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Can a 8.25 hold up under a stock 440 or is that a broken axle waiting to happen? Trying to figure my options



I say yes it can if the car (truck?) is driven reasonably. The rear doesn't know if the applied torque is from a 318 or a 440---until the torque is MORE than a stock small block would produce.
Lots of hard acceleration or heavy towing and the 8.25 is probably gonna give up after awhile.

One key point would be not to accelerate hard in turns--the spiders/side gears are at work when 'differentiating' and they can't take the power that the ring and pinion can.