stupid question regarding burnouts

[LanceB]

I was on Vettetube.com the other day and I was thinking other than wearing out tires, burnouts can't be good for a corvette. Wouldn't this hurt the differential, brakes, etc?

 

[Yoda]

Lance,

Me thinks about those 6 U-Joints going from resting to max torq. :eek, next is the visual of the trailing arm bouncing around like a clown on a string... not to mention all those gears in the "pumkin" going :eek what the hell just happened :eek.... then the lug nuts being tested for tight-ness.. Oh and my 4-Speed and Clutch sometimes remind me about how much they like too

Then My body tells me it doesn't appreciate another long night under the car again :dance

But ... give'n the right situation, I get stupid and have been know to smoke a tire or two (the tires are on the car , can never be too careful with some of these folks around here )

Bud

 

[Koop]

My Dad bought my car new when he was in his late 30's. I'm here to say he didn't baby my car. He kept it looking nice but burnouts were fair game. With the crappy tires of the day, the old L48 (Automatic) could really light that trash up. Then came the teenage son (me) to take over. To say I've smoked 'em a few times would be an understatement! Now I'm 40 something and with 465lbs of tq, the car just fry's 'em when ever I want and continues to smoke 'em until I let off the gas. If I stand on the pedal she'll light up the tires on a 15-20MPH roll. No more junk tires, I'm burnin' down a nice sticky set of Pilots. My car is on it's 4th motor, 2 trans rebuilds and runs the original rear end, leaf spring and U joints. Recently I had to give up the original rear rotors, the rear pads last about 100,000 miles (I'm on at least my 5th set of pads). So I can't say I've had any issue with the brakes failing from excessive abuse either. The current Transmission won't do 2nd gear burnys like the other trannys did, the tech softend the 1-2 shift DAMMIT.

My vote is the rear end is BULLIT PROOF!

 

[6880 Mike]

...I was thinking other than wearing out tires, burnouts can't be good for a corvette. Wouldn't this hurt the differential, brakes, etc?...

No.

 

[stang-etr96]

Well not bullit proof, but............. A burnout dose't hurt the brakes, if ya foot brake a auto trans, then once the horsepower over comes the holding power then the tires start to spin, ya let off the brake and mash the throttle and watch the smoke pour out. If ya got a transbrake then the brake system is not even in play. I suppose as long as ya don't have a manual trans and max out the revs and dump the clutch and super shock the whole drive system then there really no problems. I have a 91 auto with 171k miles and foot brake burnsouts all the time. Of course I don't use expensive good tires, I have a set just for trashing. If I know the event I will be attending allows burnouts then I swap on the use not so ticky rubber. Let it rip

 

[GTR1999]

Stock vette differentials are far from bullitproof- I've rebuilt enough of them to know. You can make them much better then stock,which I also do, but factory setups varied over the years, some were very good other very bad.
Here is my son's 75 with 8k miles of abuse. It didn't hold up. I made some mods to it but this one had a scored posi case to start. Normal driving would have been ok, however 100' burnouts did a number.

 

[GTR1999]

If you want to see how I build them, I have all my pictures on www.vettemod.com in the rebuilding page.
I just took apart a stock 76 and it was bad. The posi springs were so shot I compressed and removed them with my fingers. 4 RG bolts were loose and ready to back out.
Shock loading the diff while moving is better tough on the posi cases. The 65-68 eatons are prone to cracking and the 71-79 posi clutches are just as bad. Look at the pictures I show them all there.

 

[Koop]

The really scary part about my '69 is that my Dad didn't and does not believe in servicing cars. The first rear diff service didn't come along for my car until sometime in the early '80's, that'd be well after the first L48 died in late 1978 at 210,000 miles. Tar came out. At this point I'm afraid to touch it.

 

[GTR1999]

Well that probably had the orignal gear oil in it. I've seen those too, some look like the insides are black powder coated!
Your car probably has 308 gears in it unless someone replaced them years ago? The auto should be a Th400 which is pretty strong and has the better roller clutch in it. So all in all it took some abuse and the tires broke away as a safety.
The diff in yours,if original, will have the better posi case and clutches and weaker spiders. good to hear it's held up better then some I see.
Good luck with the car, good to see you guys held on to it all these years.
Gary

 

[oceangal]

I am glad you asked this, I had wondered this too as my husband is the king of the burnouts (least round here). I don't care when its his car but when its the vette I do sort of wonder. I did ask him one day isn't it bad for the car and his answer was sort of like Yoda's.

