i wonder how much stronger a 8.5 would be ?

 

8.5s are pretty strong, my friend has one in his 69 chevelle SS thats pushin 500ish to the wheels, and he launches it hard, and its still in-tact. i believe there are different versions of the 8.5's too.

 

If you're thinking about swapping to an 8.5" 10-bolt (into your 4th-gen) forget about it . Buy a used 12-bolt or 9" that's designed to fit!! The 7.5" --> 8.5" swap has been done, but it's not the easiest thing to do (a lot of custom fabrication required) and there are easier "better" options available .

If you're curious "how to tell" which diff is which, check out Richmond's website ... they've got a bunch of pictures of the diff covers, and each one pretty much identifies which diff it is .

 

Or you could just look at the "Common GM and Dana differential ID" post stickied at the top of this forum.

http://64.65.63.61/forums/showthread.php?t=473563

 

Well where did that come from?!?!?!

Sorry I acted like a newbie and haven't noticed/read all of the stickies .

 

does all camaro and ta come with 7.5?

 

'82 - '02, yes .

1st-2nd gens used 12-bolts, as well as the 8.5" 10-bolts, and I think some may have used the 8.2" 10-bolts as well??

 

thanks for the info .....

 

Some 3rd Gens came with the Australian-made, Borg-Warner 7.75" 9-bolt rear axle assembly.

 

Was the 9-bolt specific to "1LE" cars or something of that sort , or were they just thrown in at random, sort of how LS6 blocks made it into "some" LS1 4th-gens?? I thought I read about them once before, and they apparently were no better (stronger) than the standard 10-bolt? Just curious what criteria was used for putting them into the cars over the corporate 10-bolt?

 

Don't worry, I missed it too, guess I have something else to remeber now...

 

One of my friends had one of those 9 bolts on his 88 iroc. They're not very desirable because parts are harder to find and more expensive I believe. I'm not really sure why they put those rear ends in some 3rd gens.

 

I'm not really knowledgable on the 3rd Gens, but it wasn't a "random" install. The Camaros had them installed with the "B2L" package (350-ci V8 in the IROC-Z coupe), and with G92 (Performance rear axle on IROC-Z coupe). They were also used in the 1986 Trans Ams. Not sure what other options triggered the install. I think all the 9-bolts had 3.27 gears.

Then there is the Dana 44, used by SLP in the first Firehawks in 1992. They only sold 25 of the cars, but apparently had a larger number of Dana 44's built for stock, and eventually sold them off for a very good price. The Dana 44's included 3.54 gears.

 

My friend told me he had like 2.77 gears in his 9 bolt... Maybe he was wrong?

 

they had 2.77 in the 9-bolt also.....the parts for the 9bolt are very hard to find and its no better than the 10 bolt.

You best option is to buy a rear from strange or moser...you can't beat it for the price