids, rice burners and chevys and go back to the house in the country.
Click to expand...

My choice was based on this ^^^.
 
An overdrive tranny is the key to running fun gears on the street. But it does come with the price of adapting our A-bodies to an OD automatic.
Another key is the tranny choice.
Your 904 tranny gear ratios are 2.70/1.54/1.00.
A 727 has gear ratios of 2.45/1.45/1.00.
Your 904 also has less internal horsepower consumption than a 727 - 25 hp compared to 45 for a 727.

I've done a bunch of research and finally decided on going with a 200-4R behind my 360:
* Shorter and lighter than either the 904 or 727
* About the same parasitic horsepower loss as a 904
* Gear ratios are 2.74/1.57/1.00/0.67
The 0.67 OD is the real kicker in this deal. According to the Richmond Gear calculator (http://www.richmondgear.com/index.php/gear-transmission-calculators), I can be at the following RPM at 70 mph with a 28"-tall tire:
3.73 gear = 1949rpm
3.91 gear = 2043rpm
4.10 gear = 2143rpm
4.30 gear = 2247rpm
4.56 gear = 2383rpm
4.88 gear = 2550rpm

Years ago I ran a '69 Dart Swinger on the street with a stout 340, reverse-pattern manual shift 727 and 4.88 gears. It was fun from stoplight to stoplight, but I couldn't take it on the freeway.
Now with an OD trans, it will be a win/win for all - except that guy in the next lane over!
 
When I was young it was always "put the 4.10's" in there.Now I prefer to be able to actually drive the thing farther than gas station to gas station.Gear ratio depends on several factors for me,What size tire,what rpm will I be shifting at(WOT),and will I be taking it on trips longer than 1 hr at freeway speeds.

My 496 C body has 3.73 gears and I hate driving it.Should have left the 3.55's in it and I will likely change it to 3.23's.

My 87 D150 is having a 360 built for it and the 2.71's are going out and the 3.55's are going in.I can run a little taller tire on it so if I need to drive 2 hrs to pick up something I can't live without it won't kill me rolling in the slow lane watching 4cyl's with fart cans buzz by.
 
I voted 3:91. With a 318 you might as well keep it out of the fours, and the 91 will be fun. I have one laying around here somewhere I want to put into my '74. I have run 396 Chevys with 4:56's and 4:88's. I literally had people yelling out the windows at me, telling me to shift. I would stay away from them unless you want to get going a hundred by the time you exit the garage. It would help to own a gas station.
 
I have 3:91's in my Valiant and will swap them out for 2:94's the first chance I get, deep gears where cool in 1989 when I drove up and down the same street all night.
 
Well, well,well.
At least you gave us a tranny. If that low gear 904(2.74-1.54-1.00) has a loc-up, Shazzam!! The ratios are a bit better than a regular 904(2.45-1.34-1.00).A well built (not over-cammed)teener will have no problem with the splits. But the 12% better first gear really helps an LC teener or big-cammed teener. 12% is about 2 diff sizes, and turns a 3.23 into a 3.61, a 3.55 into a 3.97, and a 3.91 into 4.37.
I already discovered, for me, that 4.37 is a terrible street gear for a stick car. I can't see it being any better on an automatic.
A LC street-teener likes a starter gear of about 11.0 to 1.With the 2.74 tranny gear, this works out to......11/2.74=4.01; which I would round down to 3.91s. But if you bring the compression up;a 10.0 to 1 starter gear works pretty good. That would then be 3.65s, which could be rounded either way; 3.55s or 3.73s. You could match the 3.73s with a stockish TC (depending on your cam), or go 3.55s with a slightly looser TC. Since Ima willing to bet you're gonna go with a loose TC,in any case, I'd go 3.55s. Plus if you don't like those , they're easy to sell.
But if you're sharp on the engine rebuild, bringing the Dcr up to where it needs to be, then the extra torque by that move, can be used to motivate the car instead of gears and hi-stalls.And that may allow a 1size smaller diff.
-3.23s aint't all THAT bad with a sharp Hi-comp teener, a low first gear and a nice TC.
The starter gear works out to 3.23 x 2.74 x TCratio = 8.85 x about 1.1 = 9.74. Thats pretty close to 10.0/1. Of course the 3.55s will multiply the engine torque another 10% which could be 30 to 40 ftlbs,more. Yummy.

-The point is this; build the engine first. Build it right. Then let it tell you what rear gear it wants. Thats my opinion.I didn't vote.
 
I'm building a 72 duster at the moment. 318/727/3.55's and 275/60/15's. Should keep it under 3000 cruising rpm
 
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