I'm looking for advise or opinions if this set-up will be a good combination for a weekend cruiser on my 1968 Chevelle with a 396 (400 hp).

700r4 with a 10-bolt bolt rear. The housing currently has a 292 gear set, but I found a series 3 carrier with 3.08 gears that I'm thinking about installing. The current 292 gears are worn and need to be replaced anyway. The car will be driven on weekends and I do not plan on any racing exept for the occasional burn-outs. Will the 3.08 be too high, or too low??? I have not driven the car with the 292 gears since the entire car came in a several boxes and I'm doing a complete restoration on it.

Thanks in advance...........Dan

Sounds like an excellent combination for your vehicle. I had a 1971 chevelle with the same set up i got a 700R4 hd transmission from monster transmission besides the fact it worked awesome the rear gears i had i could do 60 and only be at 1900 rpm's at the most

You may have problems with the 700 hunting between 3rd & 4th gears or possibly not staying in 4th, with that high of a gear ratio. Do a search - there are a couple of threads reporting this problem (altough one thread has 2.73's) Tire size may be a factor also.

Consider 3.42's or 3.55's. With a 700 and 27" tall tires, I'm in the 18-1900 rpm range, legally running down interstate w/3.42's.

My 69 with a 700R4 has 3.08 gears and it is just fine. It gets great mileage and cruises nicely. No problems at all in the mountains or with a load.

my 94 ta has a 4l60e (same as the 700r) with currently 3.42's. 65-70mph is just about 2k with a 25.7" tall tire.
when it had 3.23's i was going 70 at around 17-1800, with same tires.

you will enjoy it, but if you have any kinf of overlap in the cam, you will need more gear as it might surge or not like the low rpms.

aaron

700R4's have a 30% rpm drop for 4 th gear.Keep this in mind and find a site online that will chart tire size/gear ratio/rpm at a given mph in direct drive(3rd gear) and drop that number 30%.You want to cruise at 70(?) with rpm slightly below peak torque...thumper cams will change this number too.Usually 2000-2500 will give good mileage and power too. 3.42 -3.73 as previously stated will help keep the constant downshifting on a light hill to a mininum.

Thanks for all of the input.........I may keep hunting for 3.55 gear set since most of my driving will be local and rural roads and I want to make sure I have the low end torque for playing around. I will be running 215 15-inch rear tires. I'm assuming that a series 3 carrier will be compatible with and 300 numerical gear set??

Dan

I have a 4.11 rear gear in my 69 and just finished the 700R4 install last Monday. The car was great with overdrive at the Ocean City show at the end of the week. The old TH400 was just painful with that 4.11 on the highway, I used to run 3500 rpm at 65 and now it's down around 2500.
I have a pretty lumpy cam and it still runs ok at lower speeds in overdrive