samz28

Just curious how strong the 10 bolts (3.42/3.23) slp take off zexel torsen's
are.

I'm shooting for 370whp'ish with TCI SSF3500 and nitto DR's full time. i dont plan on doing drag launches on street, but at the track.

Anyone wanna shed some light on how many passes you think my setup will last??

Or perhaps you can say i blew my 10 bolt after XX passes with this setup.

I'm not spraying or doing any more mods. A low 12 second car would make me very happy since cages are not gonna happen.

Colonel

"I'm shooting for 370whp'ish with TCI SSF3500 and nitto DR's full time. i dont plan on doing drag launches on street, but at the track.

Anyone wanna shed some light on how many passes you think my setup will last??"

Most likely close to forever. About the only way you'll bust the rearend with that kind of power is if you manage to get some pretty bad wheelhop.

I busted one with a severe case of wheelhop but I was running over 500 RWHP and launching to the tune of 1.51 60 fts on drag radials. The DRs couldn't quite take it and I got some wheelhop. KABOOM!!! went the rearend!

samz28

ic what helps combat wheel hop? SFC? Better suspension?

Colonel

I had all the suspension mods you can think of and I still got wheelhop that day. Why? It was a combination of the track and the tires. If I'd been on slicks it wouldn't have happened. Rememer, I was pushing 500 RWHP and hooking HARD! Front tires off the ground and everything.

But, to answer your question, next to running slicks, you might also want a good set of LCAs, some LCA relocators, and a TQ arm. Throw in a panhard rod if you please but I don't really see it as having a whole lot to do with wheelhop.

samz28

thanks man. I'll think about the TQARM, i got lca, panhard bars on the way. I'm not lowering my car so are lca relocators any point?

Pete2k_Z28

The 10 bolts are quite strong actually, stronger than people give them credit for (with the A4's anyway). I broke my factory 3.23 rear once, but what actually broke was a bolt on the Torsen carrier. It was really weird, and nobody I've ever talked to has seen anything like it. Basicly what happened I believe was somehow the worm gears in the Torsen carrier locked, as it was "screeching" around corners for a week or so prior. Eventually, the end loading of the carrier halves from the locked gears was enough to pop the head of a bolt off. The ring/pinion were still fine and the car still moved, save for the big hole in my diff cover (the bolt head got wedged against it and tore it).

I'm attributing the "damage" to wheelhop a week prior however. I have NO problems with that rear until after one particularly bad traction day at Englishtown while running Nitto's (garbage IMO). I was getting BAD wheelhop all day and the rear didn't feel "right" afterwords, but I couldn't figure it out.

I agree with Colnel, wheel hop is the #1 killer of our stock rears. I now have a 3.42 with Auburn from a M6 car and it's doing pretty good, with repeated launches on nitrous and some 1.80 short times. Plenty of A4's have gone very fast on 10 bolts (Raughammer, Miriah, etc). But wheelhop is horrendous for a drivetrain.

Personally I could never the the Nitto's to work for me. They didn't hook any better on the street than decent street tires, wheelhop was a CONSTANT problem both street and track, and they are horrible in bad weather. BFG's are 1,000 times better a tire, except they have a fairly short lifespan. I cannot remember getting wheelhop a single time with the BFG DR's, even when they spun (rare) they spun smoothly. I think the problem with Nitto's are a relatively stiff sidewall coupled with a semi-sticky compound. The sidewall of the tire causes it to react too fast, and the sticky compound transfers more energy to the sidewall, causing a bigger reaction, etc, etc. The BFG's have a taller, thinner sidewall that allows the tire to deform and slows down the reaction of shock enough to keep the tire planted.

Sorry for the rant

samz28

actually my bro's ws6 did the same thing you described. at about 5mph pulling into a restaraunt. pop. Hole in TA cover. He rewelded the cover i was thinking about snatching it but dunno bout that rewelding aluminum. lol

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Colonel, this was with a 10-bolt?! How in the hell did you get a 10-bolt to hold up pushing 500 RWHP thru it!!!!!!!!!

Colonel

Well, I didn't. As I said, it broke. I just installed it for a short time for the heck of it and because it was quiet. I put the 12-bolt back in after that.

I highly recommend LCA relocators even for non-lowered cars. They help to plant the tires better due to giving the LCAs more of an upward angle from back to front.

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Oh ok, my bad! It's just you made it sound like it was before you got the 12-bolt and you got a whole bunch of passes out of it before it broke and then it broke from the wheelspin that time and then you got the 12-bolt, or at least to me that's how I interpreted it, my mistake!

Colonel

Alright, here's the story.

