Mother of god.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

I guess my car is a last-of-the-malaise-era special.

Some third gen Camaros also had 2.73 gears.

I love how many people recommend a 9in for a 4 door 150hp car. I see all of our minds are stuck in race car mode.

Edit, is 150hp optimistic?

In reply to chiodos:

Nope, you actually nailed the output. It's probably more with the modern cat and larger-diameter exhaust pipes.

Dont forget 30 years of driving, a couple poneys may have croaked..

tuna55 wrote:

Woody wrote: I am encouraged that someone so young would even ask such a question. You are truly one of us. Good for you. I think...

hear hear! Always good to see another good one coming into the fold. I feel really sorry for your eventual wife.

I dunno, some of the 20 something women I work with bitch incessantly about husbands playing video games. At least you can do stuff with/in a car as a couple . A carefully selected wife will be all about someone who can actually fix stuff on his own.

I'm also excited to see teens interested in cars and taking the initiative to jump in - if I 'invite' my son to work on stuff, he'll do it, but to date, he stops short of thinking on his own and doing research about things, reading GRM, etc.

My Monte came with 3:73s. It makes the car feel fairly quick even stock and as hard as I tried I never broke anything.

My '78 Firebird came with either a 2.41 or 2.56 open diff (I forget exactly). This is with a fully-smogged 305 pumping out ~145 horses. No wonder those late 70's "muscle" cars felt so wimpy.

Luckily I have both 3.23 and 3.42 posi/disc rearends ready to swap in once I start actually working on it.

I need to find a Posi rear end.

My ex-LeMans has a Powerglide 2-speed with 2.56 rear.

Get a Ford 8.8 with an LSD and throw it in there. It won't be a bolt in but this is an excellent excuse to learn to weld.

All 5-speed Supercoupes left the factory with a 2.73 rear gear to make up for the super-low first gear on the M5R2 transmission.

The Chevy C10 pickups with 250 straight 6's came with 2:73's in the late 70's and early 80's. The v8 trucks had lower gearing.

I had two of those 6 cylinder trucks and found changing from 2.73 to 3:42 or 3:55's made big improvements in acceleration without killing gas mileage on the highway.

I don't know if the width from the v8 trucks is correct for you, but a search of track width should reveal if it could be close enough to use with some welding.

Do you know how to check gearing on an open diff without opening it up?

If not, speak up so we can provide instructions. It will save you time if you are going to check pick & pulls for rear ends.

My G-body wagon has 2.56:1. I have a set of 2.29:1 available in another rear.

wheels777 wrote: My G-body wagon has 2.56:1. I have a set of 2.29:1 available in another rear.

i had 2.29 in my 78 sedan deville. 425 cubic inches, 22mpg. it was a good thing. then it felt like i gained 200hp when i went to 3.08

G_Body_Man wrote: it wat 2:2-something

So it was 1?

G_Body_Man wrote: Speaking of welding buddies, what happened to Zomby Woof? He put out an offer to help me fix my frame rail.

Taking it easy in Antigua right now.

The woof had a bit of a health scare and hasn't been around lately. More detail when I have time.

FYI, I think the best you can do on your stock carrier is 3.42 which would make a huge difference and you should be able to get for almost nothing from an s10.

Zomby Woof wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote: Speaking of welding buddies, what happened to Zomby Woof? He put out an offer to help me fix my frame rail.

Taking it easy in Antigua right now. The woof had a bit of a health scare and hasn't been around lately. More detail when I have time. FYI, I think the best you can do on your stock carrier is 3.42 which would make a huge difference and you should be able to get for almost nothing from an s10.

Thanks, man. Sorry to hear about the health scare. My dad almost had a heart attack a few years back, and required and angioplasty. Scary stuff. Take it easy, man.

one of my friends had a 78 Cutlass with 2.27 gears. think it was a factory V6 car. it was amazing how easily that thing did burnouts once we got a mildly built 350 in it. it was fun when the TH350 would do the 1-2 upshift at about 90mph. there is an RPO code for something like 2.07 gears: i'd love to know what cars got that.

that being said: as already pointed out, the Monte SS rear is the cheapest and easiest way to get moar better gears. most of them were even posi, but not all.. 87 and 88 cars had the slightly better 7.625 ring gear and 28 spline axles, if that matters. the best factory rear end would be an 8.5 out of an 84-87 turbo Regal (T Type, GN) with 3.42 gears or a 84-88 442 with 3.73 gears, but good luck getting one of those for under about $1k..

In reply to novaderrik:

Wow. Imagine how fast that thing went in reverse!

2.93 for my e46 328i. I do get great highway mileage though, so there is that

I say stick with the ten bolt, Ive broken a few of them but that was with more than double your hp, better tires, and a very aggressive clutch and driving, in a stock Gbody, Id rock it all day.

Can you run a 3.42 setup from a fbody. If it fits you could get a carrier and ring and pinion from a 94-02 manual V8 Fbody and you get a LSD (clutch or Torsen) the carrier for later running higher gears if wanted, and a huge upgrade. I noticed a big difference goind from 3.42 to 3.73, cant image 2 something to 3.42s. Plus they are cheap as hell especially the clutch type LSDs.

In reply to Opti:

I need to find a junkyard that doesn't just dump their cars on the ground.

Just my two cents: I had 3.42 in my '94 F-bod. I always felt that it was the perfect match for that car. You might go 3.73 but not any steeper

In reply to Carro Atrezzi:

Yeah, 3.42s sound about right. Now if only I knew how and had the confidence to do a gear swap.