4th gen F-body 7.625" 10-bolt... Will it survive?

[Poxic]

Are there any ways to make a 10 bolt from a 4th gen F-body survive 500rwtq?

I picked up a used one dirt cheap which is already equiped with an Eaton posi, and Richmond 3.73 gears. It was the right length, had the right brakes, and had perches and torque arm mounts in all the right places. It's lighter and quite a bit cheaper than drag-racing based 12-bolts and 9" rears. The problem is - the application is a cafe-racer style Nova powered by a 460 BBC with 480whp and 510lbft.

The car will see some street launches on 295/40/18 Nitto NT05s, but chiefly it will be up against quite a few auto-crosses and a couple track days this year.

Will it survive? Protips? Anything I can do to beef this thing up a little (and cheaply) before the racing season?

[TraviZ28]

I did not see what transmission you are running, I am assuming its a manual transmission. This is a touchy subject and all I can tell you from what I have gathered over the years and personal experience is this; Go easy on the dead stop launches. The sudden shock is what breaks these differentials. I run a bone stock ten bolt in my 89 camaro behind the f1 procharged 383, making north of 600hp and ran 11.2 in the 1/4 with 1.7 60' on a th400. I am still holding up surprisingly. Manual transmissions do carry much more sudden shock however but as long as you are moving it should be ok for quite a while. Keep a spare on hand or at least AAA towing because you just never know. The best thing you could do to help it survive is a girdle cover which helps preload the main caps underneath from flexing. Outside of that there is not much else you can do. The ring and pinion are just so small the teeth are thin and brittle to sudden shock.

[GeoffP]

As said above, sudden shock kills 10 bolts. The pinion angle deflection against the ring gear is what actually trashes the gear. Over the years people have tried different things with limited success such as solid "crush" sleeves, aluminum covers that preload the main caps, and I even know of a guy who tried external girdling to prevent pinion deflection but his still eventually failed. Having said all that, I personally have never killed a 3rd/4th gen F-body 10 bolt and have owned several in cars that had varying HP/torque from a TPI 305 to a cammed LT1 equipped 3rd gen. I think it's all in how the car is used and driven. You just don't want it to hook hard or it's likely to go "crunch" and leave you stranded somewhere.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

I have killed two of them...one of them in a stock, automatic equipped '94 Z, the other in a six speed '95 Z. Honestly, I would have broken more if they hadn't been replaced with a 9" in two of my cars.

Just curious...are you building a torque arm suspension, and using the 3rd/4th gen mounting points? What year Nova? I would think it will live ok in an autocross car with an automatic, but its definitely the weak link. Its easy enough to put the F-body brakes on another axle, at least.