I first ran the stock 10-bolt (torsen diff) with 2.73s and then 3.73s. This was with an internally stock engine. Seems like I ran some mid to low 1.6s with that one. I didn't break that rearend. Then I swapped to a Ford 9". I ran 1.3s with that one before switching to a 12-bolt for noise, weight, and efficiency reasons. I ran 1.3s with that one too but it still wasn't as quiet as I wanted for daily driving (though it was much quieter than the 9".) So, I swapped back to a stock rearend with 3.42 gears (out of an M6. It had an Auburn diff) and ran it for a couple of, or a few, months. It made several 1.5 runs over 2-3 trips to the track before biting the big one. The 12-bolt went back in and it's still there.

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Oh, cool! I really can't wait to get my 12-bolt so I can get racing again! My posi is goin out after only 5 passes on ET Drags with my new Turbo 400 (started gettin the 1 wheel peel during the burnout on my 4th pass out, so I made that pass and one more, and called it a night. No noise, and it drives fine on the street, but it probably won't take too much more abuse at the track on the slicks)! There was absolutely nothing wrong with it when I had the 6-speed in there, I never really launched it on a tire and both wheels always spun if I did a burnout, so I know it had to be from racing it on the ET Drags with the new auto tranny. The reason I didn't care about putting slicks on it and launching the **** out of it was because I had heard all the auto guys dont' have problems with breaking the 10-bolt, so I figured it would hold, but it didn't. I was on 28x11.5x15 ET Drags (they came on my Draglites, so figured i'd use 'em up before I put my slicks on it) w/ 3.42's stallin it up to 4000 and pulled low 1.7 60's all night (best was 1.737). I heard that I should try just bringin it up to like 1200 or 2000 and then flooring it and letting it flash and my 60' probably would have been better cuz a lot of converters like to be launched like that, but I didn't want to do that on the 10-bolt, cuz I figured it would take too much of a hit. Also, I only dyno'd 333 rwhp with the Turbo 400 in there (I am very surprised it is that low, but the rwtq was 445 and the car runs damn good, so I guess it doesn't matter), so I don't know if that's a good 60' for that power and the setup I was running that night, but I figure it could probably be better! So now it's a 12-bolt with 3.73's and 27" Hoosier QTP's for the setup as soon as I can get a 12-bolt! Hoping I can pull some nice 1.5's or better with that setup, I can't wait!

Jorday

I've abused the ol' 10 bolt pretty good and shes still hanging in there. It's all stock, gears and all (3.23). The torsen seems to be acting strangle lately, though. It's been kinda making some noise, and I've seen a few one wheelers out of it lately, too. I'm not gonna mess with it, though. From the day I got this car, I said I wasn't gonna spend a nickel fixing the stock rear if it ever breaks. I tossed around the idea of switching gears only cause I had them already, but was talked out of it by some senior LS1Tech members who said it probably wasn't worth the trouble.

When the 10 bolt goes, a 12 bolt will jump right in its place.

JohnPayne

iTrader: (3)

We broke an axle, we had a bolt on car with a TCI 4400, but I will say it had a BUNCH of low 1.50's 60ft times the we ran E.T. streets at the track, the axle just twisted and broke, I will say that ours was a rare case not many have had the that happen they ussually hold up very well on a auto car.

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

I'm curious, what's a twisted axle feel like? Will it make it feel like ur rearend is swaying from side to side a little?

Pete2k_Z28

It does just that, twists. Imagine if you drew a straight line down the axle, end to end. It would look like a candy cane when it twisted. Usually twisting is immediately followed by "SNAP", so yeah you'd know something was broke But don't worry, the brake caliper will hold the wheel on the car. Glad we don't use drum brakes any more

Loudmouth LS1

iTrader: (10)

Oh ok, I was just wondering, cuz ever since I hurt my rear at the track, it's felt really weird, like it's sort of swaying from side to side a little while i'm driving, and was just wondering if a twisted axle could do that and tryin to figure out what is doin it. One of my friends twisted an axle on his 12-bolt and the car still drove, so that's why I figured it wouldn't always snap, and maybe it's just twisted, but if you could think of why I might be getting this little swaying feeling (just feels like the rear is moving side to side under the car a little during normal driving), i'm open to suggestions, thanks!

JohnPayne

iTrader: (3)

Thats it, it just snaps, when we took the axle out you could see the splines twisted.

The Guy in MY 99TA

I am currently on my second differential(the first was the stocker with about 65K on the clock and it just busted) and my second set of gears(first was 3.73 that I busted about 3 weeks ago on nittos). I have the original 3.23's in now so I HOPE I don't have any more problems.

Josh S.

TransAm2002

iTrader: (3)

See sig.

Still stock rear end with 3.23's in it.