My car will be pushing around 350 hp with some drag radials for good traction. I want to put 3.73 gears in my 10 bolt but I am not sure if my rear end will handle it since I have more horsepower now. Should I just stick with my 3.23 gears or is it ok to put the 3.73's in.

 

oops i read that wrong

 

It will be fine, but the 10bolt will break eventually, regardless of what gears you have.

 

You should change gears.

At the same time:

Weld the axle tubes all the way around
Get a good posi (I suggest the Eaton high-perf unit)
Use a solid spacer
Get a set of Superior EV10-4 axles
Add a girdle cover
Use bearing cap studs & nuts
Add LCA relocation brackets
All new bearings & seals of course (pinion, carrier, axle)

Do all this to a rear with PBR brakes.

At that point, you'll have the maximum possible 10-bolt. Which is far from "bulletproof". But it should be good enough to last for a while, especially with an auto trans.

If you drive it on the street AT ALL, DO NOT get the Richmond drag racing gears. Instead, use Dana, Superior, AAM (Motive), Precision, US Gear, or some similar brand. On the other hand, if the car will NEVER EVER see the street, the Richmonds would be great.

 

you know, that is nearly half the cost of a 12bolt.
Mine was built up like that with an Eaton Posi and I still broke it with my 305/Manual after less than 1 year..
and, ya, an auto helps out a lot with less shock load, but you are halfway towards a much much stronger rear.

 

richmonds are noisey is that why you say that?

Anything wrong with some GM 3.73 gears?

 

my original 2.73 gearshad a whine,i got the richmond 3.73 gears in my z now and it`s pretty quiet

 

The Richmonds generally tend to be noisier, but not necessarily. But that's not the reason why you don't want them for the street.

The reason is, they're a SPECIFIC PURPOSE part. They're designed for exactly one thing: drag racing. To deal with that, they make them out of a softer metal, so they don't shatter when hit with a big shock load. On the other hand, street type use of lots of miles, chews through their metal REAL FAST because it's soft.

So, just like stock gears will grenade when drag racing with sticky tires but the Richmonds will survive, the Richmonds will disintegrate very rapidly on the street where stock ones will last hundreds of thousands of miles.

It's not a question of "quality" or "better"; rather, it's all about "suitability for purpose".

Yes GM ones (which are AAM/Motive) are fine for street use. Usually they cost about twice as much as buying the same thing under a different name and/or from a different source.

 

$400 posi, $200 gears, $200 girdle, $100 for the rest (they're cheap). I'm seeing ~$900. Most of the 12 bolts go for closer to $3000.
But you have a point - but I'd rather pay the half price, I can think of so many other uses for $1500 or so.
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Unless I had future plans of even more power, than i'd just go and bite the bullet.