Hot Rods 9 inch pumpkin question

I am sure somebody here knows the answer to this question about my 9 Inch Ford.

I am currently in process of upgrading the 3.25 to a 4.10 in my 23 T's 9 inch Ford housing. It currently has 10 inch slicks and a pretty agressive dual quad 355 with all kinds of things done to it. My Current Ford 9 inch case is the standard issue low rib count iron pumpkin.. nothing special. Should I spend the money to buy a NODULAR center section for it, or will a normal Ford Iron housing be sufficient ? Somebody has already put a Daytona Pinion and 31 Spline axles in the housing but left the low-po pumpkin in it ? Thoughts ?

 

How much does it weigh? How hard do you hammer on it?

 

Sounds like you are planning on breaking it?

 

In a T bucket? You should be fine. I ran a stock one in my 55 with a blown 454....no problems. But the guys who run a 4 speed or a trans brake, and slicks, in sort of heavy cars, can break them.

 

I don't think breaking it is going to be a problem, but with that gearing keeping the front wheels down might be. Rather than disassemble what is a desirable center section, I would see if you can find a pumpkin or even a whole rear end with a 2:75/3:00 ratio to convert. That way you still have it if you ever want to change back, and as I mentioned......it's still worth a fair amount. With the rear end change you are gonna need some form of a posi also.

 

The 9 inch is a pretty stout piece and fairly hard to break. What you have will stand up to a lot of abuse. I'd change the gears and run it.

 

Around here I'd just go find a 4.11 locker out of a Ford F150 as the whole rear end runs under 200 most of the time in this area.

 

Go to scrap yards near you , look for F150 extended cab pickups . You will be surprised what you find in the center section of the rear end . A nice big N cast into it . Once I found one of these , everyone I noticed had the N case in them .

 

I had 355 similar to yours in a T Bucket few years back,,,drove it pretty aggressive with a 8 Inch in it ,never broke it,,it is a light car ,your 9 is fine

 

Considering most of the T bucket suspensions I see, the case would be the last thing on the rearend I'd think would break. Spindly little hairpins mounted to the outside of the frame will twist and crack first.

 

With that small of a tire you should be fine. The weak link is the pinion support but it should be fine with those tires. As has been suggested look for another rear to assemble or get already together with 3:50 or a 3:23 gear set. They are out there and are usually less than $200. You will have more than that in the new gears and a set up kit and you can change easily whenever you want.

 

In a T bucket !! You will be ok , other thing's will break befor the Rear.
1,500- 2,000 pounds. A3:25 gear pois / spool . Should be 100MPH plus in 1/8. Look into tuning the rear Suspension,Planting the rear tires to Hook. It will Be a ""HELL"" of a ride!!
You should be carrying the front end in the air for 10-15 feet from stage . With a 300 plus hp power plant . If not try bigger converter/ dumping clutch a little Higher . Make sure your motor is Turned !!

 

It hooks and goes right now, but I have to drive through the cam to get power. Along with this 4.10 I am thinking of getting a 3500 9 inch converter. The front does pop up on launch and shifts, don't know if actually pulls the tires off the ground at all honestly, but it will "push" through the turns due to planting in the back. With the 3.25 I am out of my power band and it gets to winding hard at much higher speed than I want it to. Far as other suspension parts its all pretty heavy duty stuff and not worried about breaking that, its basically got a triangulated ladder bars on it with full coil overs in the back which all tie into the pumpkin as well as Wilwood discs on the front. Far as comparison, the Ls1 Camaro I had previously did 93 in the 8th and 120 in the quarter and my Bucket is not as fast as that car, probably do to an overly tight converter. And yes I drive it to it's full potential.

 

Standard case pumpkin will be fine in that application. As suggested previously, I would scour the junkyards for another case to build with quality parts and save your 3.25. I assume you are using the larger u-joints?

