Drag Cartel Replacement Billet K Series AWD Transfer Case

Drag Cartel Billet K Series AWD Transfer Case

You're building an AWD K series for serious power and you already know the stock transfer case is going to blow up. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when. The stock CR-V transfer case is cast aluminum. It's weak. Honda built it for a grocery-getter making 160 hp. You're making 800 whp. The math doesn't work. We've seen stock transfer cases crack at 300 whp. We've seen them split in half at 500 whp. We've seen them explode at the track and dump all the gear oil on the ground while the driver's sitting there wondering what just happened. Drag Cartel's billet transfer case eliminates the failure point. It's machined from a solid block of 8620 steel. No casting. No weak spots. No porosity. Just a chunk of aerospace-grade steel that's been CNC'd on a 5-axis mill into a transfer case that'll handle 1500 hp without blinking. This is what you run when you're done breaking stock parts and you're ready to build something that actually survives.

The Stock Cast Aluminum Case Is a Ticking Time Bomb

Here's what happens to the stock transfer case. You're making power. You're launching hard. The aluminum housing's flexing. You can't see it but it's happening. Every hard launch, every high-RPM shift, every time you're on the throttle hard in third gear pulling through the gears, the case is flexing and the cracks are starting. They start small. Hairline cracks around the bearing bores. Hairline cracks around the mounting points. You don't know they're there. Then one day you're at the track or you're on a pull and the crack opens up all the way. The case splits. Gear oil's everywhere. Your transfer case is done. Your day's done. Your event's done. That's the reality of running a stock cast aluminum transfer case on a high-horsepower AWD build. It's not strong enough. The K series transfer case is stronger than the old B series case but it's still not strong enough for serious power. We've built setups that made it to 600 whp on the stock case. We've also seen setups blow the case at 350 whp. It depends on how hard you're driving it and how lucky you are. Why gamble? Drag Cartel's billet case is the solution. It's machined from 8620 steel. Same material they use for billet bellhousings. Same material they use for billet transmission cases. It doesn't flex. It doesn't crack. It handles the loads.

Machined from a Solid Block of 8620 Steel

Drag Cartel's not casting this case. They're not taking a casting and cleaning it up. They're starting with a solid block of aerospace-grade 8620 billet steel and they're machining the entire case on a 5-axis CNC mill. Every bearing bore's machined to tight tolerances. Every mounting surface is flat and square. Every bolt hole's drilled on-center. The result is a transfer case housing that fits like OEM but performs like a race part. The billet construction means there's no voids. No porosity. No inclusions. The case is solid steel all the way through. When you're dumping the clutch at 7000 RPM with 1200 whp on tap, the transfer case housing's taking massive shock loads. Cast aluminum can't handle it. It flexes. It cracks. It fails. Drag Cartel's billet 8620 steel case handles it without moving. The rigidity's on a completely different level. You're not worrying about the case anymore. You're worrying about other parts of the car because the transfer case is the last thing that's going to break.

Build It with PPG Internals and Never Think About It Again

Most people buying Drag Cartel's billet case are pairing it with PPG's billet transfer case internals. That's PPG hypoid gears, PPG transfer shaft, PPG transfer gears. All billet. All built for extreme duty. That's the combo that's running in the 8-second and 9-second AWD drag cars. Drag Cartel case with PPG guts. You can run the Drag Cartel case with stock internals if you want but here's the reality. If you're making enough power to crack a stock transfer case housing, you're making enough power to strip the stock gears and snap the stock shaft. Upgrade the whole system. Do it once. Do it right. The Drag Cartel billet case with PPG internals is a system that'll handle 1500 hp. You're not coming back to this. You're not replacing parts. You're running this setup for years and it's just working.

This Isn't a Bolt-On Part - It's a Bare Housing That Requires Assembly

You're not getting a complete transfer case. You're getting a bare billet housing. That means you're sourcing all the internals. Hypoid gears, transfer shaft, transfer gears, bearings, seals, shims, everything. Then you're assembling it. That means you're setting backlash. You're setting preload. You're checking contact patterns on the gears. You're shimming everything to spec. If you've never built a transfer case before, this isn't the time to learn. Pay someone who's done it. The setup has to be right. The backlash has to be between 0.05mm and 0.10mm. The preload on the shafts has to be set correctly. The contact patch on the hypoid gears has to be centered on the tooth face. If any of that's wrong, the gears will whine, they'll wear, and they'll fail. We've seen people assemble transfer cases wrong and destroy $3000 worth of PPG gears in 100 miles because the backlash was off. Don't be that guy. If you're not comfortable with this level of assembly work, find a builder who is.

What You Get

• Drag Cartel billet K series AWD transfer case housing (bare case only)
• Machined from aerospace-grade billet 8620 steel (same material as billet bellhousings and transmission cases)
• 5-axis CNC machining (tight tolerances on bearing bores and mounting surfaces)
• No casting, no voids, no porosity (solid billet construction)
• Designed for 1500 hp extreme duty applications
• Direct replacement for stock CR-V/Element cast aluminum transfer case housing
• Works with PPG billet transfer case internals or stock internals
• Eliminates the stock cast aluminum case failure point
• Made by Drag Cartel

Fits These Builds

• 2002-2006 Honda CR-V AWD K series transmission (5-speed manual)
• 2003-2011 Honda Element AWD K series transmission (5-speed manual)
• AWD K series swaps using CR-V or Element transmissions

Note: Bare housing only - internals NOT included (hypoid gears, transfer shaft, transfer gears, bearings, seals, shims sold separately). Requires complete assembly with proper shimming and preload setting. Professional assembly highly recommended. Stock cast aluminum case cracks at 300-600 whp - Drag Cartel billet 8620 steel case handles 1500 hp. Machined from solid billet on 5-axis CNC mill. Works with PPG internals (hypoid gears HO-K4GAWD-Spider-GA, transfer shaft HO-K4GDB-1258, transfer gears HO-K4GAWD-RWD-GA). Most builders pair with complete PPG internals. Direct replacement for stock transfer case. Made by Drag Cartel. Fits 2002-2006 CR-V and 2003-2011 Element AWD transmissions. Race application only.