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Ford 8.8 IRS Conversion


SUNNY Z

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Love following your progress Sunny. I don't  think I will ever need this level of rear end, but it's good to know that someone is paving the way and documenting it well. Want you to know after bolting up my 9" th350 with your driveshaft everything runs like a champ. No vibrations and driveshaft fit perfect.

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Love following your progress Sunny. I don't  think I will ever need this level of rear end, but it's good to know that someone is paving the way and documenting it well. Want you to know after bolting up my 9" th350 with your driveshaft everything runs like a champ. No vibrations and driveshaft fit perfect.

 

Good to hear! I Have a steel one for sale thats the right length for an lsx conversion! lol

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Just make sure you have clearance between the universal and the heads of the bolts securing the front mount to the transmission tunnel. I have a jurid coupling and it's very close as the pinion shaft is 25mm off-centre.

 

(edit) Ignore the mounts, they were a first design attempt and long since discarded. The photo is to highlight the tight clearance.

post-1266-0-76420900-1355482400_thumb.jpg

Edited by Boy from Oz
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I also wanted to state that I'm almost in the black as far as selling things off the IRS goes.

 

I've sold both axles, one knuckle, the rotors, and a tie rod, and I'm only $150 in the hole.  Even if I don't sell anything else, $150 for a cobra pumpkin is pretty damn good!

 

Hopefully once the rest of my R200/ 280z stuff sells, I'll be ordering the backing plates, strut tubes, axles, and driveshaft.  If I play my cards right, I'll only be into this whole conversion for about $3-400. Granted, I had a lot of money in other stuff in the rear to begin with, so I wouldn't count on anyone being able to replicate this exact setup for the same price. I'll post a spreadsheet when I get it all squared away to tell the true cost. However, if you do your shopping, it could easily be just as "cheap" as an R230 swap and billet things, with a better outcome, IMO.

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Almost done with the rear mount / brace.

 

I started by squaring everything up, and cutting a piece of angle iron to tie the tops together. Welded those, then I again checked everything to make sure it hadnt crept, and welded on the a arm mounts.

 

2012-12-15_09-23-30_957.jpg

 

2012-12-15_10-20-36_651.jpg

 

Next I cut the bottom brace apart. I then mounted it on the cover again to check clearances, and built some gussets for the inside of the uprights. Welded those in. After that, I found some tubing and cut it to length, squared, and burned all that in.

 

Finally i took some angle iron and braced the outsides of the uprights. This is where the pictures show the progress, as I kinda did all that at once.

 

2012-12-17_13-27-46_753.jpg

 

2012-12-17_13-26-10_214.jpg

 

2012-12-17_13-26-46_461.jpg

 

There is still some more that I need to do, but its coming along.

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make me a set too :)

 

I do have a spare set of uprights, and time to build it.  Money talks

 

FWIW, I have about 4-5 hours of time in this one, could probably do the next in a little more than half that, now that the "engineering" is done.  This baby is solid though, definitely not worried about any flex.

 

I dressed it up a bit more, though I didn't get any pictures yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got out to the garage for a bit today, finally. 

 

I managed to finish up the front mount (other than welding it, and trimming down some of the fat)

 

2013-01-05_16-18-40_743.jpg

 

2013-01-05_16-19-28_239.jpg

 

2013-01-05_16-20-28_267.jpg

 

Like I said, all i need to do is weld it up, and we should be good to go. Still playing with the pinion angle a little bit, not that it matters as much as with a live axle, but I HATE vibrations, so I'll be sure to keep it as close to 0 as possible.

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2013-01-05_16-19-28_239.jpg

 

The one thing you'll want to add if you haven't already taken it into account is a pinion snubber.  The ears will not hold the front of the diff from lifting and will eventually break on a V8 car.  Just a piece of square across the top with a basic rubber block should be good enough. 

 

Cary

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