4.10 gears

[bkevind]

Originally Posted by alice

I know what you mean. I have built muscle cars all my life, I'm 71 yrs old and old school and I know what muscle is. From my experience, as a general rule, you can apply the same things I applied to my V6, to your V8 and still get great and satisfying results. All of my past builds, no matter V6 or V8, would include higher stall converters, higher ratio gear sets as first implemented modifications for my customers. That sets a baseline for anything else one may want to do. The quickest and cheapest ways to seat of the pants improvements. Most other mods are more incremental when compared to these two. So, I might suggest you consider this thinking. Again, everyone has an opinion but this is mine. I have owned some very, very fast street cars in my life. Of course, don't rule out FI of any kind. It's a killer mod but expensive. Hope this helps you in your decision making. Have fun!!!

Can't argue with real experience! I'm getting there at 43

For road course, power is the last thing. Mechanical grip is where it's at, and adding lightness is next. Lap times drop the most with those two. Of course you need other things to be up to the job - such as brakes. Good brakes, kept cool as possible (ducting) for reliable braking under extreme conditions. I don't want another 2 lap special like my last half ass build. haha.

[alice]

Road course is a whole lot different for sure. I really am ignorant when it comes to that because I have always been a 1/4 mile drag guy but I'm sure you have as much fun as I do. Good for you.

As far as getting the bushing out of the diff and cradle, I did mine very early on after purchasing my car new and everything was not hard to remove but if much age is on the machine, it can be next to impossible to salvage the stock pieces. Whiteline makes the only diff bushings that I would ever recommend. They have holes in them to help with noise.

[Chris49066SS]

Originally Posted by zz430camaro

How did you replace the factory bushings in the diff and craddle? You did not destroy them getting them out?

www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=540578

Heres my DIY for the cradle bushings. It comes with step by step instructions, equipment required, pictures, and a video. Its pretty easy, have a look!

Oh wait, zz, you've done yours haven't you? Thought we talked about this before lol

[acammer]

Originally Posted by alice

I never had any wheel hop with the stock bushings. Of course, I have an automatic and that make a big difference. Power is always applied smoother. The decision you need to make is between noise or no noise. Everything has a tradeoff but for me, I HATE GEAR NOISE! The little performance loss is worth the tremendous reduction in noise. But that is just my opinion. Gears, for sure, will be one of the biggest improvements you can make!!

I don't know that I would say solid cradle bushings are a must for an auto car - but for a stick car I would go that far, especially the earlier 2010-2012 cars that have the softer ones. Just transforms the driveline in a very positive way. Noise is an unfortunate byproduct for sure.