Leaderboard

Cleaned up the differential this weekend. I took a little bit of 'artistic license' and put clear coat on the aluminum parts. Who looks under the car anyway? I could paint the aluminum black but it looks nice like this, the cast aluminum is beautiful. Before and after pics below.

I just used the Rust-Oleum gloss black for the housing. I wire wheeled the entire housing down to the bare metal and wiped with lacquer thinner to make sure it was clean. It sticks pretty well that way. I used Matte Clear for the aluminum. I used to use gloss clear to protect the metal parts, but it does not look as good. Matte produces a finish that is a bit closer to the bare metal appearance.

And this is my spare used R192 LSD two pinion type. Kats

That exact photo is my desktop wallpaper.

If you need a better source see below

How did you get you intake manifold and fuel lines all polished like that?

Saturday night: This is the Tuxedo CR-3000, $917 from Best Buy Automotive Equipment, not including lift-gate service, shipment tracking, brackets, and tip for the driver who muscled it up my driveway on a hand lift while I was at work. I was nervous it was going to be cheap and maybe even dangerous, but my assessment is that this thing is going to be perfectly fine once I upgrade 8 of the bolts to better hardware. The fact that the T-arms are 2.5" tubes instead of 3" might actually make it more usable because I can get more creative with how I make the rear brackets. Could I have gotten a better one? Sure, but this is good enough to get the job done, which is what matters on this budget. If you do get one for yourself, remember not to over tighten the nut on the end of the screw that adjusts the height of the T-arm. If you do it won't spin when you turn the handle, which will cause the handle to come off because of the way that it attaches.

@Mike - the wheels are Watanabe's. Fronts are 15X7 I believe 1+offset. Rears are 15x7.5 1+ offset. I tried to get as close to ZERO offset as I could. On my original order I requested Semi-Gloss but once I got them 3 months later it was just a little too much gloss for me. I sent them to my local powder-coater and had them done if flat black. The picture above is semi-gloss. Due to the big brake calipers I do have to run a spacer in the front (it's about 1/2" give or take) - they are 205x15's. The rears have no spacers and they are 225/15. Hope that helps - let me know if you need exact detail on the spacers and tires sizes. Be happy to supply if needed. The below pictures are of the re-powder coat flat black - same color as the rear panel and rear shade. Still have my old wheels just in case I want to change the look at any time.

I've been through very similar problems that you describe. I felt foolish for making the situation more complex than it was. The car was fine on flat roads but climbing a big hill and accelerating hard would show the power loss right away. I ASSUMED that it had to be something out of the ordinary. I was wrong. It simply needed a fresh fuel filter.