I have access to a mid 90's explorer. I was think about swapping the 8.8 into my 00 silverado. Is it a upgrade over the 10 bolt? I know that there is tons of aftermarket support for the 8.8. Has anyone done it?

 

I have narrowed two for full size trucks wanting to run deep lipped wheels for body drops. Make sure it has at least 30 spline axles though.

RT

 

Do you by chance know if they are wider or narrower than the 10 bolt? Any idea on how it'll compare strength wise?

 

If I remember correctly they were an inch or two shorter, they are a lot stronger than the 8.6 ten bolts for sure.

RT

 

Not much in stock form but they have more parts available for them.

Like you can go to a standard 9 inch style axle bearing Vs. C-clips or the leaky Clip eliminators...

Also you can upgrade to stronger 35 spline axles. They also have a brace kit for them as well.

 

The explorer 8.8 will have 31 spline axles and will be narrrower than your 10 bolt.

However, in my opinion, for the amount of work it would take to adapt the rear end I don't think the swap is worth it. I sheared the center pin of the Ford 8.8 Traction-lok with a 5.0 mustang making far less power and weighing much less than my cammed 6.0 RCSB. The 10 bolt gets a bad rep, but I honestly don't think our 8.6 rears are as bad as people make them out to be. The "10 bolts" got a bad rep from the weak little 7.5 unit they put in the Fbodys.

 

The 28 spline rears have a smaller diff pin similar to the factory 10 bolts. The 31 spline rears ie explorers have a 7/8 inch pin. Your my hero if you can break one of those. I have done many 8.8's. If you don't believe me i can take a picture of them tomorrow. Btw the Explorer rear is way shorter and you would hate the diff offset.

An 8.5/8.6 10 bolt can hold much more power than most people give them credit for. They don't hold up in manual transmission cars with power period. A good clutch style posi, and an automatic help.

 

I'm just trying to see if it's worth the effort to swap. The axle itself will not cost me anything. The 8.8 would allow me to fit a 15 inch wheel, have disk brakes, and possibly gain some strength. I've used the same axle to swap into Jeeps in the past and I loved the aftermarket support that's available.

 

Plenty of trucks making gobs of HP on the 8.5/8.6. The G80 specifically gets a bad rep because of the 'grenade 80' nomenclature.

If it's s healthy rear end, jump in the throttle all you want. Just don't do it while turning. You'll find yourself wondering how half your ring teeth disappeared.

 

I forgot about the fact that the 31 spline units have the larger pin. I remember that now that you mentioned it, I did rebuild one of those 31 spline units once and it did have the larger pin.

Also forgot that the explorer used two different length axles and an offset diff, that's a good note to mention as the factory driveline in the Silverado isn't going to line up unless the differential housing is mounted off center, which would be Mickey Mouse as hell.