I just seen to many let go personally at stock or very near stock levels. Put a tire on a stock 10 bolt in the f-bod and get it to half way hook and you aren't moving much past the 60ft mark.

Watching them explode on street tires in near stock trim is what blew my mind.

 

I've got 2 10 bolts in 2 separate cars. One has seen numerous 1.4x 60' and the other numerous 1.6x 60'. MT drag radials are the only rear tires they see track or street. And there are guys on this board running in the 9s with a 10 bolt.

I've seen only a couple stock rears on near stock cars let go in 15 years, and they both were neglected as the pinion bearings were shot from ignored pinion seal leaks.

I make a good living off of Ford's 8.8 rears.

 

Looks like I stirred the hornets' nest with that one.

Look, anyone who has been around the 4th Gen scene for very long knows that the 10-bolts used on the car, particularly the LS1 cars, were pushing the very limits of acceptable durability. "Fbodfather" has said here several times that the reason they didn't upgrade it was cost and weight. And because technically the rear end passed muster on a stock, non-raced car it was deemed good enough. Probably much like Ford's automatics.

I seem to recall early (last gen) CTS-Vs having rear end issues as well, which kind of led me to my "GM rears" comment.

 

Stock 10-bolt?

 

I can see the 10 bolts lasting better with the automatics.

 

You can count me in the rear pinion seal leak crowd, had it happen twice in my 02 Z28. I did power shift a lot though so I can't complain. Covered under warranty both times.

 

Built up? Yes, LOTS. Stock, a few. Off the top of my head I know Orr89rocz has gone 9s on a stock 3.42 10 bolt pulled from an LS1 car. There are a few more, drawing a blank at the moment, but like Orr they're all turbo cars, one being a ~1000rwhp M6.

 

It's not hard to believe a car has gone 9's with the stock 10 bolt. I know Mustangs that have gone 9's with a stock T5.

The issue is how long will it last? Nobody making the kind of power necessary to run that quick is going to leave something like the rear-end (or tranny) stock for very long. It might break the first run, the third run, or the xxx run - but it will break, it will break sooner than quality upgrades, and in the not-so-long run, keeping the stock stuff will be the more expensive route.

Unless of course you don't mind buying plenty of spares and changing the parts every few runs.

 

So you have two examples (one of which is something you "seem to recall") out of several dozen, and you're using that as the basis for a reputation?

As I recall, CTS-V's had issues with violent wheelhop, which could then break axles and occasionally center sections. That's not an issue with the rear end in the sense that we're discussing here.

 

Yes, it was probably the wheel hop I was thinking about. I am willing to recall my previous statement if it bothers people that much. I guess we might as well forget about Ford transmission issues since it's kind of the same situation - hit or miss.

In the context of Camaros, and in my experiences with 4th Gens, the 10 bolt was really what led me to make the statement. Show me the guy that honestly makes reliable 9 second pass after reliable 9 second pass on a completely stock 7.5" 10 bolt and I might change my tune a bit.

 

The stock 10 bolt in the 4th Gen F-bodies was certainly not the best choice and the LS1 pushed it into the limit of it's specs. But lets not dog GM for a weak rear end and use the basis that it couldn't get a F-body into the 8's. The rear end was fine for most casual drag racers and road course jockies. It's not like it was failing at press days doing burnouts. It's not GM's job to provide race ready parts for a street car that could be had in the low/mid $20K range. Besides anyone looking to get there car into under 10 sec 1/4 mile passes is going to be changing a lot of parts and I don't think changing the rear end is too much to ask. I happen to know that it's a minor issue to those who can actually run those times. And before we start tossing around 8 and 9 sec passes like we are on the set of Fast and Furious watch two of my favorite passes courtesy of our friend Taner and his '96 SS 6M to see just how violent a built F-body must be to attain that kind of performance.
No 10 bolt in his car!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8NZB32Ntc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSyrw1VGnSk

 

The Evolution Performance car after more tuning put down 414rwhp/385rwtq.

 

For those that might be interested.....July 2011 MM&FF....12.6 @ 112 mph.

 

Great time. Did they give the 60ft?

 

Evo Performance just went a 10.91 @ 127 mph with the same mods as before + 100 shot of gas.

On the 11.65 pass the car made 405rwhp. They tuned some more and got 414rwhp out of the car. On the 100 shot the car put down 469rwhp/513rwtq.

2nd 2011 GT we know of in the 10s.