In my own hindsight, do the gears first and save the engine stuff if you need something more in the future.

Personally I'm kicking the idea around of doing a SBC swap so I kept my stock gears in the truck. If I do the V8 swap I have a feeling the 4:10 gears will work very well with the 35's I want to run them with.

However, if I do keep the 22re I'll do gears pronto. With the engine work I have already done it should actually run pretty good then.

No matter what you do, keep in mind it will still be a 22r motor no matter what you do to it. It might run a little better, but it will most likely never be what you want it to be.