[Excaliber]

Oh, well there it is! The 5th gear (typically a .6) REALLY tall OD. .8 is much better, but even at that, with a 3.0 rear gear, whew, thats still a bad combination for rpm.

My guess is that you find 1st gear with a 3.5 rear gear to be ULTRA low, a real 'tire smoker'. With THAT combination I'd say some kind of posi would be a MUST HAVE! Even with a 3.5 you still might find the cruising rpm pretty low if you have a .6 OD. Sheeessshhh, there is no easy way out of this gearing delimna. Most likely you'll be around 2000 rpm where you used to be 1600, still kind of low depending on your cam profile.