General LSX Automobile Discussion - s60 or boltons?

Im trying to decide if i wanna do full boltons first or get an s60 rear. The car is 2002 SS M6 with 71,000 miles. It had 59,000 miles when i bought it. Right now all my car has is lowering springs, bilstiens, lid, and loud mouth exhaust with a moroso spiral flow muffler dumped before the axle. The rear has a good bit of whine going on right now and after i bought the car i was going the all the paper work in the glove box and seen that the owner had it up for sale before and on the list of mods he had a 10 bolt repair kit. So the rear has def had some problems. The car had kooks long tubes on it before he sold the car to me so im sure the rear has been beat on. I dont know if he ever had any kind of slicks on it or not. Im gonna do both for sure but i cant afford both right now. The car is not my daily driver so i would slowly like to set it up for a mild strip car. I would like to run in the 11s. I know long tubes and true duals would make me smile everytime i get on it but im just worried about the rear. Thanks for any help.

You should be fine to do bolt-ons as long as you're not dropping the clutch at 4k, thats the way a lot of 10 bolts break

I'd upgrade the rear now...what if you do full bolt-ons and a month later it breaks? Your already hearing noises basically it's howling which is a red flag. Do the rear end and get it over with. Then you can throw what ever you want at it.

Well I currently have the stock 10 bolt in my car and so far doesn't have any issues that I know of. I'm pushing about 450hp but I don't drop the clutch and only gets driven on the street.

If I had to do things over again I would beef up my rear and clutch first then start adding power. You can have more fun with the car again. BTW I should be getting my s60 next year so more fun times coming.

My vote get the s60 first so you can put a sticky tire on her and let it eat do it right first time.

You should be fine to do bolt-ons as long as you're not dropping the clutch at 4k, thats the way a lot of 10 bolts break

You would be shocked how crappy some of the rear ends get.

OP, i was in your same shoes just a few months ago. I had a 10 bolt that made noise. I took it to the track anyway on a DR. Very first run out... I launched maybe at 2000-2500rpm... a whopping 2.0 60 foot. Rear end busted that run the sec i released that clutch. It wasnt even a hard launch at all. $$$ for tow and a month later I am running in an s60 with 4.10s. Anyway my point is... rear end first.

id take care of the rear first. its the wise thing to do says smokie the bear.

upgraded rear is a must for m6 cars. you still want to hook good even on occasional street encounters. plus it gets old worrying about it.

you 'll sound like a ricer, making excuses about your rear if you are cruising around with LTs & true dual exhaust & others wana run you. :lol:

Since you have an M6 I would definitely go ahead and do the rear end. That way you can constantly add power to the car, launch it as hard as you want on the tire of your choice without having to worry about the rear being a weak link

s60 all the way! you really cant put a price on not worrying, or a tow bill.... ive been there haha

you 'll sound like a ricer, making excuses about your rear if you are cruising around with LTs & true dual exhaust & others wana run you. :lol:

HAHA!!! That is exactly how I feel. I cruise around and have to limp my car everywhere and can't even enjoy it, while the half drunk idiots at gas stations are like "smash that shit man I wanna hear it!!!" and I just tell them nah like I'm this mature somebody that drives safely and responsibly in this built up hot rod.... when in reality it's because my ten-bolt it whining like a biaotch!

If you got the money for the rear, then do the rear. If not, just do all your boltons, and take care of the rearend before you throw a cam and heads.

Thanks everyone. Lookes like it will be the rear first so i wont have to worry about it and not have the money bc i spent it all on bolt-ons

My vote get the s60 first so you can put a sticky tire on her and let it eat do it right first time.

+1 do s60 first for sure, youll thank yourself later

I'd consider a 9" over a s60, there are more options on how you have it built and it wont way so damn much. A 9" from Midwest Chassis is only a little heavier than a stock 10bolt and when you consider the cost of other parts you'll also want to upgrade like the torque arm is doesn't cost that much more.

My vote get the s60 first so you can put a sticky tire on her and let it eat do it right first time.

:chug: cheers to that!!

I always say if you got the money In hand buy as big as you can then. You might not have a spare 2500 laying around all the time where the spare 3-400 bucks is a lot easier to come by for your bolts ons at least for me it is.

take the advice and buy a rearend!!

I'd consider a 9" over a s60, there are more options on how you have it built and it wont way so damn much. A 9" from Midwest Chassis is only a little heavier than a stock 10bolt and when you consider the cost of other parts you'll also want to upgrade like the torque arm is doesn't cost that much more.

I don't know about that...granted I wasn't looking at MWC 9" offerings, I was looking at a Moser unit through Brutespeed, but the 9" package with sparse options brought me to almost $4000 for the rear end. An S60 on the other hand from either Carl at CRP or MWC is in the $2500-$3000 range including beefy DS.

Base package includes housing(any width), Strange nodular(rated 600hp) center section with spool and choice of gear ratio(Motive Performance), 31-35 spline Strange axles w/ street bearings and 2" 12mm metric or 1/2" SAE studs, chromoly double adjustable torque arm with crossmember for your application. All necessary hardware is included as well.

base package shipped $2750
4 channel abs axle mod +110
Truetrac differential unit +300
.................................$3160

base strange S60 $2350
add 4 channel ABS 70
adjustable tq arm ~425
shipping guessing 150
...........................$2995
thats less than $200 to save about 50lds to unstrung weight.
And don't claim the stock trans. mounted torque arm it fine, it will twist, or worse yet you might beak your tail housing. Also if you don't have all of the cash up front you can put a deposit down and pay the rest when its ready to ship.

Do the S60 first if you can and you'll enjoy the power that'll soon follow.

I was in the same boat a week ago, but after talking to CARL, I went with the S60, it will also work with my UMI torque arm setup, off the tail shaft. Get the driveshaft also to match the rear!

Your next weak link will be the clutch! Monster stage 3 and Tick master cylinder!

im not dead set on the s60..i will look into the 9in more. i wanna do a lot more research before i pull the triger. but i will def be going with a rear first for sure.

I WAS going 9inch at first, after the research the S60 was the way to go, unless for changing gear ratios often.

I just bought my first LS1 car a few months ago. There were a lot of 400+ HP cars for sale with 10 bolts, I opted for a mostly stock one with a 9" ford. I've been beating on hot rods for over 20 years and believe me, nothing sucks worse than spending money to make HP and breaking something in the drive train. I spent all the $ I had saved on a new turbo, etc for my Buick, 3 rd pass out I broke the trans (I knew it was the cars weak link) Car sat for 6 months till I saved enough to fix it. I vote S60 lol

Your next weak link will be the clutch! Monster stage 3 and Tick master cylinder!

yes the Tick master cylinder will soon be bought im tired of the sticky clutch pedal