4.8240z

I have looked a decent amount into transmissions now and I have friends running a quite a few of these different setups and here's what we have found. Keep in mind however none of these men were driving there cars gently in any sense of the word. I have a one buddy running a world class t5 in a built sbc s10 on 295 Mickey thompsons and if he drives it regularly like he did last year he will blow about two used transmissions a year. This may be because he's running used transmissions but they seem to shift and be in good condition when he installs them. I have another buddy that has a fox body equipped with the oem t5 and his oem t5 lasted till over 100k getting beat the crap out of, the car does not produce a lot of Hp however it is all stock with bolt on's. Another one of my fox body buddies is at 491whp with a turbo and he could not get world class t5 to last more than a couple of events. He now uses a tko 600 he installed about a year and a half ago and has beat it up a lot since then and last I heard it is still shifting great. I have heard from a decent amount of people and know one personally that all say avoid buying just a used t56 alone, there is usually a reason there separated from the engine and being sold alone, the gentleman I know personally that got his from a gto had to replace second gear. However there are many people on here that have had great luck buying used ones so that is just one mans opinion take it with a grain of salt. As for the 4l60e I had one in my pre runner Silverado using a 4.8l with a whipple supercharger and I could not get one of those things to last me more than a year on 35" tires in a lightened up Silverado, because of how many times I had to swap them out after a full day of work then school I hate 4l60e's I do however wonder sometimes if the gentleman building my trannys was a idiot since I was young, dumb and went with the lowest bidder, who was building them in his basement in Tacoma so that's just something to think about. The 350z transmission doesn't seem like a bad option I had one in a vortech supercharged 350z with 391whp and it held up for the short time i drove it and I never heard any complaints from the buyer. I did however only drive it for about two weeks before It had issues I got ticked off made a rash decision and sold it so I can not truly vouch for that transmission. My only personal usage experience with a t56 was in my c5 z06 it had around 450-500whp and it held up great the year and a half I had it beating the crap out of it the whole time, launching on 315 drag radials constantly and running 11's after installing a tick adjustable master cylinder for smoother shifts it is my personal favorite for any tranny I have owned. After taking all this into consideration here is my consensus. If you want to go in a straight line, build over 1500hp or are willing to use paddle shifters a 4l80e is a great option, even oem they seem to handle some pretty crazy power. For me a manual in a road race car is a must so the two options I came down too were the jerico dog box or a t56 magnum. Both are very expensive yes but here is my way of looking at it, I don't want to build a car with a $2000 dollar weak link so every time I step on it I'm scared the trannys going to give and I end up being scared to drive the car how I built it to be drove. I personally will be purchasing a t56 magnum they are rated for 700ft lb of torque which I was told means they failed at 1400ft lb of torque when tremec tested them. In our little light cars that leads me to believe it shouldn't even be sweating at 700hp from a turbo 4.8l which is my goal.

That is fair, my only fear is of taking the faceplate off the transmission after paying 3k for it I don't particularly want to start disassembling it. Certification is not my greatest concern at this point although I'm sure it will become a concern eventually. I was buying a new t56 magnum anyways so no bell housing was included. But with a target horsepower of 700hp my concern was more on my clutch removing my ankles, ever since watching that video I was showed on ls1tech called death of a trans am I'm a bit spooked and that car had around 500hp when that happened. I wonder if you can make a window on the bell housing that has a bolt on cover to keep the bell housing in certification.

Just watched the YouTube video he does a really good job of explaining it. It actually doesn't seem to bad when in engine is out of the car. I'm still a little nervous to pull the faceplate off of the trans since it is the most expensive part I have ever purchased. But the video gave me some re assurance and I'm going to go for it. Would you mind positing up some more picture of this "window mod" you speak of I'm curious if it's something I can do myself.

Wow that seems like quite the complicated process. I just got my qt bellhousing last week and will order my t56 magnum next month. I assumed I would just bolt that bad boy on there and carry on but apparently it's not quite that simple. I will have to figure out how to find out if I need a shim with no oem bellhousing. Thank you for doing this write up though, it will save me a significant amount of research and time.

Are you concerned at all about taking to the shop when you are all done and having it tugged on and that messing up any of the work you have done this far. I had the same issue with my car and built it on a jig and straightened it there. I did not take measurements the same way you did though and am a little concerned it may need to go to a frame shop to get perfect later. I simply made sure the jig was perfectly level square straight then made sure the rockets were equal distances off the jig on either side. Then I leveled the engine bay frame rails front to back. Then any other suspension mounting location I leveled from side to side. This is just my first car restoration project I've done whatsoever so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Dang that is looking really good. I am getting ready to put the same kit on my car. How did you figure out how high up to cut your quarters and inner wheel wells without fitting the wheels first.

