Hi All:
Heres the situation. I have a 68 - plain - yet numbers matching 327 powerglide combo. The engine has been rebuilt - although on the conservative side to keep an eye on stability due to numbers matching. The rearend is stock. The current setup gives me ok acceleration from standing still - definitely nothing too exciting. Acceleration high comes around 40 - 50 mph. Considering which options would be best to gain that acceleration at lower speeds yet keeping an eye on overall picture - for example if I change tranny I would have to hold on to the powerglide. Should I just change rearend gears ? Would take a big hit in gas mileage and even higher revs at highway speed ? Never an easy thing - any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance

[ 03-22-2003, 02:08 AM: Message edited by: sdn40 ]

Gears would be the easy thing to do, but what do you have now?Power glides like more gear... so I've heard.

Because of the numerically low first gear of the PG trans, you'd need to put some deeper gears in the rear end. It probably has something in the high 2.XX or low 3.XX range. My '68 with a 327/PG combo came with a 3.08 gear.
I personally think that you should try a tranny swap and see if this solves your problem. Regardless of what tranny you go with, your cruising rpm in top gear will be the same as long as the tranny has a 1:1 final gear ratio. The extra first gear will effectively multiply the rear gear that you have to the point that you will have much better accelleration.
Of your tranny choices, the easiest is probably the TH350 with a 6'' tailshaft. This will give you three gears to play with, 2.52, 1.52, and 1:1 ratios respectively. I've performed this swap and it was well worth it.
You could also look into an overdrive tranny like the 200-4R. This is a slighly more involved swap, but not too difficult from what I hear. I don't think this would be the best idea for you though unless you changed your rear gear as well... the steep overdrive will put you at too low an rpm at cruising speed. If you did put in a lower rear gear and an OD trans, you'd have the best of both worlds, accelleration and cruising rpm.

You can swap in a TH350 and it will be pretty invisible if you do it right. You use the same driveshaft, same mount, tranny lines, and same speedo connection; you do have to do some pretty simple mods to shift linkage.

A TH350 will allow you to keep the gas saving rear end gear you have now but the lower 1st gear would give you a whole lot more acceleration off the line.

Try contacting Grannys69, he did exactly the same swap and if I recall is pretty pleased with the results.

I swaped from pg to th350 best thing I have done so far. Easy swap. If you have any questions email and I will help.

Thanks for the advice guys.
I like the idea of the overdrive tranny for cruising.
Sounds like a gear change may be necessary either way.
Thanks again