 

You didn't say that you were running a stick or an automatic. Transbrake or foot brake ?
I broke a std 9 inch case before with a powerglide with a brake leaving at 4800 with a 350 with a tunnel ram and dual quads on a prepped track..
The pinion hooked to the driveshaft shot straight out of the top of the housing destroying a lot of bead rolled aluminum floors and that was with 2 driveshaft loops and a Daytona style pinion support.
I am now running a Strange S series case in my SEGA super stock car and am leaving the line at 6500 rpm's and a 6.00 gear with no signs of breaking anything .
I don't run run a stock non nodular case in anything with sticky tires. Cheaper to build it right the first time than doing it over again and fixing the other damage it can cause.

 

I had a 4.10 8" in my T with a blown 350 in it and 16" wide Firestones. You will never get a light car like that to hook up enough to break a 9".

 

You guys that say you can't get a light car to hook up have never seen or know how to make one hook.
Give me about 2 days with that T bucket and you will need wheelie bars to keep it from standing on end.
Do you know what changing the instant center will do to a short wheelbase car.

 

T-buckets can be hard to control if you "get on it" as they are so light.
Keep what you have and drive it sanely. No need for all the "cool sounding" upgrades.

 

It sounds like you know whats up. Do you think with an aluminum headed 290 Bullet cammed small block tuned up well I could be close to 11s if I do 4.10s and a pretty loose converter ? I think my 3.25s with 30 inch tire is out the power band of the engine. Turbo 350 and I think it gets to the top end of second at 90ish mph, which is, of course an indication of overly tall gearing. Car has an extended wheelbase (118 I think) and pretty sophisticated rear suspension as far a Tbuckets go. Ladder bars with a triangulated link and coilovers all put together professionally, of course.

 

We don't run a Nodular Iron case in our 10 second street T. It has held up fine for a while.

 

20 years , 50 k Miles , Muncie 4-speed , still waiting for those spindly little hairpins with frt mounts welded outside the frame rails to twist &crack ....

 

How much work does it take to get a 10 Second T bucket ? Big Block ? Blower ? normal mouse engine ?

 

About 2000 lbs of car needs about 500 h.p. to run in the 10's in the quarter mile

 

So if I have about 400hp, and I am in thin air at 5800 ft, thats about 2 seconds slower than yours !

 

Or build your engine to make 500 HP. @ 5800 feet

 

Given the right situation , some folks can break an anvil

 

My experience with high altitude racing comes from living in Colorado and racing at Bandimere.
My big block Camaro ran about 8 tenths slower in Colorado than it did at lower levels.
I would have to run more advance and less fuel at the higher altitudes. When I raced my Bike at Pikes Peak I ran a dual plug head in my 2 stroke and 2 ignition boxes 1 for down at the bottom and 1 for the last 4 miles.
My 69 Camaro that weighed 3560 with me in it ran 10.60's at Bristol ,Tn. At Bandimere it ran 11.40's .You should be able to run 11's with your car with a 4.11 gear and a good sticky 30 inch tall tire.
Work on your 60ft. times and not your total e.t. That light a car will roll on the big end. I hope you have some sort of roll bar and a good seat in that T bucket with real racing belts.
With 118 inch wheelbase it should drive like a Caddy at speed. Put a small nitrous plate on it. A 125 shot won't hurt your motor and will get you in the 11's and maybe more.

 

btw this is one way to break the 9 center section. Put it behind a nitrous big block and a trans brake, in a really heavy truck with big ass slicks. I took this pic about a year ago.

 

About the last thing yer gonna break on a bucket is the rear end. There's a lot of frail-ass components under a lot of those things. Mind you, I don't hate em', but that doesn't change the fact that the essential design dictates that a whole bunch of them are under built frame-wise and suspension -wise. These things are all contingent on powerplant and tires of course, less of each are going to reduce the risk of various failures. That being said my guess is that after the dust clears, and you come to a stop, hopefully still sitting in the thing, you'll look back and see the rear end sitting there with all the suspension points still firmly attached to it...... Just messing with ya,.... thoughts to consider.

 

Ouch!