I'm getting ready to install a 280yz kit as well how much trimming was required to get the kit to sit flush with the body?

Perfect well that is good to know I definitely see a set of these being dabbed up in my future. Thanks to all of you who have blazed the trail on this one.

I have heard that you aren't supposed to weld chrome alloy with a mig welder from a friend of mine who works at art Morrison. However he is a very paranoid individual that enjoys finding things that may cause problems, he's a good friend of mine regardless but this the truth. With that being said has anyone that has put there chrome alloy mig welded control arms to use experienced any cracking or failure? Did you have to do any special heat treating? Or did you just weld it and you were good to go? That's what I'm really hoping for since I only have a mig welder.

Did your 3m wand work well to spray into the frame rails? I thought about using one but was afraid it wouldn't works well since I heard por 15 was a weird consistency. I have yet to work with por 15 so I apologize if this is inaccurate.

So it sounds to me like the best case scenario for oils pans is a ls2 or ls3 corvette pan. Is either one of these two better than the other? And do I need to get the pickup tube and windage tray from the same vehicle. I will be purchasing very soon so I can get started on the motor install .

Thanks for the heads up seattlejester I will make sure to drill a vent hole before I weld the rail closed. I have been using zinc weld through primer in any location of welding. The area I really wanted the por 15 is in the front section of the frame rail where I cannot reach with an aresol can. If I did this I would leave abou 4" from my welds with no por 15 in these areas I will be able to use a wire brush to prep and spray with weld through primer. Thank you for the product recommendations john c I will purchase those as soon as possible. Does anyone see problems with using por 15 in the sections of the frame rail where I will not be welding? There is already surface rust in there and I need something that will adhere directly to rust since I can't prep the inside of the rails, I also need a product that will treat the rust so the rails will not eventually rust through.

Perfect thank you for all the input guys, I finished my battery patch panel tonight I'll weld it in and fix the frame rail on Thursday. As for the por 15 idea my reasoning for using it was because it adheres directly to rust. I will not be able to prep the inside of the frame rails so I was not aware I had other options. Also I didn't think the por 15 would contaminate too much since it will be on the inside seam of the spot welds and butt welds. But I have never worked with it before and I definitely do not want my welds to get screwed up. I do have some weld through primer in a aresol can, but that will not work for shooting all the way down the rail. If you guys have any suggestions of products or application techniques I would love some ideas. This is my first rust repair project so I'm still a newbie.

Looks like you are doing some great quality work. I am in the same process now I just finished up my battery area patch panel tonight and will take on the frame rail repair next. It might not be a bad idea to coat the inside of your frame rails with por 15 or weld through primer while you have access through your patch holes.

I apologize for the upside down pictures. I uploaded them all tonight and am still trying to get them right side up.

So now that i finally have my chassis level and where it needs to be i can begin my rust repairs. In the engine bay i have removed all of the deeply pitted metal from the battery tray and am left with this. I have a new zeds findings engine bay frame rail in my possession already but i would really prefer to not have to re locate my sway bar and front crossmember mounting locations as well as my tc rod box since this section of the frame rail only had minor internal pitting. My idea is to por 15 the inside of what is left of the original frame rail. After it is treated and painted i would brake up a piece of 16g a sheet metal to the internal dimensions of the old frame rail and the new 6" back or so of either side of the location of the butt weld. I would then drill multiple holes at two different distances on either side of the seam which would allow me to spot weld in those locations. Finally i would butt weld the seam between the old and the new rails. After all this i would think the seam would be just as strong if not stronger than the rest of the rails. But this is my first body work and frame work experience ever so I'm hoping to get opinions of those that have experience with this. I am a good experienced welder it is just the idea i am looking for opinions on thank you.

Alright guys so after putting my car on the frame jig and trying to level it for quite some time i discovered that the driver side tc rod box was a little over 1/2" lower than the passenger, probably related the the minor bump the car received in the rear passenger bumper mount location.. So to resolve the problem i built some supports for the tc rod boxes and drove the driver side up till both sides were evenly spaced off the jig as well as level. In order to push the tc rod box up i simply used door shims from home depot and drove them in will a hammer. As of now all the the pinch welds front and back are within 1/16 of 5 7/8 off of the jig. All of the cross member mounting locations are level side to side, and the engine bay frame rails are level as well. I'm hoping this will ensure a straight chassis after i do all of my rust repairs and ensure a true perfect alignment. Anyways enough with the boring stuff lets get to the pictures.