Either I suck at searching, or there isn't one here?

I talked to a guy online recently that did this swap himself, and he has some good pictures and I pretty much 'get' the whole concept, but I can't find any one place that has all the info. Part numbers, what years to look for what diff in, etc?

Essentially, if I can do the swap myself at home for cheap, I'd do it. But I need to know what to junkyard shop for so I can put together a real cost to see if it's actually cheap enough to warrant doing, rather than saving my $ for a complete bolt-in 12 bolt setup.

 

Seriously nobody here has this swap in their F-body? Or just don't want to admit it???

 

Lol... I have it. I put mine in sometime in the 2001 - 2003 timeframe. I've had both 4.10 and 3.55 gears in it. It's been great. I think mine came from a Ford Explorer. The guy that fabbed it (Extreme Chassis, since deceased I believe) used the 'legs' from my stock Z28 10 bolt and used the center section plus about 10" of the Ford 8.8 legs.He welded mild steel torque arm support apparatus to the cast Iron center section.

 

Wow, well I guess 10+ years and still going strong is a good track record!

 

Yes. I had several friends with the much hated (j/k) 5.0 Mustangs and I knew those cars were throwing lots of nitrous/blowers/turbo power at their 8.8's and thought, "That's got to be a good rear end to take that abuse". I started reading about them and found this Extreme Chassis guy. He was in the Dallas area at the time. In talking to him, it seemed like it had everything going for it.

• Relatively inexpensive at $1,850 (delivered) compared to the Strange/Moser 12 bolt/9-Inch Fbody offerings that were well over $2,000 at that time (I think those are less expensive nowadays)
• Strong enough for the power I was making
• More mechanically efficient than the Ford 9"
• Weighed less than the 12 bolt and 9"
• All my brake calipers, shocks, LCA and PHR would bolt right on.

He pallet shipped it to me and they dropped it off in the parking lot of my office. With the help of a friend, I put it in the back of my pickup, drove it home. I had to take my driveshaft over to a local (in Houston, TX) driveshaft shop where they fetched that plate that hooks up the driveshaft to the nose of the Ford 8.8 and supplied the 'crossover' Ujoint that mates the GM 10 bearing cups and the Ford 8.8 bearing cups to a common U-joint. They then balanced the assembly. After getting that, I installed it and drove it till 2009 with the 4.10's. Because I have a turbo, I wanted to load the turbo more during WOT so I went with a 3.55 gear.

So far, driving it all these years in daily driving, many weekends of racing using Nitrous(150 shot), solid roller 383 stroker and finally the current T76 Turbo, the 8.8 has not even whimpered. I've used both at high stalled TH350 with slicks and the current T56 with SPEC Stage 4 clutch(5K clutch dumps at the drag strip), never a problem.

The reason that Extreme Chassis stopped making these I'm told, is because some of the torque arm mounts were not welded sufficiently and they came off. Not something you want, I'm sure. I get under my car weekly and inspect things and the mount on the 8.8 is one of them. Nothing bad/suspicious to report so far

I believe someone makes a bolt on Fbody torque arm mount for the 8.8
nowadays. I did have a link for it at one time but can't find it at the moment. I seem to remember it was not cheap and looked very sturdy(aka "heavy").

 

Here's a link to a long thread about this topic...Ford 8.8 Rear buildup questions - LS1TECH

 

Awesome, thanks man!

Here's another thread I found... also, yeah that Torque arm mount seems to be the hokie part. I've been reading on other forums and some guys have found ways to weld them in ways I'd not be afraid of at all, but a lot of them also look like udder crap. Meaning, the guys with welding shops and umpteen years of fab skills do some stellar work, but some of the mounts people come up with in their garages are also kind of scary.

One of the pics in your link above is what I was thinking- a torque arm mount that bolts to the 8.8 housing at both the rear cover face and the pinion snout. Completely do away with the traditional f-body torque arm mount where it currently meets at the pinion. That is also an issue- getting a mount fabbed onto the 8.8 that fits in the floor tunnel. Does yours hit the floor?

8.8 Build - With a Unique TA Mount - LS1TECH

 

Not at all. Mine uses the stock torque arm and a poly bushing. I recently bought and installed the BMR torque arm relocation/transmission cross member. Before that, it was using the stock M6 cross member and the stock torque arm mount on the tailshaft of the T56.

 

BTW, I read that entire(lengthy!) article. That guy is some fabricator! The finished product looked like it came from a dealership

 

Me too, and agreed!!!