How should I gear my V8 toy?

[snowplow]

Yo, I have a ford 289 in my 93 pickup on 37 MTRs with the w-56 5 speed. I have 4.11 now and its a little high, but not nearly as bad as you probably think. I have ran 33's and 35's with this setup and I love how it runs with 35. If I was to gear it to be equivelant to that I would have to run 4.56 gears. I dont think they are made for my high pinion front. So what it boils down to is what rpm range do I want this truck to run at. My 2 options seem to be...

1. Keep the 4.11 which is nice because unless I want to go over 70mph I stay in 4th which if I understand correctly is better for my tranny considering the motor setup, plenty of power but not as snappy, stronger ring and pinion ( I think )

2. Go with 4.88 which will be more like I had the truck with 33s. Very snappy-hauls butt but will be in 5th quite a bit under power.

One of the important things to figure out here is:

Is 5th gear too weak to use as an accelleration gear like the other 4?
   and
What rpm does a smallblock ford want to cruise at?

I would give anything if they made 4.56's for a high pinion
thanks everybody

[S-10 Stewy]

I 'll throw my two cents in on this: I have a 350 V-8 and a t-350 automatic.  I have 36" TSL's (not quite as tall as your MTR's) but I run down the road, 55mph at 2550 on the tach, or VERY close to it.  My 3rd is 1:1 like your 4th is.  I have 4:88 gears and feel that is a great "happy medium" for me.  if I had an overdrive (700R4) then 513's may be a better fit.  My rig see's 70% of its use off the highway, not just hardcore wheeling but a lot of dirt / mud / gravel back roads.  If I used it more for the hard core stuff, lower gears just make more sense.

As far as strength, yeah you are correct the 4:10's are known to have more teeth connecting giving you more surface area to hook up to.  Is it a lot stronger? I would say no.  Having a 4:88 R&P frozen and heat treated then set up properly would probably yield you the same results or very close to it.  If you like using the skinny pedal a lot, just know that in time you WILL end up replacing R&P's.  Especially if you like "banging" gears or "dumping the clutch"

Look at how much your going to use it "off road" -vs- how much highway driving your going to be doing.  I have ran my combo for over 4 years now and if I had it to do over .....  I would not change anything!

[Brandon]

4.10's were perfect for me with my 37's and my 5.0 and a NP435 tranny (no OD)

Everything I read and heard said a toy tranny is not up to the torque of a SBF but hey, if it works..

Hey, buy my 435 with adapter to toy cases