8.5" 10 Bolt out of a 1983 Police Cruiser

I scored a 8.5 10 bolt in the local junkyard. It had a posi in it but the clutches were cooked. So I put a new locker posi in it with a motive 4:30 ring and pinion. I also got the control arms with the sway bar all for a 150 dollars. The axles were 28 spline and it had a 3.08 gear that looked really good. The axles had the 4.75 x 5 wheel setup as well. Got to get driveshaft cut since the 8.5 is longer than the 7.5. Can't wait to get it installed.

Sweet deal man, itll be alot better than the 7.5. Probably had a 2.41 gear in the 7.5 so jumping up to a 4.30 will be alot funner on the streets!

Yep it sure will. That 2.41 was lazy. After the install I am sure that speedometer will peg at 15 mph.

If not more! lol thats a pretty big jump in gears.

Yeah I needed to get some gearing to get that big car off the line. If I was sure I was going to stay with a small block I would have went with a 4.56. 

so you have a big block!? 

I have a 454 sitting on the stand.  I think I am going with a 406 maybe at the moment.  Cylinder heads are going to be the back breaker for the big block.  I want aluminum heads for either motor and the big blocks are roughly 2500.00/pair.  Going with hydraulic roller cam close to .600 lift ish with at least 10 to 1 compression ratio.

That would definitely be a deal breaker, id get a nice small block, run 10.5:1 compression, still pump friendly, and like you said a good .600ish lift, perfect street motor and wont weigh as much as a bigblock.

Just curious, what did you pull that rear end out of?

Old post but it probably came out of a 9c1 Caprice Im guessing .