vintagesteel

Hello, I am building a '51 Chevy pickup and am incorporating C4 front and rear suspensions under it. My target horsepower with the combination I am going to run should put 500hp at the rear wheels. My question is this. Will a stock C4 differential be reliable for daily commutes with a heavy foot or should it be beefed before installation? I am not planning on any dragstrip use. Is there also any differences between an automatic or stick differentials besides the ratios?

Thanks in advance for you comments. You people have a very nice forum going on here.

C4orce2

I'm certainly no expert, but I'll tell you what I've been told. I have a '92 convertible with the 700r4 auto tranny and a dana 36 with 3.73 gears. Last sumer I had installed a LS3 hot cam GM Performance crate engine. It has been tuned to over 575 SAE net hp. The builder told me as long as I don't put huge tires on it and do not drag race it, the tranny and dana 36 should hold together. Right now all the power simply burns up the tires, not the hardware. Tires are cheaper than trannys or differentials so I'm going to take their advice. Hope this helps.

vintagesteel

That was exactly my gut feeling as well. I was also told that the manual diffs were beefier. I am going to run an auto anyway. Thanks very much for your input. Corvette diff it is then. Have a great day.

tblt44

That must have cost you a pretty penny,
back on subject
Get a Dana 44 from a standard car if you can,only problem is it will cost you 3 times as much.

Klondike

Got to use the batwing that comes with a D44 also, they don't interchange.
Pushing hard on an axle with an automatic doesn't hurt nearly as much as HITTING one does with a standard. My buddy has a 472ci 550hp Fairmont with a stock 8" in it and has run it for 10 years and two engines with no breakage. My Son busted the same size axle with less than 300hp (and less traction too) by hitting it; speed shifting a stick.
The Dana 36 should be fine behind an automatic. If you hit it with a stick go with the D44.

C4orce2

You got that right! I don't want to try and steal this thread, but if you want to learn more about my build, go to Search and look for "LT1 conversion to LS3 hot cam". It will also lead you to my photobucket which has an album entitled "build of C4orce2". Sorry for the interruption here.

vader86

HP doesn't break things, torque does.

If its street driven and you don't put slicks on it, it will last awhile. You start drag racing and it may last 1000 passes or not even 1 pass.

Eventually though it will give out, and you should go to a D44 rear.

vetteoz

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...ic-limits.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...er-limits.html

vintagesteel

Thank you for all of your input. This helps out a lot.

vintagesteel

ONE more question....when searching out my rear diff, are there any identifying marks on them or are they clearly maked Dana 36 or 44?

Loby 1

I couldn't agree more.

vetteoz

D44 has no bolt at top center
Other than that ,the diffs look ( are ) identical year for year unless you have both side by side where you can see that the D44 diffhead is visibly larger

D44 shown on top