I got the rearend today. It is great looking inside and seems very tight. The guy left the backing plates on it cause he couldn't break the bolts loose and was afraid of breaking them. So all I need is a set of axles. My car will be used at the strip but will only have about 350-400 hp. I will also use slicks so I figured I better buy the larger rearend. One other guy told me that he has had his 8.5 for a long time and never broke it and he has around 700 hp. Anyone selling 28 spline axles for a 87 Grand National 8.5?

 

summit has the moser axles for it and they are fairly affordable i bought a set about a year and a half ago. you might want to think about running c clip eliminators if your going to run a full blown slick on the car, and you might need a driveshaft safety loop if you want to run it on a full slick at your track. the 8.5 can take a ton of power and not break and if you ever do get to a higher hp set up with slicks you could always swap in a 30 spline carrier and axles and at that point its almost as good as a 12 bolt. if you dont mind me asking what tranny and converter stall speed are you running?

 

I am running a turbo 350 trans and am not sure what converter to go with yet. For the HP I was thinking around a 2800. Got any suggestions?

 

ive always gone by that your converter should stall where the car really starts making torque. you want to come out of the hole hard. im running 2500 in mine, but even in cars that do make torque up high i still wouldnt want to run a bunch of stall speed. my buddies 74 firebird has a similar cam combo to mine and he was running 3000 maybe more and the car launched well but it compromised drivabilty. you had to really be in the gas to get the car moving at stop lights and what not. just read your building a strip car. since thats the case i would look at your cam specs and see where torque is going to peak and get a converter that puts you at peak or just under it. and 400hp in that car isnt bad it should go high 12s low 13s depending on what kinda torque it makes and if it hooks up.