Jpr5690

iTrader: (13)

ok i have an 02 t\a with a steel driveshaft and i put 3.42 gears in it along with most boltons and drag radials i also plan on doing a 224\227 cam tci 3800 and 150 dry shot my car is heavy 3700Lbs i have no probs with my steel shaft but have the oppertunity to cheeply pick up a stock alumin driveshaft out of a 98 M6 camaro my questions are 1 will this fit without modification and 2 should i do it ... my concerns are 2 fold one is alumin weaker or stonger for launches and high speed runs and 2 is the drive shaft being a few years old gonna be a bad buy concidering my car is 6 yrs newer and this thing has had 6 yrs of use thus far???

thnakns
john

NHRATA01

iTrader: (10)

The aluminum shaft will most certainly be weaker - i've seen alot of shredded aluminum shafts on here. Do a search and you'll find many cases. I just switched to an aftermarket chromolly one to replace my aluminum one since I fear it will break on the sticky tires I'm going to be running now.

Jpr5690

iTrader: (13)

if they are weaker for launches i dont understand why cars with lower gears are running them and cars with higher gears got the steel one?

1fastWS6

iTrader: (3)

It's because the alum. one is lighter and has a higher critical speed than the steel. Meaning, it is less prone to vibration at higher rpms. With numerically higher gear ratios in the rear, the DS is spinning faster at cruise and more likely to cause driveline vibrations. GM had problems with the steel ds doing that with the manual trans cars (3.42 gears) and the solution was to replace it with the alum. one.

Nova5

Thats interesting... so would a 1997 Z28 with 3.23's have a steel or aluminum?

obe1 95Z28

Another option is a heavy duty aluminum driveshaft. I have a Lingenfelter 3.5" aluminum driveshaft for sale on ebay, item #7922841880