I did this a few months a go but pulled the diff out this weekend since I now have the parts. I think I did a pretty good job on the case. Split top and botton and even manage to split the aluminum housing. See pics below. The pic of the gears didn't show very well but the pinion has 1 tooth mostly gone the ring gear has 3 mostly gone. I run a Comtech SC. I always felt like the standard clutch was slipping a lot so I installed an ACT performance clutch and flywheel and voila, there goes the diff. Well, I guess I'm finally getting some of that HP to the rear end. I'm installing the 4.57 along with the Cusco 1.5 LSD and the reinforced housing in a few weeks.

Comment on removing the diff. I didn't mess with any ball joints, I just unbolted everthing and all comes out. If you remove the two long bolts attached to the back of the diff housing that go through the rubber supports, you can drop it straight down without having to move it forward. I did this because I had a rough time getting those 6 small bolts off the driveshaft that require a 6mm allen 3/8 socket. I finally just dropped everything straight down and had to cut 4 of the 6 off. Otherwise fairly uneventful removal

 

damnn you must be making loads of power with the sc

 

How many miles on the car with the SC? Did you do many clutch drops?

 

Sorry to hear you blew your diff, but atleast you blew it beautifully...that's one hell of a crack...

 

I thought i blew my diff the other night but it turned out to be an axle, sry about the bad luck man

 

Damn that sucks!

 

I had about 5K with the S/C. Clutch drops? Not too many but apparantly, 1 too many.

 

your putting the same setup in your rear-end that I'm planning on doing. I got the 4.57's at the house but I refuse to put them in with stock diff and housing. Keep us updated on how it goes with the cusco. I blew a stock diff with upgraded clutch and on a stock motor so I can only imagine the SC. I didn't crack my case or anything nice like you though.

 

holy sh*t. I thought I blew my rear pretty good. I actually cracked the aluminum housing, I had a hole about the size of a half a dollar coin, and blue a few teeth on the pinion, but this one is a good one.

 

I haven't ever seen a housing crack like that before. I don't think that any of the "reinforced" housings would prevent that. I would take that housing to a lab to see if it was a defect.