After he breaks in the camshaft in the new motor I am sure he will be smoking those tires all the way up the hill.

 

[Vette79]

At times, it is hard to resist doing a burnout especially with your kids...LOL.

 

[Peer81]

Compared to a perfect stoplight sprint the only thing a burnout will extra hurt are the brakes. A diff will not brake when the tires are burning but at the point the tires are still on the ground and HP is building. A sprint from the stoplight can damage the same parts because your doing almost the same.

Groeten Peter

 

[GTR1999]

the 80-82 diff's are not strong units, some have used them behind 400 hp but many have failed behind the stock engines. The bearings caps are prone to cracking.
I've built some strong iron units for guys with 80-82 that wanted the added strenght and mods that can be done to the them.
Good luck if you start pushing that 80-82.

 

[oceangal]

I sure hope the comment about the x-ram doesn't apply to mine. I'll let you know.

 

[TMPJoe]

boy some odd replys

when you hold the brake and start turning the rear wheels of course the pads are still down on the rotors so just like road racing you put some wear on them.. and of course you burn the tires

and from 1976 (or whenever they stopped making the 454 big block) up the L48 cars have very weak rear ends and axle shafts... the big block cars had much beefier parts...

with enough HP you can easily take out an axle shaft... i know firsthand how to do that!!

as far as breaking rear end gears... those can be damaged in a lot of ways... the late models do not hold a lot of HP .... also 50% of the folks I find that did toast a rear end either never properly checked and changed the lubricant in it and it was low on fluid when they burned it up.... ther other half built the motor but forgot about driveline... huge "noob" factor there...

 

[GTR1999]

boy some odd replys

and from 1976 (or whenever they stopped making the 454 big block) up the L48 cars have very weak rear ends and axle shafts... the big block cars had much beefier parts...

...

Joe there was no internal difference with the BB/SB differentials. The side yokes for BB used the "HD" yokes with caps. The posi cases from 65-79 were Eaton units and there were 2 styles. The first design was in fact weaker then then later 68-79 posi cases. The spiders used on the 65-69's were also weaker 10-18 gears compared the much better 10-17 spiders. The clutches used on the 65-70 were the much better solid vs the later 71-79 snowflakes that broke under load.
The 75-79 side yokes were not correctly case hardened and the cross shaft wore them out fast changing the rear geometry, the RG bolts on the 77-79's were also not as good as the earlier bolts used. I'v efound many with backed out bolts that sheared off and others that were loose that I could remove then without effort.

 

[TMPJoe]

gary

i meant the whole rear end... not the diif... sorry I was typing fast and half asleep....

I don't know your opinion but in mine is that the whole rear suspension on the 1980 L48 is weak.. not that the 1970-1974 big blocks were that much better.. i am just going by the ones I have seen...

i have seen backed out bolts.. i know the drill...

spent a lot of time and effort and money on the driveline..

what a difference under the newer vettes!

 

[ZumZum]

While burnouts can be tough on equipment. They're nothing compared to what hooking up with 100% traction during a 4000 rpm launch can do. :bash

 

[GTR1999]

gary

i meant the whole rear end... not the diif... sorry I was typing fast and half asleep....

I don't know your opinion but in mine is that the whole rear suspension on the 1980 L48 is weak.. not that the 1970-1974 big blocks were that much better.. i am just going by the ones I have seen...

i have seen backed out bolts.. i know the drill...

spent a lot of time and effort and money on the driveline..

what a difference under the newer vettes!

Joe
The 80-82's used different 1/2 shafts, rear cover and totally different diff. The trailing arms were the same except for the inner flanges. The BB cars had shot peened 1/2 shafts and rear sway bars along with the HD side yokes. I agree the 63-79 rear diff/suspension had better parts.

 

[TMPJoe]

Joe
The 80-82's used different 1/2 shafts, rear cover and totally different diff. The trailing arms were the same except for the inner flanges. The BB cars had shot peened 1/2 shafts and rear sway bars along with the HD side yokes. I agree the 63-79 rear diff/suspension had better parts.

thanks for clearing that up gary

we put some time and effort into my rear as i went a bit far with the replacement motor.. (short story is the car was always stored and i let my wife drive it to the mall without checking the oil... oops)

hope i can count on you for tech help from time to time