I have a 2001 3.8L V6 Camaro, my buddies and I somehow blew the diff, and I want to put a new one on it, do I have to put another from a V6 on, or are there any others that would work?

 

any rearend from a 93 to 02 will fit, to fit correctly you will need to find out if you have traction control. if you do you will want a traction control rearend, they have two sensors, one on each wheel, non traction control has one sensor at the top of the center of the rearend. all v8 rearends are posi, far as i know all v6 rearends are open so only one wheel spins most times.

 

With the exception of the Y87 optioned V6. But they are few and far.

Find a rear from a V8 car and grab the single piece drive shaft while you're at it too.

I am curious how you broke the diff with a V6?

 

if you roast one wheel long enough it will fry the spider gears.

 

FYI the swap is easy if you buy the whole rear end. If you want to just change the "Differential" it will require the rear to be setup. The process for setting up a rear is not super complicated but it is very unforgiving. I have seen many botched jobs, in fact I would say most guys that try it with no support end up doing it a second time or paying someone to fix it. Most mechanic learn to setup rears from other mechanics. It is tuff to learn from a book.

If you want posi you should look for 1998-2002 Ls1 car. The earlier years had a smaller brake system. if you find a great deal you can swap your brakes over. If you can find one out of a manual car it will have the 3.42 gear. That will wake up your 3800 a little.

Most mechanic charge between $300-$700 to set up a rear but most will not take the job unless its all new parts. Some will setup used gears but they are going to want new bearings. In the end swapping the whole rear will cost less and it will be a afternoon project. Just try to find a low miles rear.

Just put in the car you want the parts from and your zip
http://car-part.com/

 

"Blew the diff", what does that mean? If it is just the carrier that failed, you may be able to just swap that, no need for another rear end.

Don't be afraid to open it up or have a shop check it out... I had my RS' open carrier upgraded to LSD inexpensively by a mechanic I know and it was complete in a couple hours. Bought the carrier on eBay, needed to swap over the relict or ring since my RS has ASR (traction control).

 

Curious as to why you would open up a 3 month old thread?

Upgrading an undamaged rear is not same thing as fixing a blown rear. When you have to fix a rear that has come apart you need to replace all the bearings because they have been exposed to metal fragment. The rear needs to be rebuilt. In many cases when the differential breaks (the case) the only thing salvageable in the rear is the axels and bearing caps. Even if the damage is light there is no really way to spin a bearing and tell if it damaged. The process to really test a bearing would cost more than the bearing. Also in most cases the face of ring and pinion take at least some damage. These damaged areas cause stress risers and will flake over time and damage the new bearings. Like I said the process is not complicated but even if you find a guy willing to do it on the cheap it would be twice to three times what a whole low miles rear would cost.

 

Just saw it and chimed in -- "blew the diff" could mean many things, like fluid was low and bearings wore out or who knows. My point was simply to investigate the problem, instead of a knee-jerk swap the whole rear-end. When something fails, I always like to have a root cause analysis -- because I am curious like that, and like to find ways to solve problems in the future.

 

Root cause can be very difficult with any gear box or rear end once someone blows it. Assuming there is not a catastrophic failure like putting the car in reverse with the car going forward. Most of the time a small issue causes the failure, if the small metal fragment does not make it to the magnet the small failure causes a major one. The trick with gear boxes and rears is to investigate as soon as you hear something. They can run a long time once something “starts” to go bad. Seems like everyone has a story of a friend’s car that “made noise” for 100,000 miles. It is important to understand the noise. Some noises are just annoying and some are saying you got about 100 miles before I lock up.