diehrd

Well winter is almost here ( tears now running down my face )

This year the mod is ...... Straight axle .. Ford 9" 4 link ..

Or the IRS ,, ( not sold on this yet sell me )

I have a 1980 , and have been running this set up
Strong 427 SBC
4L80e 3600 to 4000 stall
Multi Port Fuel injection
Borg steering
And all the goodies to make the car rumble .

I do most of my driving on the street , put as many miles on her as possible. Did do track and ran 11.3 on passenger car tires taking off from a standing idle.

I am open to REPLACE the new 15" rims

Open for tire suggestions rim combos , rim styles and tire brands.



Open to pros and cons of straight vs IRS

Also would want coil over suggestions for front tubular control arms i have

The only thing I am going to keep for sure are the rear Aerospace component nickle plated brakes ( want all 4 wheel brakes to match)

diehrd

No one with opinions ?

tracdogg2

Hi Tony,
I've been thinking about it all day. Another D44 is probably out of the picture. I know fabricating is no problem for you. Super 10 would be the easiest but I just don't like using only 6 mounting bolts. I have no proof either way, just a personal opinion. Many others have done it with no problems.
Converting it to the 63-79 design? Seems like a step backwards.
Mike

diehrd

Mike in a way I feel like you just stated ,, Stumped lol ..

The IRS means toss all my new parts to buy parts just like it but slightly different that sucks . Still a 6 joint car .. still got to do some fab work .

But a 9 inch ford , never break that .. fab work yep and a new look out back , but who has one as a daily driver ?

leadfoot4

Back in the early 70s, I used to go to Empire Dragway, now and again. I used to see a Corvette competing in Super/Stock, that I'm pretty sure had a big block in it, and fairly large slicks, within the limitations of the class. The car was sponsored, IIRC, by Golden Mile Chevrolet, out of Niagara Falls. That car had the IRS, and would launch with the front wheels barely skimming the pavement, time after time.

I would think the IRS could be beefed up......have you contacted 'Tom's Differentials'??

Kacyc3

Why not find a 63-79 rear end , have it converted to 12 bolt upgrade your drive shafts and other parts needed?

tracdogg2

The problem is the car is an '80 with a Dana 44 and batwing. At this time you cannot bolt a 12 bolt to a batwing. Other than that, the 12 bolt would be the easiest solution.
Mike

Kacyc3

How much work is it to swap out the bat wing and install the 79 mounting setup?

gkull

I like my QA-1 front coil over dual adjust shocks. Buy the shocks without the springs from summit racing and then by the spring and collar kits from speed direct. I have a light weight front end and it works well with 600# springs and a 1 .125 front bar with spring end links. It gives the front tires some vertical movement before the bars come into play.

As to brakes? You want bigger on the front because that is where all the weight is under braking.

69427

I'm not terribly familiar with the details of the 12 bolt mod. What's the issue with the 12 bolt/batwing incompatibility?

Just sideline curiosity here.

diehrd

I have the dana 44 , I beefed up everything in it and connected to it. The down side is none of it can be used on the pre 1980 iron differential set up. ( It has blown once doing a hole shot on ET street radials ) I fixed it and dont run those tires anymore I run cooper cobras LMAO this way the dana wont be blown

I also have to convert to the pre 1980 mounting points. And when done still have a car with 3 drive shafts and a wallet out 5 plus thousand .

So I guess the question is do i need a IRS even on a daily driver ?

Kacyc3

I was never fond of my camaros with solid axles and wanted to swap to an IRS, a major plus for owning a corvette for me. How much is the solid axle swap going to cost with brakes?

tracdogg2

The ring gear hits the rear cover/batwing and there's not enough metal to clearance it.

tracdogg2

It's actually quite a bit of work and the body has to come off.

But I just had a wild idea. Design and build a crossmember that bolts to an iron diff but uses the batwing poly mounts and frame brackets.
o--_--o
It would be lighter than a factory set up and correctly position the iron diff into the 80-82 body/frame.

HP Hunter

The nine inch Ford rears eat up to much valuable horsepower.

Harry

69427

Gotcha. (I'm working around a similar ring gear clearance issue putting a D36 batwing on my stock iron housing and gear set. I currently have the C3 D44 batwing on it, but the D36 batwing will take another several pounds out of the car.)

diehrd

I disagree , what ever loss you may experience is off set by how hard you can lay into one coming off the line.

I am no expert but the IRS has a bunch more moving parts to get power to the wheels and my guess it is no more efficient at power transfer then a ford 9 set up .. Who has info to show one or the other is using less hp ?

minitech

New tube frame with C4/C5 suspension. That will solve many issues and it will have much higher performance than stock frame:

http://www.sriiimotorsports.com/196382corvette.html

Nice to know the option is there. Would be quite the off season project but a great one!

76strokervette

In no road racing or autocrossing the nine inch with a four link would be the hot setup IMOP.

63mako

We have a winner!