ghettosmurf

Okay, i know everyone will be like blah blah blah 305s are junk i know this too lol. but anyways. Right now i have a 305 TPI auto, i was wanting to do a 6 speed swap, and then soon a motor swap, but if i do the tranny swap now, will i see much of a difference in the performance? will i be winding the engine out to much??? I searched this topic with little success

THEGENERAL

the main thing your going to gain with the engine you have now is driving enjoyment thats about it ....itll be more fun to drive than the auto .....

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

You will be fine with the 6 speed.
I almost put my 6pseed into my 88 Formula last weekend, but figured that my T/A will be done soon so I didn't want to have to pull it back out.
So I stuck the 5 speed in there.
Made a huge difference in performance over the stock auto. Much more fun to drive, easier to exit corners with since you can hold and control the gears.

What rear gears do you have in the car now?

88fbird

If there isn't anything wrong with your auto right now, then keep it in there until you are ready to change everything. Get the stuff to do the swap together and set it to the side. Build an engine, or get one somewhere and bolt it to the transmission. Then swap them together. It is much easier to swap them as a package then it is to change one at a time.
FBird

RB83L69

Do you wind it out too much now? The additional overdrive gear won't change the answer very much.

If you want a 6-speed, go ahead and get one; it's not quite a direct bolt-in, but it's not too far from it.

I wouldn't "wait" until I had a new motor; makes alot more sense to me to go ahead and do what you want, when you're ready to do it. I'll also add, it's usually alot easier to get one major item swap working at a time, than to do more than one, and have twice as many bugs and unfinished little tidbits to work through before you can drive the car again.

MrDude_1

what rear gears do you have?


if you have 2.73 gears, the car will be a total bitch to get rolling... in traffic, its almost impossible to go slow.... total pain.

you need atleast 3.42 gears to drive the car around easily.... 3.73s if you want a good street performance ratio...
you can goto 4.11s and its alot of fun, athough your engine doesnt make power that high up, gas miliage starts to suffer, and not spinning on street tires is tricky.... but fun.

ghettosmurf

i am running a 4th gen rear w/3.42's...i would proly just go ahead and put 4.11's in it....mmmaaybbbe 3.73s but proly 4.11s...now i also have an LT1 intake hanging around. this should help the top end a little bit maybe helping the gears. Im not wanting to spend alot of money on the motor but just open options....thx guys

MrDude_1

there are ones in the classifdes if you're looking still: https://www.thirdgen.org/classifieds...tgo?adid=52239


but in anycase, if you have atleast 3.42s, you'll be happy with the trans. its when you have a lower (numericly) gear ratio that the engine starts struggling, its harder to get started from a stop, and you can actually get WORSE MPG in 6th.... lol

TheGreatJ

Heh....worse mileage with taller gears.....I can vouch for that one. I had 2.73's when i did the 6-speed swap, and the 3.27 9-bolt I had a deal worked up for fell through. I drove around with 2.73's behind the T56 for almost a year....and lemme tell ya....it sucked. When I went to the 3.70 9-bolt, I gained 4mpg average.

I agree that it's better to do the engine and trans seperately. When it's just a straight stock-for-stock swap, both at once is faster, but when you're changing things it's best to keep it as simple as possible. Stick the 6-speed in and enjoy it. Get used to rowing through the gears. Then when you go for the engine upgrade, the trans will have no trouble holding up to it and you'll have one less thing to get used to.

FWIW I'd keep the 3.42 gearing for now...it'll go great behind a TPI motor. Later, when you change the intake and cam and the powerband starts getting a little higher, go for 4.11's.

ghettosmurf

see you guys are why i love this website lol!!!