[DapperDan]

I saw a video of chevrolet performance at SEMA 2016 with their gen6 drag race development parts and they showed a diff from a 5th gen called the grave digger that from my understanding they were running in the 6 gen.They had that grave digger diff and a 6 gen diff on the display board side by side and to me the 5 gen looked way bigger. Does anyone know if a 5th gen diff will bolt right in a 6 gen or are they doing something custom? I would think if that 5th diff would bolt in it would give us all kind of gear choices. Does anyone know anything or have any experience about this?

[62nalide]

If so you have 3.27s, 3.45s,3.91s and 4.10s

[KonigWolf]

Did anyone find out if the 5th gen diff would fit into our gen6 cars?

[Turbo_RORO]

I can get measurements off of a 5th gen diff. Can someone get some for a 6th gen? at least we can find out if it will fit. Then we have to worry about angles and what not

[KonigWolf]

I also have access to a 5th gen diff for measurements. Have my old 3.27 laying in the garage I was just thinking about selling. I don't have a lift to get accurate measurements on my gen6 with the suitcase muffler in the way.
I know if we can get it to fit in the gen6, it would solve the unfortunate lack of gearing issue.

[Turbo_RORO]

Ill crawl under my girl tomorrow and she what we got going on out back tomorrow. Will report back.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by Turbo_RORO

Ill crawl under my girl tomorrow and she what we got going on out back tomorrow. Will report back.

If you get a chance, check the diff measurements on your car too.

[Snowblind]

https://youtu.be/MvJyIkn2-sA

You can skip to minute 1:50 where Mark Dickens of GM Performance says that they put the 5th gen diff in the new SS. Visually looking at it, the half shaft flanges appear to be different, also the rear bolt that supports the unit seems longer in the gravedigger unit.

It's clearly possible after watching the video, expensive I'm sure too.

[Mark114]

Here are the details listed in the Chevrolet press release:

http://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/...1031-copo.html

"To support the greater horsepower and channel it to the ground durably, the engineers borrowed some heavy-duty, proven parts from the Gen 6 Camaro ZL1 including the half-shafts and prop shaft and the beefier Gen 5 ZL1 and Chevrolet Performance driveline upgrade with a 250mm, 3.73-geared rear-axle center section. They nicknamed it “Gravedigger,” because they haven’t been able to break it. The parts might be included in a range of Gen Six Camaro drag-racing parts Chevrolet is evaluating."

[DapperDan]

https://bangshift.com/general-news/b...r-drag-racers/

[DapperDan]

chevrolet-perf_24
Meet “Gravedigger”. This center section is the unit from a fifth-generation ZL-1 modified to fit in the sixth-generation IRS unit. How stout is “Gravedigger”? They haven’t killed one of these units yet. They’ve snapped driveshafts, axleshafts, and all sorts of issues, but not this monster. No joke, it looks like the pumpkin from a 3/4 ton truck out of the car. The prop shaft is a 6th generation ZL-1 unit.

[Turbo_RORO]

Originally Posted by travislambert

If you get a chance, check the diff measurements on your car too.

oh yeah, car stuff. Almost forgot.

[KonigWolf]

By the looks of that gen5 ZL1 diff, they changed the rear diff cover to match the gen6 subframe bolt in spot.


Looks like we would also need the axel stub-in to get our axels to work with the gen5 diff.




For anyone unfamiliar with the gen5 diffs, here is agen5 SS on the left compared to a gen5 ZL1.


I have a gen5 SS 3.27 diff sitting in my garage I would love to stab into my car. It seems in the realm of reality to make the swap possible, and for a decent price. A custom rear diff cover should run about 150-ish without a built-in cooler, and about 230ish with one. I'm not sure what the axle stubs would cost. 50ea? So about 350-400 to swap in a 5gen SS diff that comes with 3.27 - 3.45 - 3.91 in them factory? Or if you don't like those ratios, there are plenty of gear sets available
I'm sure a kit to use the ZL1 would be closer to 500, but that diff is huge and bulletproof. They come in 3.23 and 3.73, an as far as I know, have NO gear sets for that 9.9 rear end.

[oldman]

Just thinking about this, GM already the eDiff center carrier that is listed at 9.9" that bolts into the 6th gen. I going to assume that it has the exact center unit (the one the ring bolts to) aka "diff" size spec as the gen 5 ZL1, basically I'm saying it should be possible to get a junk yard eDiff off a 6th gen and swap in the gen 5 mechanical LSD unit (since none of know how the 6th gens actual eDiff works via computer control).

Note I'm talking about the actual posi unit = differential.

I sure hope GM just sells the gen 6, 9.9" carrier with torsen diff.. would fix a lot of issues.

My issue at looking at the 5th gen carrier, it is aluminum, while the 6th gen's carrier is multiple parts, the center snail is cast iron. IMO GM did this for strength. The steeper the gear the weaker the gear set due to less contact area as the pinion gets smaller. I think any upgrade really need to either keep the new 6th gen carrier case or all a bolt in upgrade to the 9.9" with mechanical diff.