Gus68, yes it is a 2.56 posi. Kind of a crazy gear set but great on the open road.
The idea of using a 7-4 swap never crossed my mind until suggested, and explained that by not firing #7 & #5 cylinders back-to-back it should smooth it out. I guess it allows a little more time between firing to cool, and also more time to empty the exhaust manifold. But I may be wrong.
Rohrt, i agree that a 7-4 swap may not help in low rpms but I thought I'd give it a shot. I've never read anything that said the 350 is better on mpg than the 400, plus the decision to give up the cid for less HP and for more money was tough but I only have the 350 plus it's original so I thought I'd do something different. I was considering the Butler 383 stroker kit if I needed a new crank, but mine was OK.
The Lunati cam sounds like a great street cam, low duration, high lift. That gives me some comfort knowing mine is close to that. The decision to go roller was made when I tore the block down for the rebuild. Prior to this, If the car had sat for more then 10 days, when it would start it sounded like a rod bearing was knocking. It was a lifter (4 actually) that had mushroomed and the bottoms were scored. This bothered me because I take pride in maintaining my cars with good oil & filters frequently, and I never ran this engine hard, it's a cruiser. It had 152,xxx miles on it and the rest of the engine was normal. I don't want to take a chance that a cam would go flat. If I have to go through this engine again I'm probably won't be any younger, so do it once...
