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Had the old Chevy out today, drove it 100 miles. It was a lot of fun. It drives nice once you get used to the high seas feeling and the extremely poor handling. No seriously, It was a great day.

One problem I did encounter however was getting back on the highway this afternoon. The on ramp is too short for a corvette, and these crazy NY drives do like 85MPH. I think I over revved it coming out of first. I jumped on it like i do the muscle cars, and I know better but at the same time I didn't want to get slammed. Car revved up and then just when I thought it had a few 100 more RPM's.... I found out i was wrong, as the motor spuddered and feel on its face. I shifted into second. Sounds like everything is OK. I don't have a tach but I am sure going to add one. What is the top RPM for this 216? For the time being how can i generally tell when I have to shift. Again, when I am driving it I usually baby it, but this was extenuating circumstances.

DG

On my 216's I try to keep it below 3500 rpm. there are websites where you can enter your final drive ratio, wheel diameter, and speed to calculate rpm. Your 46 stylemaster is probably close to my 1/2 ton, 3 speed column, 216 engine. 16x6 tires.
resto pack
The resto pack for a 46 sedan shows the standard rear end as a 4.11 and there is an optional 3.73,
The resto pack also shows the power curve for the 216 engine. It drops off at 3500rpms for horsepower, and torque drops off at 1900 rpms

So I put in 28" for the tire height, 1.00 for the top gear in the trans, 4.11 for the final drive, and 65mph for the speed. this gave me a rpm of 3206.

65 is pretty fast for these old vehicles, mainly for the brake system.
I generally cruise at 50 in my trucks, and push it over a little bit every other drive to clear out the cylinders. also remember if you are runing the stock fan is noisy.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply.

My speedometer is not working correctly but I judged my speed based on the traffic around me. I got a glimpse of the lady's honda's speedometer next to me at one point and we were moving a little over 65. The car didn't really seem like it was struggling to be honest.

Your right the fan is noisy, and I do have some sort of low lever vibration coming from either the rear of the vehicle at about 65-70 mph. I am not sure its the rear though as I feel like its the tires.

I am going to buy a tach asap, I feel like I might be over revving the engine from time to time, especially as I mentioned before getting on the highway from first gear to second.

DG

I have an old sun tach from my chevelle I will try connecting for a short time to see where I stand.

P.S. tires are 16X6.00

DG

If the rated power is 3,500 it's perfectly safe to go 10% above it for shifting - they didn't treat them like Ming vases when they were work trucks. Momentarily buzzing the engine won't break anything.
When to shift? When it runs out of power.
6.00 × 16 is about 28" OD, with 4.11 you're turning 3,500 RPM at 71 MPH.
S = .002975 × RPM × OD ÷ axle ratio

Interesting...

Well this is actually a 216 Stylemaster Sedan, but I don't imagine the engines are any different.

It did 65-70 Yesterday without breaking a sweat and felt like it had more to go. I will be easier getting on the highway, but will continue to drive at 65.

How do i check to see what gears I have in it? I am thinking maybe I have 3.73's instead of 4.11's?

Thanks for the advice,
Dan

If it feels smooth when driving, and has more to go, I would say you are ok. just watch your temp and oil pressure.