I have a 79 camaro with a 383 stroker, should have about 450hp and around the same tq. It has a built TCI super street fighter th350 tranny. I just bought a posi unit for the rear but I am unsure on what gears are best for me. It will be mostly a cruiser, drive to work every once in a while with some highway, and then maybe some track visits not many though.
I was thinking somewhere from a 3.42 to a 3.73.
Thanks for any help guys.

 

Mine is 3.73 w/ a 350.

I like 3.55 best though.

My dad has 4.10 on his firebird but he drags.

 

If you go with 3.55's then you have to go with a 8.2 10 bolt out of the earlier camaros, a Ford 9 or a 12 bolt. I wanted 3.55's but couldn't find them for the big 10's. It jumped from 3.42's to 3.73's from everyone I looked at.

I'm running a 3.42 gear and around 2500 rpm's I'm doing around 60mph. If you go with the 3.73's then you're going to drop your top end even more and without an OD you'll miss it. I know I'm missing mine when I went from a 2.56 rear to a 3.42. With the old rear I was doing 85 at 2500 rpm's.

 

3.42 is a great gear for the street. Your hp and torque are pretty much same as my 383 and the gears work perfectly for cruising the streets. Only mistake I made was to under estimate the torque the stroker makes. I opted for a 2800 stall converter, I wish now I had went with a 2400 or 2200. It would make the car more drivable and less chance of tranny over heating.

 

Yeah, a lot of people kept telling me to go with a 3000+ stall which I thought was ludicrous. I don't make that type of torque atleast in my opinion but I haven't dyno'd it yet. Hopefully that will come towards middle of summer. That's why I ended up going with a 2300. TCI told me that I could go with a 2300 - 2500 and B&M suggested 2200-2400. I didn't want anything insane as I drive the car a lot and have no plans to make it a racer. I may take it to the track in the near future but it won't be an every weekend type deal.

 

I'm gonna chime in here and agree with these guys... go for 3.42. You wont be dissapointed with it, and it still leaves room for driving on the highway. I would possibly do a 3.73 if you had an OD tranny since you'd be making up for it, but yeah go with 3.42 gears you'll be more than happy with it.

 

I forgot to mention that I have a TCI Breakaway 2400 stall, so I should be good with that. If the 3:55 are impossible to find for the 8.5 10 bolt then I guess the 3:42 are my best choice. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

Yeah, the only way that I know of you being able to go to anything between 3.42 and 3.73 is to go to an 8.2 10 bolt like the ones found in the 67 - 70 Camaros or go to a completely different rear end. A Ford 9 inch is great and you can find pre-cut to the right length housings for around 250 bucks. They already have the mounting pads on there and everything. Then you just throw in your axles and third member and setup the brakes and you're good to go.

 

I didn't really want to change out the housing so I just went for the 3:42. I bought the gears yesterday off a guy on Ebay, He said they are in great condition and came out of his 81 Z28. $70 shipped not too bad.

 

Cool... are you sure that your posi unit is a 3 series carrier and not a 2 series? I'm assuming it's a used carrier. If so do you know what size gears were on it for sure? You might want to take it someone to have the clutch discs checked out also (unless you know how to do it yourself). I also assume that it's a stock posi carrier with the s-spring clip in the center between the spider gears.