Hypothetical Transmission Question

[James]

OK so lets say I have a classic car in the neighborhood of 400hp. Problem is, its an automatic.

What can I do? Obviously throwing in a tranny from that era of car wouldn’t be the right route to go (clunky 4 speeds ftl)..I was thinking a hurst type slap shifter would be nice, but ideally want a 5 or 6spd…how much work would that be?

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

i'm guessing it's classic v8 muscle. you can build a nice auto tranny with a reworked valve body, torque converter and guts, put a nice b&m slap stick shifter on it and should be nice. with overdrive, you should be able to build one with sweet off the line power and highway to boot.

for a standard trans, you could use any 5 or 6 speed(vette?), and adapt it to your motor. then it's driveline fabing and pedal fabing. lots of old muscle came with std trannys, so a pedal cluster shouldn't be a hard find. hypothetically!

hope this helps.

[Kor]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

Above post is pretty much as good an answer as you'll get... if you know the specific car/engine then you could search the internet for some common or compatible transmissions. If its a GM musclecar then I am betting you can mate up a modern 5 or 6 speed as already said, from a vette or maybe you can find something from a camaro or trans-am etc.

[James]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

i'm guessing it's classic v8 muscle. you can build a nice auto tranny with a reworked valve body, torque converter and guts, put a nice b&m slap stick shifter on it and should be nice. with overdrive, you should be able to build one with sweet off the line power and highway to boot.

for a standard trans, you could use any 5 or 6 speed(vette?), and adapt it to your motor. then it's driveline fabing and pedal fabing. lots of old muscle came with std trannys, so a pedal cluster shouldn't be a hard find. hypothetically!

hope this helps.

Sure does help, and yeah its a classic V8 mustang with a 351. It currently has a completely overhauled tranny from a 91 mustang GT with ford racing bits in it, has overdrive and EFI so i guess the easiest route would be a slap shifter..Does having something like the B&M require anymore than bolting it up?

[Tuna]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

Sure does help, and yeah its a classic V8 mustang with a 351. It currently has a completely overhauled tranny from a 91 mustang GT with ford racing bits in it, has overdrive and EFI so i guess the easiest route would be a slap shifter..Does having something like the B&M require anymore than bolting it up?

Nothing wrong with an Auto in a car like that but that's just my opinion. My father-in-law used to have a 68 GTX and used to drag race it all the time around BC and Alberta, he used to eat up Manual tranny cars like crazy.

Slap shift would be cool. I don't think a slap shift is a quick bolt on though, I think there might be some internal magic that you need to do, but i'm not sure.

Check out Summit racings website for some ideas.

You could probably even order a full crate tranny from a shop in the US custom built to your spec's (money no object of course).

I'd like to have a muscle car as a 5th or 6th car someday

[NeonGTI]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

From back in the days when I paid attention to Mustangs the more common swap was manual to auto; a big torque engine like that would just shred clutches and gears.

IIRC the C4 or C6 swap with a 351 was the hot ticket. They could hold almost any amount of power you threw at them and still shift with crispness and smoothness regardless of throttle level.

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

this is a fantastic shifter, http://www.autoanything.com/shifters/65A3044A0A0.aspx

looks bolt in, some applications say you need an install kit.

sounds like a cool ride!

[James]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

Thanks dude, that thing looks like it means serious biz

Yeah the car is pretty cherry..My dad bought it about 10 years ago and has done a crazy amount of work..I dont know why he doesnt want it any more but im not complaining

[Aleks]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

Keep the auto....I think thats been reiterated here already....351 is a common block, so you should have any selection of trannies that will bolt up to it from even 80's mustangs........If you were to go manual, the '70 era fastbacks had a sweet pistol grip in them....I did drive one (it was a 426 tho) and it was terrible to shift nice....

Again, keep the auto, and get it revalved and a high stall converter....You'll like it much more, and if its agressive enough it will break the tires loose on shifts....

[James]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

Again, keep the auto, and get it revalved and a high stall converter....You'll like it much more, and if its agressive enough it will break the tires loose on shifts....

Yeah, it has a high stall converter and the engine is completely balanced/blueprinted....already breaks the tires loose from 1-2 hehe.

my major problem with the current tranny is the same one I have with any auto, its friggin' boring. I think something like a B&M would do the trick tho..we'll see, car wont be completely mine until the winter anyhow

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Hypothetical Transmission Question

i'm pretty sure you can pick up one of those shifters in town. Mopac, i think. on 16th ave.