[Dlivry]

so here's my question: I'm running a 468 with a 350 turbo trans, 2600 stall converter and 3.73 rear with 28 inch tires. driving around town is ALOT of fun. but on the open road, not so much. this car is really winding out at anything over 50 a little too much for me. my shop wants me to drop to a 3.23 rear but I really don't want to loose all the fun of my bottom end. he says a 700 won't bolt up to my block and a 200 won't give me as much relief as I need. I talked to a friend who installed a gear vendor's unit in his 64 gto and it seems to run pretty nice on the open road and he has an m21 and
4.11's. but he says he paid $3000 for it. that's alot of dough for this guy to swallow. what are you guys doing for relief from the high rpm's of highway travel???

[1971WARBIRD]

you could change the first gear in the turbo 400 to a lower gear then drop to a 3.23/3.08 and have the same first gear,but less RPM on top end.

[guccieng]

i run 3.70 gears in my camaro at 90 on the interstate, and that's with 26 inch tall tires. i love the sound at 4.5k rpms!

[Rob B]

Several things you could do. First thing would be to drop down in ratios as mentioned already. Another option is to go to yet a taller tire (28 is a good overall height) or a combination of both, but not knowing what tires your running or how much clearance you have may or may not make that feasable. Those gear vendor pieces are nice but they aint cheap!!
To me, dropping to a 3:23 would give you the best highway cruising rpm and being a 468, your not going to lose as much bottom end as you think. I don't know what kind of hp or ET's your making but for a cruising around, terrorizing the neighborhood car, you probably won't feel that much of a difference. Going to a higher ratio actually would give you more top end speed than with the 3:73's.
I've wanted to change to 3:90's or even a 3:73 from the 4:10 I have now to see if it would actually give me more MPH, ET, change rpm's, etc etc compared to now but I've been to lazy to make the change.

[Dlivry]

yeah, I'm probably gonna go with the 3.23's I think. that sounds like the best option for highway cruisin'. if anybody has any other ideas, I'd like to hear them. will keep you posted on what I do. money is tight, but if I'm gonna enjoy that car at all this summer, I'm gonna have to make some sacrifices I guess. thanks

[guccieng]

i replaced my 3.25's with the 3.70's. there's just not that much difference. my 'bird has 2.78's. there is a difference there. even you made to the 3.73 to 3.23 for free, you really won't be saving any real money on gas and the freeway rpm drop at 70 mph is only 441rpm. not that big of deal for losing all that low-end fun!

[455wagon]

I run a 200r4 and it works great, long smokey burnouts at will and cruising at 2200 rpm.
I have 3.73 rear gears with the 462. Best thing I ever did was to put the OD in. The 4th gear in the 200 is .67, that is plenty of relief in my books.

[Lenox273]

I am trying to decide the best gear ratio for the 200-r4r for my car and found this website. It is for 4x4 but works well for anything else. Just enter 1 in the transfer case ratio box. You can select different trannys and it inputs the gear ratios for each gear. Gives a spreadsheet type result the shows the rpms in every gear for different mph and tire heights in increments. Really neat. Give it a try.http://www.florida4x4.com/tech/gearcalc.php

[Dlivry]

thanks Lenox, that's JUST what I was hoping to find. if it's on the money, the 200 is the way for me to go I feel. I think that's the way I'm leaning now. I'll let you guys know when it gets done. unfortunately, I've gotta sell this house first. open house is tomorrow, so, I've got my fingers crossed

[78 GHOST]

472ci, TH400, I'm running 3.08s and the secret is the "tight" 10" Continental converter (Jim Hand Special.)

The car will idle foreward without slippage, yet will spin right to about 3000-3200 RPMs if you mash it from a standstill. Kind of a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde experience.

IF you mash it from a standstill, you're gonna smoke all the way thru 1st, 2nd, and a little into 3rd.

The big engine has enough sand to pull the 3.08s and still maintain some degree of civility. It'll cruise at 85 MPH all day long without any problems.

Sometimes I'd like a little more gear but frankly I can't hook the 3.08s, so why bother. To run a steeper gear, I'd have to totally rethink my wheel and tire setup.

IMHO, with that size engine I'd prolly run 3.23s.