On Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 12:33:10 AM UTC-4, Clare wrote:
On Tue, 10 Sep 2019 22:20:00 -0500, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 9/10/2019 9:21 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:24:30 -0400, Leon Fisk wrote:

On Tue, 10 Sep 2019 14:46:32 -0500
Terry Coombs wrote:

snip
Got a 3.42 gearset sittin' here awaiting install ... 2.73's just
don't cut it up here . I may decide I don't need a cam/headers/manifold
to be happy with the way it drives after I get it geared down some .
Ye'r getting old... I'm happy if it drives nowadays at any speed ;-)
Put smaller wheels on it - - - - -

My truck has 3.55 gears - but when I put the 16 inch wheels on
instead of the factory 14s it had the effect of putting in 3:27s or
3:31s

Â* I'll probably put some taller tires on this truck , IIRC it's
currently running p235/75 - 15's . Got a great buy on a set of
nearly-new Kenda's , the ones that were on it were about worn out so I
replaced them .
You MAY want to look for something with "shorter legs" if going with
bigger tires. And be VERY carefull if modifying the engine to make
sure you are increasing the low end torque - not high RPM power.

The old 292 Chevy 6, for instance, had a LOT more low end grunt than a
Z28 302 V8 even though the 302 put out a lot more horsepower. A 292
could outpull a lot of 350s. It put out 280 ft lbs at 1600 RPM
compared to a stock 1981 350 with at 289 at 1600 -some 350's put out
as much as 380 ftlbs at 3200 - which doesn't do much for crawling up a
mountain.

Had 4.57 or 514 gears in the old '69 C30 292 and we were licenced for
GCVW of 22 tons. I'm sure it was overloaded on occaision, but it was
never lacking for power to pull away from a stop. A Cockshutt 1855
with a fulkl load of calcium was well over 12000 lbs - the truck was
over 3800 - and the big tri-axle float had to weigh well over 3000 -
then throw on a 6 furrow plow - - - - and a 100 gallon saddle tank.

I got it stuck, but never ran out of torque.

The 292 was a great engine. I had one with a five speed manual transmission in a '73 Chevy Stepvan with an all steel Union City body. It had plenty of torque. and it was in most of our school busses in the mid '60s.

I made two trips to Florida in it, and I hauled a little over 17,000 pounds in those two trips. It weighed 3150 pounds, empty. It had a 30 gallon tank, but there was room for four 30 gallon and one 15 gallon tanks.