Need opinions on my rear end

[Mike Britton]

It's not often someone gives you goofballs an opportunity like that !
I'm converting my old altered into a street car, and I have to ditch the 4:88 spool.
I bought two 9" fords for the pumpkins. One is a 3:00, 31 spline, good, that's what I need for my MARK WILLIAMS rear end. Good thing I didn't have to pay for that! The other is a 3:25, better ratio, but only a 28 spline.
My question is....In a 1500-1800 pound car with a 454, 350 turbo, and 30" tire, is that 3:00 going to be too tall? Should I go to all the trouble to convert the 3:25 rear into a 31 spline? Thanks, Mike

 

[Screaming Metal]

Well, the question here is, how are you gonna drive the car? What type of 454? A stocker or slightly warmed up?
With the torque you'll have, fast acceleration will not be a problem. The 3.00's would be good. The 3.25's will let the motor rev a little more down the road, but the purpose of a big motor like that is having all the raw torque and horses to do it easily.
Where a good, strong, fairly hot 350 w/ 3.55's will smoke the tires easily in a bucket, and run in the mid to low 10's, I'd go with a 454, a rv cam, a good dualplane, A 750 carb, a 2500 converter, and 2.73's out back, and some wheelie bars....you can almost leave that automatic in drive while going past that 350 on the other end of the track. On the street with good tires, redlight to redlight, not much is gonna keep up with you but another bucket. Street racing is way to dangerous these days, but back when I was young and we could do it, I saw some freaky stuff happen....
Cubic inches and torque is where its at, as far as acceleration and and the high gears. Power way on up in the rpm range in a Bucket, you can't control it, because you can't put it to the ground. Not on the street anyway....
I'd run 3.0's with 33" M&H RaceMasters or Goodyear Slicks

Give me a fat motor, more than 15% overdrive, a hit on fuel, some high gears to pull against, a good altered, and a good track, I'll have that driver panting, sweatin' bullets and his hands shakin' in the shutdown area....

 

[Mike Britton]

79 454 3/4 ton GMC truck engine. I'm assuming peanut heads, all standard except for a 280 something degree Crower hydraulic. 635 Carter Comp AFB, which, believe it or not is what Carter recommends if I'm not going to spin it past 5,000. The Carter is on top of a Performer RPM.
I picked 5,000 because after 50 years of driving, my reflexes don't give me the luxury of being cute on the street. There just isn't enough room anymore. Hell, with the big fella, I can idle everywhere I want to go. And....look stylish doing it! I intend to run 285/70x15 Silverstone's on 15x10 steelies, which measure out to 30"
The reason for being tied to the 31 splines is that the hi-dollar M/W rear is already cut down to fit the car, and all I'm changing is from a spool to a differential.
I thought the 3:00's would be fine because of the light weight, but I needed to hear it from someone with more experience here than me. Thanks, Mike

 

[roadmonster]

I have that 3:00 in my bucket and it rocks! Tall gears let you launch with no drama and it will just quietly run away from most cars without much effort. Sweet on the highway too. You will spend most of your cruising time around 2000 RPM, so if your engine is built for it, you will love it!