[MarkZ]

Thinking of putting my 8.2 back in with 3:55 gear.. How much HP will it take!!

[tom s]

Its more a question what tire you are going to run.I run over 500 HP with them all the time but I dont have big sticky tires.Tom

[FrankieT/A]

It's not a question of horsepower but more of question of traction.

[68azbird]

1000+ passes with slicks on a low 13 second car.

[Garry Sr]

I'm guessing we're about to find out.... I've pushed 850 on Street ETs and twisted a spline or two. Would I do it again? Yep.

[steve25]

The main thing is to have strong axles in it, if the rear blows it blows, but if a axle snaps at its end when the car is moving at more than 30 mph in the least you can kiss the 1/4 panel good by, and at worst you go off the road or head into another car!

[Tom Vaught]

I broke 5 of the things. Good tires (car was able to run 11.55 at 117)

I can easily believe not hurting a 8.2" rear with normal street tires. (not 275" Drag Radials, LOL!). Same deal for a 1000 passes with a 13 second car.

How quick do you want to go?
Aluminum Flywheels will take some of the load off the driveline on Higher Rpm launches with a stick. My deal was with a Manual Trans. No real knowledge with a converter car on the street with a built pontiac.

Tom V.

[MarkZ]

Well putting it in my 68 Firebird for Drag Week, so I will be running drag radials with an automatic. Was just thinking about using the original rear-end with the 355 gears. 12 bolt I have has 4:88 Doesn't play well on the street!!

[68azbird]

good aftermarket axels and a girdle would help.

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by MarkZ

Thinking of putting my 8.2 back in with 3:55 gear.. How much HP will it take!!

Matter of torque loading. The main weakness in 8.2 Pontiac rears is the lack of pinion support. Throw a lot of torque at them with sticky tires, low gear ratios, & the pinion tries to rise, & result things often go boom. Pontiac engineers specified a nodular housing in its performance applications to minimize pinion deflection, they also spec'ed HD forged axles in 3.90 & 4.33 geared HD Safe-T-Track rears. That helped, but there is a limit. At the level of performance & level of hp/torque in your signature vehicle, that is well above where a well built nodular 8.2 Pontiac rear would live at the strip. Different deal, if one was just swapping the rear in, with the purpose of taking it easy on the street.

[Paul Westcott]

My Tempest has a BOP 10-bolt 8.2 rear and it has held up very well, so far... Fortunately, it is a Nodular "GS" type that is supposedly stronger to begin with. Breaking it while running my regular street tires would quite likely never happen as the tires simply go up in smoke. I was much more concerned about launching it on the track with drag radials, so I added the following goodies to help it survive:

3.55 Richmond gears
Auburn Pro posi
TA Performance Rear End Girdle
Moser custom alloy axles

There's a limit to how much abuse an 8.2 will take but I think I'm well within that limit.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Twists at the axle splines (driver-side more likely) seems to occur after less than 30 runs in a 3850 heavy 68 GTO with 455 , hard-shift Th400 running 13.0.

I can see how an earlyBird ca go 1000 runs.

[Skip Fix]

When I raced the stock type classes in NMCA when it first started John McWhirter(one of the original Comp Cams owners) was in my class with his 67 tripower 442. It had been a race car since day 1. It ran high 11s. If you drew him in class you knew he would either beat you(most of use were low 12 cars) or he would break the rear. He finally started re heat treating the gears and broke less. Slicks and high 11 50;50 chance it will break.