Another downer to extended high rpm cruising in my 455 powered vehicle has been heat. Living in Dallas, where it is still over 90 degrees at 10:00PM in the Summer, presents some problems with that heat generating beast at those kinds of rpms. The temps slowly begin to creep up. Yeah, I know I could do the better radiator, fan, water pump bit (note: I have astock 4 core radiator, new HD fan clutch, 7 blade fan, and water pump with divider plate clearanced), but these things still generate some heat and at 3500 rpm there's just that much more of it. When I look at the responses to this post it seems like most folks are lined up with me. We aren't old (OK, not THAT old) - we just appreciate what overdrives have been bringing to the table for over 20 years now. They really do allow you to have your cake (low gears for great acceleration) and eat it too (i.e. great highway cruising)...with the exception of some strength and cost issues of course (oh dang, there's the catch). I know it isn't easy dole out $1000-$1500 (sometimes more) for a high strength overdrive automatic, but a lot of us are dropping that much on heads, and other performance goodies just to make out cars more powerful (translation: ENJOYABLE) - so doing so for an extra gear isn't really that big of a stretch. As an aside, I swapped out a Turbo 350 from my 82 Firebird (origincally equipped with a 200C), and put in a 700R4 (with 3.23 gears) - behind a stroker 383. I loved that swap, but not for the mileage improvements (which never seemed to materialize) - for the driving enjoyment as I noted earlier. I just finished rebuilding the engine on my Bird and am not yet ready to drive it to any great degree so I'm holding off on swapping out my TH400. I may even try a taller tire first, but ultimately I'm going to do something if I drive it more than a little to bring those rpms down (a TKO 600 would be my ultimate choice, but we all have a budget).
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