Hey everyone I recently bought a 74 d300 custom with the stepside bed, I was wondering if there was any way to make it fast, would I need to change reared gears or transmission or everything????

 

A new exhaust system and air filters.

 

Welcome to DF. Moving to the correct section. Depends on what you want to use the truck for. Fast as in drag racing at a track? Street racing stop light to stop light? Fast through a mud bog? Fast as in 200 mph top speed? What engine do you have? What transmission? 2 or 4wd? Auto or manual? More info is always helpful.

 

X2! Need more info!

 

It is a two wheel drive with the 4 speed manual, I'm talking about street fast like stop light to stop light or laying a bunch of rubber down. It has the 318 2 barrel now, four barrel soon to come, not sure of exact transmission

 

Simple bolt-ons will put you somewhere in the 275-300 range. The truck should feel significantly quicker.

Get yourself the four-barrel carb, a performance intake, a performance-oriented camshaft, a new air filter, and full exhaust (including headers). Definitely set yourself up with a lower gear ratio (I'm assuming it's something like 3.55s right now). I would also look into getting a limited-slip differential, and maybe a shift kit for the tranny.

 

Thanks for the reply, most of that was in mind but I was wondering more about the gears and the tranny, it is a "heavy duty" four speed manual would you see a difference in performance using that stock tranny but different gears? Does anyone have any gues of what gears would be better? Thanks

 

I found out the axle is a dans 60 with a tag that reads 4.56.

 

You can upgrade the 318 but if it where me i would get a 360 and build that up. Same trans/bellhousing so no big deal to swap it. Gear you have is fine.