gear vendors or stroker, what would you do?

[leanburn]

i'm having a hard time making a decision, i just need a little push.
 last year when i bought my car it came with 4:11's, x heads and a real lazy cam so this winter i got eddies and a nasty hughes cam but went to auburn 3:73's. i know going to the taller gear is killing me but i couldn't handle the 3500rpm cruise on the highway, now i'm 3,000rpm.
 i'm going to paint my car this winter so it's getting stripped so i'm hopeing my budget will allow either a gear vendor or a stroker. looking on gear vendors website they claim 4:56's will equal 3:55's in o.d, and 6 gears to play with. if i go with a stroker it should come out close to the same price cause i already have my top end and i will sell my exsisting shortblock for a few bucks.
 so what do ya think, coming out of the hole with 4.56's, 340, running through a whole bunch of gears and hitting the highway at 70mph @ about 2800 or
 coming out of the hole with 3:73's, 408 with a bunch more torque/hp and hitting the highway 70mph @ 3,000.
 oh yeah, my bottom end is over 10 years old with unknown mileage.

[moparniac]

carlwalski has issues with his gearvendors..... do you spend more time on the highway or streets 

I vote StRoKer 

[Oldschool]

   If you go stroker, you will no longer have an unknown in the bottom end.   Gear Vendors didn't work out so well for Carlwalski, although it was from no fault of his own.  I have no personal experience with them though.  I vote stroker and drive it....             

[leanburn]

i actually spend more time on the streets and some at the track but i like to drive to the track, one is an hour away and another is two hours. after changing out the gears i wouldn't have it any other way, there is a town 1/2 hour away that has a cruise night and go to the local airstrip for some good old arm drop racing. so basically i have racing in mind but don't want to trailer everywhere.

[leanburn]

yeah i hear ya there, if i go stroker i will be all new stuff and good stuff, no garbage.
 do you know what issues carlowski was having?

[71chally416]

If your shortblock is over 10 years old it's a no-brainer.

[Chryco Psycho]

I would be doing the stroker

[500Stroker]

I did both.    Gotta love using the tranny kickdown in OD at 60 mph and not going into third over till 105 mph.   

[leanburn]

so have you had any issues with the gear vendor, was it easy to install/ setup ?

[ragtopdodge]

I think w/all the hassle and $$$ of GV, I think you're better off just getting a 4.10 pumpkin, green bearings on the axles, and shoving it in when you do go to the track.

For every other time, 3.23s.

Stroke the motor and the extra cubic inches will help move the car even w/3.23s.

If you have to have an OD, get a built 518.

[500Stroker]

so have you had any issues with the gear vendor, was it easy to install/ setup ?

No issues once it was installed.  Have had it for 5 years and put 40,000 miles on it.  Change the fluid each season and that's it.  It performs flawlessly.

Had to use an air hammer on one spot of the tunnel to get it to fit in my Chally.  A friend just put one in a 73 Dart and had to cut his tunnel out to get it to fit.

[moper]

The budgets are not even close. SoO if you have "money left over" you may not have nearly enough to make a stroker feasible anyway. On the GV, the only reason I use them is the overdrive. There are issues with their controls of the part throttle shifts, and it places a tremendous amount of stress on the rear sprag if you start going 1 to 1/over. The truth is not that "it makes 4.56s like 3.55s". It does, because it drops thefinal drive to .76 instead of 1:1. but if your convertor is too high, the convertor will still slip. Even with a tight convertor the difference comes out to about 600 rpm drop in high gear from 3 to 3/over. I think it's a great piece, fairly eas to install, and indestructable. but if you are looking for a one or the other, the GV should be first. Then build a bigger stroke to let it pull at a 2K rpm cruise.