I was just wondering are 4.10's to much gear in a 4speed 454 car? Just wondering because the 70 I am buying has 3.07 gears and that will change first. My friend insists 3.73 gears are better. This car is not a daily driver and will not be a track car.

-Joe

Depends on whats been done to the motor..if its stock,or has a mild cam,4.10's are not needed..also how tall are the tires?

IMHO you can't put too much gear in a stick car. Its the only torque multiplication you have. So while 4.10s aren't too much IMHO ( as long as the motor can easily see 6500 ), you still have to determine primary use and make a good, compromise choice. 4.10s will wear on you on the highway. You'll be looking for 5th gear!

Well the 454 has a medium sized cam overall and it will have stock 14x7 tires on it for original looks. No highway driving will be done.

Sounds like you're trying to justify installing 4.10's..it doesn't mean the car will be quicker with them either..don't be fooled by seat of the pants..I'd go 3.55's or 3.73's..JMHO and experience.

The right way to determine this is cam,intake,stall convertor,if it's a stick car convertor doesn't come into play. Next is tire size.Then figure were you want your powerband gear acordingly. ;)

My Dad always says "decide what you want and take it down a notch so you know your not getting carried away." :D graemlins/thumbsup.gif

You say no highway driving, but sometimes you just can't avoid it. I only drive my Nova on sunny weekend days, and don't plan on highway driving either, but with the 3.90s I'm running 3000 rpm at 60Mph. Looking for that 5th gear.lol
Even just around town, sometimes I have to take the highway to get where I'm going. For a driver, that won't see much track time, I wouldn't recomend anything over 3.73 Max!

Just an opinion, but I have had a 4:10 in my 70 454 M20 and it was way too much gear for anything but stoplight to stoplight. With a 5500 redline, I was shifting before I could get through an intersection....very tiresome but it did make some nice smoke shows. I changed over to 3:08 gears and the car is much more drivable, even on the interstate. With the torque of the engine, it pulls right off idle to redline with no problems. I would think that 3:73's would be the max that you would want, and might want to go with 3:42's.

Jeff

The last 454 4 spd I had was a '71 LS5 w/ Crane 222 @ .050 cam. Car had original 3.31's w/ M22 trans. Tires were approx 26" diameter. This was plenty of gear for this tire size and engine combo. Even with the 3.31, the motor would run out of RPM (5400-5500). I have used a rule of thumb:
5500 rpm - 3.31 gear
6000 rpm - 3.73
6500 rpm - 4.10

This is typical for factory gearing and provides acceptable overall street performance.