Mike,
I too had the infamous M-22 in a 1970 Olds Rallye 350. That was a sweet car.I banged a lot of shifts in that car and the tranny never gave me a problem...but I had a Clutch problem. The problem was keeping one for a period of time. After I rebuilt the motor(oil pump failure at 100+mph)I had the 4-bolt motor blueprinted, installed ported and polished LT1 aluminum heads, 478 Isky cam(with a nice lope), Holley 850 double pumper, and set of Hooker Headers with 34" scavenger tips. She ran a clean 13.33's at strip on pump gas and 12.97's with Sonoco 260. All this with Polyglas front tires aired up to 50lbs and a set of Mickey Thompson L-50's out back. Those were the days. Oh yes, it was my daily driver too for 4 years! I was forced to go with a 2300lb pressure plate and that solved the breakage problem butI almost needed knee surgery after 2 weeks of driving that beast. You're correct that the second gear was very short! My LT1 redlined at 6200 and I could get close to 50 mph in 1st. With a 3:90 rear, my top end wasn't much pass 100mph.
My current car has the BW T-5 from a 1983 Z-28.
First gear is short and so is second, but third is longer. In my opinion, if you are not racing and just enjoy the occasional red light start, the T-5 is a very versitile tranny. A S-10 tranny has too high of 1st gear for my taste and a wide ratio compare to the short throw Z-28 version.
SHIFT ON
RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe
