8.8 girdle

My Ground Pounder fit fine and didn't require any machining anywhere, and I've had the car lowered everywhere from 3/4" to 2" and have more suspension components floating around under there than Ford ever intended. the Ford 8.8 has a lot of potential, it can be made to be a fantastic rear but in stock condition it's really quite pathetic. A girdle is VERY necessary if you launch hard at all, ever. Some people have gotten years of pounding out of them in stock form without problems, but like the stock T5, most people will tell you you're on borrowed time if you try it for long.

Fill Plugs?

Look at the location of the fill plug on the SVO girdle vs. the TrickFlow unit, you see that the Ford units plug is higher up on the girdle.

How do you know when the pumpkin is at the proper fluid level ???

Do you just fill it to the plug on the Trick unit and with the Ford unit you have to measure out an exact quantity to pump into the rear every time ???

Couped, interesting question. I am sure others will know, but what I might do...........:

I would remove the stock fill plug. But fill it through the girdle's plug until fluid starts to come out the stock fill plug hole (same idea as filling a T5 through the shifter).

i got a trickflow cover worth every penny, while your down there you might as well clean up underneath and get rid of the rust like i did

HISSIN50 said:

Couped, interesting question. I am sure others will know, but what I might do...........:

I would remove the stock fill plug. But fill it through the girdle's plug until fluid starts to come out the stock fill plug hole (same idea as filling a T5 through the shifter).

Click to expand...

Hmm, I don't know ...
I do know I like to d&r diff fluid every 2 years or so.

Looking at these 2 girdles, and their plugs horizontal relativity to where the factory fill plug is located on the housing:
It appears the Ford unit (and most aftermarket) is a little too high up on the cover to use as a "it's full" reference .. removing the front plug does sort of make the addition of a girdle fill plug somewhat redundant ...
... and the TW girdle appears to be a little too low on a horizontal relativity to stock, therefore making it also an unnecessary feature on the TW girdle.


Someone that has one (and uses it) please chime in

Don't know about filling the T5 through the shifter part of the housing ... the fill plug is as easy as pumping ATF into it until level with the threaded plug hole ...
Maybe for someone that doesn't have a bottle pump ...


This is good though ... I've wondered about this girdle fill plug thing for a long time. As an engineer I've looked at these girdles for a long time and wondered wtf the designers were thinking in regards to these fill plugs

I think they're thinking that if you know how much goes in, it isn't an issue. Kindof like knowing how much oil your engine takes- you put in five quarts and stop, whether it looks right or not. Of course, exactly what fluid measure of juice goes in an 8.8 housing isn't quite so well known...

?