Long road trip in the 55

[junkyardjeff]

I drove my 55 sunliner to Daytona for the Turkey run and it was the longest trip I ever too kit on,it made it to and from the show with no problems but my suspicion that the engine builder installed the wrong cam was correct when I went through the mountains of Kentucky and Tennesse.  I discussed with the builder I was building a highway car with tall gears (2.79) and I wanted a cam from idle to 4000 but its not whats in it,I wish I had a tach in it but I noticed the power coming on when I had it over 70 which I am guesing 2500 RPMs and got the best gas mileage at over 70 too.  Every thing is strange with this motor as it gets the best vacumn with the idle over 1200 and best gas mileage at over 70 so the motors efficiency is way too high in the RPM range for what I had planned so I will be building a 292 Y block to correct this problem and use the 351 for another car but for the time being I will try to find a set of 3.00 or 3.25 gears to get the motor spinning more since it will be over a year before the 292 gets built.  All I know about the cam is it has a 302 firing order and when its cold I can detect a slight lope in the idle plus it never idles smooth so who knows what it is.

[phat46]

Sounds like you just have to drive faster!!!    

[junkyardjeff]

Gears for the 8 inch would be cheaper then speeding tickets.

[rumrumm]

I think you will find that 3.25 gears would be a much better ratio for your car, and it may be a good choice for the 292 that will eventually be going into it.

[junkyardjeff]

Thats the ratio I am thinking about and I did some pricing of parts and I might try to put a original rear end back in since I think the original automatic ratios were close to 3.25s and should be able to get one much cheaper then buying new parts for the 8 inch or try finding a 57 wagon 9 inch as I think 9 inch gears are cheaper then 8 inch.

[57larry]

put a SBC in it  

[junkyardjeff]

I would not even put a sbc in a chevy,now a 500 caddy would be a nice motor.  If the moron that built the motor would have put the RV grind cam in it I would have been happy but from now on I will be building my own motors so I know whats in them.

[junkyardjeff]

It looks like I am going to find a original rear end to put back in it as they had the ratios I need,what was I thinking when I put that 8 inch in it.  56 V8 with automatics were 3.22 and 55 automatic s had a 3.30,I will have about 500 in changing the gears in the 8 inch and I would think I could find a decent original rear end much cheaper.