Thread: Hi. Prepare your-selves for a barrage of questions on 350 chevys from this rookie!

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Well Lobster in your major you will be able to learn a lot of theoretical stuff about engines and do a good job on your 350 buildup, but I know little about the rest of the chassis on a Rover. Interestingly there is a guy here in Ashland Va who has been doing a body-off restoration of a Land Rover outside in his driveway for the last two years but I have not had time to strike up a conversation with him yet. The point I am trying to get to is that the SBC 350 will easily put out close to 400 ft-lb of torque so the transmission and rear need to be strong. I am using a measley Ford 8" rear for a mild 350 but a Ford 9" rear is generally considered the strongest rear and of course the transmission has to be up to the task as well. A GM TH350 or TH400 seem to hold up well but only have a 1.00 high gear ratio and then the GM 700R4 has overdrive but may not be as strong as a TH350 so I accepted the problem and purchased a beefed-up 700R4 from Monster MotorSports here in Florida but if you use a 700R4 for the OD mpg enhancement you might want to find a way to beef it up a bit. If you go with a TH350 or TH400 as whatever you can find, you will then have to worry over finding the proper rear gear ratio for your application with a tradeoff between gas mileage and stump-pulling torque. I went with a 3.55 rear gear because the 700R4 has a 3.06 low gear but maybe I should have gone with a 3.7 rear gear since the OD handles the mpg problem. If you go from a driveline meant for 80 H.P. to an engine of more than 300 H.P. it is likely that the transmission and/or rear will be the weakest link. Well I am just chatting with you to welcome you to the Forum; there are some REAL EXPERTS here with many years of rodding experience and I am amazed at the expertise that these folks dispense. I have worked on cars for most of my life as a hobby (I also started out as an Automotive-Mechanical Engineering student, but found I was best in Chemistry!) but my present project of a complete build up of a 1929 Ford Roadster 'glass replica is actually beyond my skill level and I have been getting a LOT of good advice from more experienced folks on this Forum. So ask away and I am sure you will be able to learn a lot from these folks with years and years of valuable experience.

Don Shillaqdy
Retired Scientist/teen rodder