Hey everybody, I have a 1985 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer 2 wheel drive I bought brand new for the sum of $11700 which seems to be a bargain these days it came with a 2.8 L non feedback carburetor and an azuzu 4 speed manual with the one legged rear end with 342 gears And in 1990 I swapped out my 1st V8 which was a mostly stock 350 and now I'm on my 3rd engine which is a Heavy duty seasoned 4 bolt main block built by AMT racing engines board and stroke 388 in inches with scat stroker crank shaftand 6" rods and SRP forged pistons and rings and pro top line aluminum heads. Anyway the shop said it could easily be making 450 horsepower and gobs o torque For a camshaft I save money and went with a hydraulic flat tap it by competition cams extreme energy line it is their 2nd biggest they offer which is a dual pattern Cam which compliments the whole set up, I just couldn't see the expense of converting to a roller Cam . For tires I have ancient BF Goodrich radial GT tires that are is over 12 plus years old and they're P295 to 60R 15 in the back and P235 65R15 in the front with 1992 S10 pickup alloy wheels instead of the heavy steel rally wheels it came with. After a close brush with death with the one legged rear end which is a 7.5 with 3.42 gears , I hired a driveline shop To beef up the 7.5 since I am I am getting older now and not wanting to dig around junkyards looking for rear ends and swapping them out since I have never done it so what I like to do is just use what I got , the shop beefed up the 7.5 by installing stronger axles and all new bearing seals and putting a posi in it and kept the 3.42 cause they were hardly worn since it had only 118,000 miles on the body.. My question is once I get new tires Will the 7.5 hold up to the new stickier tires ,the current rock hard tires hardly even leave a mark on the ground when I get on it and they Break traction so easily by just blipping in the throttle. Years ago I read in Chevy high performance magazine they took a Camaro with a 7.5 and beefed up the rear end and Handled all the torque just fine. The transmission is a Turbo 350 with a hard 1st 2nd shift and B& M 3000 stock converter with B&M governor kit an adjustable vacuum modulator and that transmission has been rock solid since 1990 . Have not taken it to the track since I got this new engine back in 2006 due to the ancient tires but there's no cracks or dry rot since it's always been garaged it is my show truck and weekend cruiser. Summit just delivered a new kick down cable since the old one it's so worn out it leaks like a sieve where connected to the transmission and at the carburetor the Spring is broken and also a new cover and gasket for the governor since the gasket leaks at that spot. Still got one more major leak to fix and that's where where the primary pipes slips into 3" collectors, the driver's side collector is rotted out and leaking really bad really and a couple other pipes are leaking where they slip into the collector collector which are 1 7/8 diameter .

 

I didn't read that whole post, but the stock rear should be ok (at least for a while) if you don't run slicks or drive it like an idiot. I'd keep my eyes open for an upgrade in the meantime, though.

 

Agreed, When I get new tires I would like to try a different brand than the BF Goodrich, are the Cooper Tires any good or can you give me a recommendation on tires that aren't too sticky.

 

I used to run cooper's on the wifes old sonoma, and they were great. Quiet and gripped awesome.

 

Cool, thanks . Do you recall which model of Cooper tire it was? I think I might go with 275 in the back instead of 295 with new tires being stickier.

 

They were the Cooper cobra radial g/t