i am still pretty new to the Camaro camp and have so many questions...In regards to strength and durability. How strong is the Borg Warner Aussie axle that I have in my '89 5.7 Iroc .

Reason I ask is that I am planning on making a trip to the drag strip this summer and was thinking of throwing on a set of slicks

 

How much power are you making? The 9 bolt is a little stronger than the 10 bolt. I don't recommend doing water burnouts with the cone type differential. If it's close to being worn out then you might finish it off by doing the burnout.

 

Car is all stock. Right down to the original shocks and struts..Gearing is 3.27.

 

The more traction you have, the more stress gets put on everything; and the more likely it is to fail.

As he said, the 9-bolt is only marginally stronger than the 10-bolt.

And worse, parts are MUCH more expensive and MUCH less widely available, making the consequences of tearing it up, MUCH more severe.

Don't say you weren't warned when it happens to you. Although a stock TPI will mostly protect the rear from ever seeing very much stress, and a stock torque converter even more so.

 

I pushed a 3.27 9 bolt into the high 11's at 117 mph with no issues. I swapped out the diff because I needed different gearing.

 

With a stock engine and slicks there should be no need for a water brunout. Just go straight to the line and stage the car. Your differential will thank you for it.

 

I have used the Aussie 9-bolt with much better luck than the small 10- bolt
L98 all bolt ons full exhaust 3.27 gear,5 speed. Killed more t5 trannies but never the 9- bolt hooking hard '60 was 1.7 generally. Bottom 13s all day then I accommodated a 9-bolt with 3.45s and dipped in the 12.8 range all times were at HRP many years ago.
Bottom line is it will handle more than a small 10-bolt will NO MATTER what mods are done to the 10-bolt but they all have limits..........I miss my 3rd Gen

 

I had a 89 9 bolt with over 400RWH and over 500RWT and it lasted over a year and a half with no problems untill I swapped in a ford 9. The rear had over 100.000 miles on it with no new parts and I wouldn't hesitate to put in car today. The 9 bolt is a great rear.

 

So it seems that I should have no problem hitting the track with a set of slicks or drag radials...Next question..What kind of gear oil should I use and should I use an additive.. Larry

 

The recomended lube is listed in the owners manual, if you have it, and on the diff cover tags if it needs additive or not.

 

The logic goes like this:

"I {insert risky activity here} and all that bad stuff you've heard about didn't happen; therefore it's safe".

I actually know someone who was skydiving one day, and his parachute failed; and he survived.

Imagine if he went around telling everyone "I skydove without a parachute and survived; therefore it's safe to skydive without one".

This is EXACTLY the same logic here. It's a matter of risk and odds. Now granted the odds of the parachute thing are a different number from the 9-bolt & slicks thing; but the principle is the same.

You MIGHT be able to bolt up a set of slicks and go season after season without any trouble; or, you MIGHT grenade your rear the first pass. Most likely the reality will be somewhere in between. It is CERTAIN that the rear will eventually fail. While it might be possible to predict how many out of a some large sample will fail with a certain amount of abuse (yes I teach college statistics), it is NOT possible to predict how long A PARTICULAR ONE will last.

Are you prepared for that risk? You might get lucky, or you might not, after all.