Sierra diff strength

[Aivar]

Hi all! I'm building MKIII Sumo with Ford 302 EFI engine (~280 bhp, 320 lbf) and T5 tranny. Little worried about the rear end equipped with Sierra diff. How many miles (km) can I expect to drive before collecting cog-wheels and other small diff pieces on the road? Does Sierra diff stand a torque of V8 without breaking shortly. Any experiences or comments on that?
Has anybody mounted any other diffs (except Jag ones) to their Sumos, which ones?

Thanks

Aivar
it is already snowing in Estonia

[robert]

This guy has some good HP in his sierra, read down to the bottom of the page re the T5 etc.

http://www.arsc.edu/~munk/89/

266 crank hp, 333lb/ft torque

Robert
Forum Admin

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[Kevin W]

You shouldnt have any problems so long as you are below 300 bhp. Now that the chassis has extra strengthening you won;t have any problems with rigidity. As for diffs, then I beleive the 2.9 Granada diff or XR4 LSD are the ones to go for - they are bigger and stronger than the standard sierra unit. I have not heard of any examples of diff problems when using the american V8s with these diffs although it has been speculated about on this forum before now.

Kevin

[robert]

Aviar

By the way, welcome to the forum.

Robert
Forum Admin

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[kdavies3]

Hi Aivar,
welcome to the forum, I guess the Sierra Cosworth Diff. with LSD is what you really need but I guess it's a matter of cost and availability.
As Robert says I think others have survived with Standard Diffs, probably due to the fact of breaking traction with such a light car.
Do you have trouble getting parts in Estonia?

Cheers

Kev Davies

PS it's not snowing in Wales but it's raining and raining and raining.

[Aivar]

Thanks guys, this is encouraging
It's hard to get good advice in Estonia on these matters, cause I suppose it's the first kit-Cobra in this country.
I hope to get my engine back assembled by the end of this week and make the first trials on road to see what happens. I really need my soft top installed by this time as it s all covered with white s***.

Cheers

Aivar

[Aivar]

>Ken wrote:
>Do you have trouble getting parts in Estonia?
>

no trouble with normal car parts, but you can find almost no special parts for kit or classic cars. I've spent many many long hours in internet hunting and ordering parts for my sumo.

[domenico]

I have met a guy in a red sumo, he was from
Lituania.

Ciao
Domenico

>>Ken wrote:
>>Do you have trouble getting parts in Estonia?
>>
>
>no trouble with normal car parts, but you can find almost no
>special parts for kit or classic cars. I've spent many many
>long hours in internet hunting and ordering parts for my sumo.
>
>