I also have and restored a 3600 chevy. I wanted to keep the running gear as original as I found it. It had a 59 235 in it that was stuck on number 4 cylinder. I also wanted to be able to drive it to car shows and not have it screaming to go 55mph. I have the sm 420 4 speed transmission. I opted to put a Gear Vendors overdrive unit on the back of the sm 420. That gave me a 3.56 final ratio in 4th gear. My Eaton rear end had the 4.56 typical of the 3/4-ton trucks. The OD unit made the truck nice to drive. They cost quite a bit, but I think it was well worth it to keep my truck with much of the original running gear it had when I bought it. I completely went through the 235 and added some enhancements. Twin exhaust manifolds and twin progressive two-barrel carbs. It runs perfect, plenty of power and sounds nice. I removed the hot water to the intake manifold because in hot weather the intake got too hot. I never had any dead spots accelerating when the engine was cold, so warm intake manifold is not necessary with the Weber twin carb set up. I re-jetted the carbs myself to match my set up. My truck drives and handle very nice with the solid front axle. I rides better than my 2000 F250 power stroke. I have radial on the original split 8 bolt15" rims. My truck being a 47 has the lever type shock absorbers that still work well. Just added oil to them. I replaced the front springs because they were a messed up hodge podge of leaves miss matched and such. My tie rods and kingpins were in excellent condition so nothing but lube to them. I started in 2021 and finished in August of 2023.
