High lock diffs

[z31maniac]

Oh re-he-heealllly?

What ratios are available?

[Wh33lhop]

FredK, when you say "helical" does that mean it's like the "Torsen" diffs found in Miatae?

Yes.

[z31maniac]

FredK, when you say "helical" does that mean it's like the "Torsen" diffs found in Miatae?

[Jean]

What ratios and lock rates were available on Z3 diffs?

This is still something I need to do....

[FredK]

Metrix Motorsport is now Precision Gearing. You can get a 40% diff for $850 or so.

Yoshi and Mitch wrote about diff modding a little bit on e30tech. After you filter through some of the noise, there's some useful information there.

The BMW helical diff as found in 98+ Z3s is made by Zexel in Belgium, and is a nice way to get a silent, low mileage, rust-free diff in a few different ratios that are interesting to E30s.

[nrubenstein]

Viscous diffs are not durable. Please leave them to the iX people. You'll burn up the VC faster than you'd believe possible with that kind of abuse.

The cheapest upgrade is an MZ3 diff. Of course, you have to be geared for it. Personally, I recommend sucking it up and going to diffsoline. The diff they built me is the best thing about the race car.

[Blackangusinc]

Has anyone done this? Pictures?

[Kershaw]

that would be interesting. getting the rear diff out of an ix.

they are 3.91 and are variable lock up depending on traction. 10-100%.

im pretty sure it'll bolt into a normal e30 no problem. the rear of the ix is the same as any other e30.

[lennon]

anyone using a bmw viscous diff? how are those?

[Blackangusinc]

Anything else out there? diffsonline is pretty expensive from the quick look

+

[Jean]

Anything else out there? diffsonline is pretty expensive from the quick look

[Mike The Bavarian]

diffsonline. My buddy works for them. probably one of the biggest diff companys in the bmw world.

[Holland]

I hear with 4 clutches you can achieve 40% lockup. My friend had that in his obd1 S52 car and had no problem with traction. He was running bottle caps on 60 series winter tires with very worn tread.

[Jean]

Who makes these OTHER THAN OBX and Quaife, any other choices?

The 25% lock diff is not working out that great for me on race tires.