Trying to minimize my chances of breaking driveline parts and was wondering if anyone had any pics of the RPM unit installed. They are priced within $30 of each other but the RPM unit is 20lbs lighter, which is a bonus if it can do the same job as the DTE unit. Any thoughts on these two products?

 

any type of diff brace should help

i bought one off a forum member that cost less than both of them and after breaking 3 rear ends before the brace, i havent broken one since

 

Which one are you using? I'm open to anything, I just thought these were the only two out there.

 

I'm using the RPM brace. I've broken many rearends; after installing the RPM brace, no breakages. The car sees sixty foot in the 1.44 to 1.49 range with no problems Give them a call: (972) 434-2154 and ask for Brian or Lydia...they'll work something out with you!

 

The RPM brace looks nice. I like the way it supports the pinion in the back. I too would like to see a better picture than they have on their web site. Is that really only two rods or is there some that we can't see? The DTE may be a stronger brace. It is much larger, made of steel, has four rods, and attaches all the way at the front of the transmission. It looks like the DTE brace would be much harder to install. I think in a case of wheel hop where things are abruptly wrapping up and turning loose, the four bar DTE design would give better support. It looks like with these two designs you could use both of them at the same time! Now that should keep the diff attached to the transmission!

I just installed a DTE brace on my Z06. I can tell you I was not impressed with the quality of the cutting on the brace. The design looked great, and the fit was good. The cutting of the holes was very bad! I think they say their braces are laser cut, they look torch cut. The bolt holes are not drilled, they too are cut. I had to redrill most of the holes to even get the bolts to fit through the plates. Lots of trash left in the holes. If you want it to look good I would suggest you order them unfinished and paint them yourself. The paint looked OK, but had lots of chips and scratches from shipping. Another thing they should address is the spacers on the front plates. They give you three 3/8" washers you have to stack up and place between the front transmission ear and the front brace plates. While this would be very easy and not be a problem if the transmission was out of the car, but I can tell you it is VERY hard to get all 12 of these washer stacked in place when the transmission is still in the car! I spent about 4 hours installing just the right front plate. If they machined out little spacers and welded them to the plate installation would be very easy even while the transmission was still in the car.

Over all I really like the DTE brace, it seems very well thought out, and seems well designed. If I did it again I would buy it unpainted and debur and redrill the holes, weld the spacers to the front plates, then paint it myself.

I would also suggest that anyone who is installing a DTE brace on a transmission/diff, to go ahead and remove your diff side covers and replace the o-ring seal and add a small about of sealer to the case flanges to prevent future leaks. It will probably save you a lot of work later down the road.

 

That's weird, the DTE brace that I bought was perfect. No burrs or defects or scratches. All the bolt holes were perfect. It basically fell right into place. I did have to clearance it for my larger exhaust though. Apparently this has been resolved in the later revisions of the brace.

Dope

 

i had to open up the holes on my dte drace also ,but it was not that bad, all in all it is a nice product

 

Excellent feedback, thanks for the replies. It seems if the RPM unit is holding things together in a 10sec car it should be more than OK for my car. I agree with speedy, the DTE unit looks like it's made with the rigors of drag racing in mind. The rear will be out anyway for a clutch install (I will be using your tutorial Dope, thanks for putting it together ) so installation shouldn't be a problem with either. I'm still undecided at this point.