Gears vs Heads

1. What do you use your car for? Daily - toy
2. What does your driving consist of? Hwy - interstate - cruise

I would say if it is just a toy and you cruise and just play with it - 3:70's

I would say that if it is a toy that you drive on the hwy alot - 3:55's

If it is a daily - 3:55's to 3:25's depending on what you want to spend on gas.

Your not going to get the real seat of the pants feel until to you get to a 3:55 in my opinion (flame away)
 
IMO: 3.25 or 3.50 with the 1:1 gear in the transmission. If you ever plan on upgrading to an over drive transmission go 3.50+.

When I had to make this decision it was based on operating/power range of the motor, transmission type, wheel size, and city vs. freeway driving.
 
washMO66 said:
1. What do you use your car for? Daily - toy
2. What does your driving consist of? Hwy - interstate - cruise

I would say if it is just a toy and you cruise and just play with it - 3:70's

I would say that if it is a toy that you drive on the hwy alot - 3:55's

If it is a daily - 3:55's to 3:25's depending on what you want to spend on gas.

Your not going to get the real seat of the pants feel until to you get to a 3:55 in my opinion (flame away)


Washmo66 pretty much sums it up.

FYI, your rear tire size should be part of your decision.

As a point of reference, with a 25" rear tire and a 3:70, I run 3000rpm at 60mph. 3:55's would be about 2800rpms.
 
Your choice is pretty much limited to 3.25s or 3.50s if there was a 3.35 or so I would say that. Like I've told you before if you had a 9 inch I could let you try my spare chunk its got 3.25 but its open. Call or email MAEracing.com They are somewhere here in KY, they could build you anything you want.
 
i've got 3.25's in my 9", i like them. if i had overdrive i would probably go 3.70's. with a non-od trans i would go either 3.25 or 3.50 depending on how much you drive on the highway/freeway. if spend most of your time driving in town and rarely get on the highway/freeway then 3.55's will give you more grunt off the line and in some cases can actually improve mileage because the engine doesn't have to work as hard to get the car moving, however if you want to get up on the freeway or take a road trip you'll likely wish you had your 2.80's back so the 3.25 would be the better way to go in that case.