Jay_rich

iTrader: (4)

OKay well I notice alot of people have done the 8.8" ford swap BUT I cant seem to find any info that is usefull!

My buddy has 3 complete 8.8s with 3.55 gears just sitting in his garage and since I know next year my car is gonna need a new rearend and beefing up the stocker just isnt worth the time or money I figure get one of these from him and I already have someone to do all the work!
I plan on upgrading since my car runs 12.90s on motor and with a N20 tune! Once I get a few different tunes made I am sure I can get 12.50s N/A and hopefully 11.50s with N20!

So does anyone have any info/pictures/links they are willing to share. I am mainly trying to figure out what axles etc since I want to keep my stock wheels!

Thanks for any input!

Jay

Jay_rich

iTrader: (4)

common know-one?? I have seen this swap in many people sigs here and on ls1tech.

Jay

cam-

Buy a 9 inch and thank me later

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

You'd need to fab up all your own brackets, along with TA (the hardest one).
Of the 3 you have access to, are any even close the right width? That's an expensive tweak right there.
Then the wheel bolt pattern is all wrong, do you want to buy new wheels? (just rears?) Or get custom made axles?
What about brakes? E-brake adapters or something?

Shagwell

do a search, there's a whole thread on here about this. There was a guy converting the 8.8's for our cars, but there wasn't enough demand, so he quit doing it. He built a jig to tie the housing and all the brackets into so that they were all in the proper place, then welded everything up.

The question would be width. If you had one that was close enough, you could re-drill the axles for our bolt pattern, but then you'd still have factory axles, thus you would be ahead to buy aftermarket and just order them 5 on 4.75 bolt circle(not an issue from most manufacturers). The trick part about the width would be the housing itself. If it's too skinny, then there's a LOT of work involved. If it's too wide, then you could shorten the tubes, but you still would need to make sure they are absolutely square, thus you would probably need a jig of some sort.

It all comes down to your mechanical/fabrication abilities. If you have the ability to tackle something like this yourself, it would be a worth while cause. If you have to sheel out much money to have someone do much of it for you, then you would be ahead to buy an aftermarket 3rdgen spec 12-bolt.

Personally, I stay away from the 9". It takes more hp to pull than the others, it's only gain is the easy of ratio changes.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

If you were looking for suggestions for an easy home done powerful rear end swap, look at the GM 8.5" 10 bolt.