how do you know which gear is better for your application? I went to richmond gear's site and they have a calculator for street and strip gears. My problem is when I plug in the info, both programs, one for street and one for strip, it gives me a different choice. For the strip, it tells me to use a 4.44, but for the street it tells me to use a 4.88. Would the 4.44 be better, due to how low the 4.88 gearing is?
Any advise?
Thanks,
Bruce

Bruce

4.88 gears will drive you nuts on the street, unless you like 'cruising' at 6000 rpm. http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif IMO something in the 3.40-3.50 range is a good street gear. If you've got an overdrive tranny you can go lower. It all depends on how much it's on the street and how much it's on the track.

I've got 4.10's with a 4-speed and it runs close to 3500 rpm's at 60 mph. Definitly not much of a highway cruiser.

Many other things come into play also. what engine you're running (does it like high rpm's?), converter stall if you've got an auto tranny, cam size, tire height, etc.

Have fun!

Mark

I have a gear ratio chart I can e-mail to you to figure your RPMs at 55 with different gear ratios and tire sizes. Let me know if you want it.

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'69 RS/SS396 pro street
427/4spd/9"
Byars Performance
High Performance Drive Train Parts And Service
www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead (http://www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead)

visit smokemup.com they have a calulator for rpms at a certain mph, you plug in your gear/trans/tire size and you can compaire it with another combo and see what you like. IMO i'd say 3.55-3.73 would be good.

Mr. big gear head, If you get a chance, could you send me the chart. Thanks.
also thanks to all for the help. I should have told you that my tires are 29.3 tall, and i'm running a big block with a powerglide, so that's why the gear numbers a kind of low. Thanks again to all.
Bruce

just to let you know, the formula on smokemup.com told me to use 4.89 gears. is this a formula for the street or strip?
bruce

Does anyone know what gears 87-91 Corvettes came with. I like the pick up and response on those cars.

Most of the late 80's/early 90's vettes came with 3.07 gears...but they also had the deep 1st gear of the 700r4 trans and the grunt of the TPI 350 to pull them.


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'78 chevy truck-355, 9.4-1, vortec heads, XE268, vortec rpm intake, 750 edelbrock, flowtech headers and terminators.

'77 Nova-slowly progressing project.

'78 Nova-parts car?

'95 Lumina 3.4L DOHC 210hp daily driver

bruce, use their compare chart on smokemup for comparing, dont use the forumula, it doesnt take into consideration what you want your R's to be on the highway, it considers where your max power is and wants to to be there by the end of the track.

Bruce,
I tried 2 times to send the gear ratio chart. I don't know if you got it or not, but I got a message that said it couldn't be delivered.

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'69 RS/SS396 pro street
427/4spd/9"
Byars Performance
High Performance Drive Train Parts And Service
www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead (http://www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead)

336 is a given to make the math work. 336 x mph xgear ratio divided by tire diameter= RPM this works if there is no converter or clutch slippage

ok, let me put it to you all this way. Which gearing would you select for my application.
my car has a 408 big block, running a powerglide with a 3500, 10" converter, 29.3 tires. I'm looking to run it both on and off the street. I'd like to run it up to 6500 rpm's, and somewhere in the 115 mph area. Now one chart said 4.44 gears would do this, but then i used a street gearing chart and it say's 4.88's, with the same input. So, is it 4.88's or 4.44's? I'm looking for the best performance, but streetable and stripable.
What do you guy's think. I'm in favor of the 4.44's.
Thanks again,
Bruce

If your gonna race and don't care about not being able to get good gas mileage on the interstate. Go with 4.10's they are a good all around gear. If you really want to push it, get 4.30's and some bigger tires. The bigger tires you get the deeper the gear you are allowed. I know of a 55' with a 383 that can pull the fron't with 4.30's. Good luck

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It is better to burn out than fade away