Questions and suggestions.

G

g10van8772

Active Member
Okay, I've got an 84 g-10 van, OEM straight 6, and apparently a muncie 3 speed tranny. right now I'm putting a 305 together, mainly more power than a dead 250, but better fuel economy than the 350.

I'm running across questions now that I don't have answers to. apparently the rear end was or is an 8.5-8.5 variety, which makes it a 2.56, 2.73, 3.08, 3.42 or 3.73 to 1 rear end. the 2.56 is the only one in 84, which leads me to suspect it is the one in there.

So question here is what transmission/rear end options would best complement the 305 in a half ton frame Chevy Van? not really looking for performance, more tired of feeling embarrassed when I go from 65-75 on highway to needing to get into second gear to finish getting up the hills. I figure the built engine is a good first step, now trying to make sure of the REST of the drive train.

SO, any suggestion on more workable transmission, and rear end would be nice, helpful, requested. I see a lot of stuff dealing with the larger SBC's, and BBC's, and the automatic transmissions. but nothing on a more mild mannered setup and a preference in having a clutch involved.
 
well its a van, so more truck feeling than car.

looking over another site I found that the rear end is 8.5" size, basically been researching like mad, identify OEM transmission, etc... without being able to determine what is IN the rear end. I suppose I could turn either wheels or input shaft and see how many turns one made versus the other to get a better guess.

At this moment I'm still struggling to get my 305 to the point of hook it all up say some kind words and see if it'll even start. never done this before and at times feel very very insecure. but, lol, I keep soldiering on.
 
those gm 10 bolt reads are almost fragile you might want to think about swapping to a ford 9" or a mopar 9.25" as they are not all that expensive or hard to find in salvage yards and some accurate measuring and work with a welder and probably a new drive shaft would result in a far stronger rear differential

heres some threads I found that should be useful

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=7

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=472

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=476
 
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