Don't mean to hijack your thread but I have been struggling with a similar decision so figured I'd just chime in here.
I have been planning on a 4 speed Atlas for a while now. My intent has always been to go with the 2.72, 4.3, 11.7 (what Clark has) with the 11.7 being kind of a throw away. This way I keep my current 2.72 and add the 4.3. Well AA no longer makes that combination. They said the 11.7 was just too low and was causing failures.
So now i'm left with either the 2.72, 3.8, 10.34 or the 2.0, 2.72, 5.44. Neither one of these seems ideal for my automatic transmission. 3.8 seems not low enough and 5.44 seems too low.