i am putting a zz4 crate motor in my 1983 camaro and i need to replace the time bomb of a 5 speed that is in it now. will an m20 or m21 muncie work? will it just bolt on?

 

I believe so.

 

As long as you have that M20/21's bellhousing as well, then yes, it will.

The M22 would be a better choice though.. much stronger. But also, alot harder to find.

M20 was wide ratio, the M21 was a close ratio, and the M22 was a "heavy duty" close ratio trans. (just incase you didn't know)

 

No they will NOT. Even if they bolt up to the bell housing the crossmember will not work, a 3rd gen t5 is rotated so the clutch fork will clear the tunnel. And the muncie will not have provisions for the torque arm mount. You might be able to get the 4spd to work with a lot of custom work but it generally won't be worth it.

For a stronger transmission you could get either a tremec, a t56 or get a gforce t5.

 

well there you go two yes votes and one no. sure it'll work it's just a matter of how much time, effort, ad money you want to put into it.

 

Your factory T5 has a hydraulic clutch; M20/21/22's have mechanical clutches. I believe that they are different lengths also, requiring a custom drive shaft length. Keep in mind, the old "rock crusher" transmissions are collectors items and will usually cost more than an aftermarket trans like a Super T10, which is stronger btw. On a side note, my "time bomb" is holding up nicely under more load then a ZZ4 will give you. I'm going to miss that overdrive when it does go bang.

 

The transmission does not care about how the clutch is actuated.

What it does care about is the fact that you can't put a regular "straight up" bell housing in one of these cars, except for the one that came in the 82 4-speed cars with its specific fork, because a normal bell housing will attempt to locate the fork to where it will have to go RIGHT THROUGH the driver's right foot, which would be uncomfortable at best. And it happens that the 82 is a mechanical linkage; so to use it, you would have to swap it over to mechanical; not because of the transmission, but because there's nowhere on the BH to mount the slave cylinder. Like most everything else that could probably be alternatively engineered though.

Finding a shifter would be near impossible since that combination (Muncie in one of these cars) was never manufactured. But since there were Warners in 82 Camaro & Firebird, there are shifters available for that combo.

The 4-speed will not have the place for the torque arm mount, which has to attach to the trans in EXACTLY the same place that a 4-speed shifter would go; so some of the same engineering would be needed there. Maybe an aftermarket TA or whatever.

The drive shaft is the least of your problems. I have no idea whay people think that's such a big deal. You measure your existing transmission, you measure you new one, you look at their yokes; and you go to the drive shaft shop, hand them yours, and say "make this 2" longer (or whatever) and change the yoke to whatever (if necessary)"; and about 4 hours and $75 plus the cost of a yoke if you need one, the problem is solved. Very trivial compared to the other issues.

However, if I was going to go through all that hassle, I'd sure find a better 4-speed than a Muncie if I could.

I could take you some pictures, but I gave away all my Muncie stuff I had accumulated over the years, having really no further use for it. I used to do alot of 4-speed rebuilds, back in the 70s and early 80s when they were still commonplace.

 

I didn't say it was a big deal. He asked if it would "just bolt in". The answer is no.