after 17 years I decided to put my first street gear ratio in the Fairlane .... I ve had 4.86 , 4.56 and 4.11 gears but this is the first time I ever installed a 3.?? something gear and Detriot locker ...... I bought one of those Nascar gears from Rich at FE dot com , a 3.70 Richmond gear with the REM finish on it (looks like a chrome gear), bought a used locker a few years back and finally got around to installing them both and am very pleased with the turn out .... gear is quiet and locker works great , smoother than the shimmed up posi I had for street previously ..... with a 29.1 tall tire 2500 rpm is 55mph and 2950 rpm is 70 mph , basically a 450 rpm drop from my 4.11's ..... also seems to bring the coolant temp down a little lower at cruise rpm with my 1/2 filled bock so thats a plus too , the 2.78 first gear top loader still takes off good in traffic with the 3.70's inspite of a Dove single 4 intake , big 266/276 at .050 cam and 13 pound aluminum flywheel
... maybe not the average cruiser but its the most cruiser its ever been since I built it ......
my next project, I'm looking foward to installing my med 2x4 intake and 600 Holley's to pick up the low end power and fuel mileage .... the last two tank fulls of gas were 6.8 and 6.6 miles per gallon with the 4.11 gear , so we will see what the 3.70 does for mileage here in a few weeks , would love to see 12 plus mpg with the 2x4's , that would be a 100 percent increase in fuel mileage ...lol