WarShrike's T56 swap thread by WarShrike

8 minute read

WarShrike's T56 swap thread 

Compliments of WarShrike @ http://www.fullthrottlev6.com

11-14-2011

Okay, I'm gonna start posting stuff up in this thread as things go forward with the swap.

I've contacted Mal Wood, a company in Australia that has an adapter that works with the V6 block and mounts to the T56 bellhousing. None of this mix and match stuff. They have problems keeping their adapters on the shelves, apparently they are doing good enough on the product overseas.

I got an e-mail from Paul at Mal Wood on the projected cost:

Engine Plate - $335

Frieght - $130

Total: $465

I bought my T56 for $700 so this is not going to be much of an issue for me at the time as I'm still below what most will have to pay on a T56. I'm ordering the plate and hopefully it will be in soon enough.

I still have to get a good clutch/flywheel combo to work with this and offer me a little room to grow power-wise.

Paul said that the GTO T56 that I have should have the right length input shaft and I won't have to run a longer shaft like the Viper setups.

Here is Mal Wood's setup:

Parts left to purchase:

Hydraulic Slave

Clutch/Flywheel kit

Not sure how thick the plate is, so I might not have to shorten the driveshaft.

Misc work/fabrication that I won't know about until I'm under the car.

11-15-2011

Projected cost will be somewhere around $2K but that's because I have an automatic and have to get a lot of miscellaneous items including the interior trim piece. Granted I can offset some of that cost by selling the trans/stall setup later. I'll be sure to total up everything so people will see what to expect financially.

I had to buy the pedals, and a few other items. I didn't skimp and bought a Tick Performance Master Cylinder and an MGW Shifter. I want this to be a smoothe shifting setup and offer me the enjoyment that I want.

The input shaft is the same spline count as the T5. I believe we will be able to use the T5 clutch assembly without any issues. Only thing I think might be needed is a spacer on the slave to get it to engage right, but we'll see when we get to that point.

Why? Because nobody else in the community is pushing to do it or find a viable option. We have two people (only one is active) in this forum that we know has a T56 swapped car. I have plans on bringing this car to the next level later on and I'm just building the foundation for it. It isn't exactly pointless. I'm even running 3.42's so that will help me out a little bit more. I really want to see what this car dynos when I have the manual trans in it.

Mine is the M12 T56 out of the GTO as well so the gear ratios will work even better in my favor.
F-body: 2.66 1.78 1.30 1.00 .74 .51
GTO: 2.97 2.07 1.43 1.00 .84 .57

Not sure on the T5 ratios.

11-16-2011

Plate is ordered, now I play the waiting game. Gonna order the rest of the stuff and get prepared.

11-28-2011

You'll have to go to the company website and then e-mail them about the Ecotec V6 to T56 adapter plate.

Just got this in from Mal Wood, the company in Australia that fabs these up.

Had finals to work through, now it is mellowing out. Gotta order a clutch setup and then I'll try and do my best Captain Stabbin' impression...

4-5-2012

t's a T5 clutch. The T-56 and T-5 from our cars are the same spline count.

4-13-2012

Alright so I guess I should put my user title as Captain Slow since it takes so long for me to finally accumulate parts and put things together. I'm draining tranny fluid tonight (you know, the stuff that helps with the couplings and banging and such?). Then I'm letting the automatic trans drain.

I've got a few things on my plate, probably gonna take a week to do it all, but MEH! I think I'll have this thread closed soon and open a part deux so it is cleaned up a little.

5-9-2012

I've only been updating the what did you do to your car today thread in general. Trans is out, gonna work on wiring tonight and getting everything else prepped. I've been busy with other things on the car as well.

7-28-2012

Trans is bolted in, waiting on crossmember. Found a broken knock sensor (female connector wiggles around a lot), probably one reason why TSP had some odd KR when doing the dyno runs.

Wrestling that mofo in was a lot more enjoyable than the Auto.

8-26-2012

Progress is being made, I'm a wiring newb so some things like wiring in the reverse lockout solenoid has been a challenge. I'm wiring it into the brake as I didn't feel like trying to figure out the rats nest of the pcm pinouts and couldn't get anything reliable off the old auto pigtail. I've run a grommet through the trans tunnel so I can run my wires cleanly through there and under the console and dash. I'm excited to get things finished and they look to be getting really close.

Especially after this:

I had to modify my T-56 crossmember. It takes a lot of balls/faith/stupidity to modify a brand spanking new crossmember for 1/2" of clearance needed because of the spacer. With a stock crossmember, there's probably enough tolerances in the manufacturing process that you might be able to bolt it up lol! Took it to a welder that used to work for the USAF, damned good guy, has a nice little piece of stainless steel welded to aluminum to showcase some of his work. Got extensions welded on, then had to go to a friend's place that had a drill press and a bridge port mill that had enough reach to work over the plate.

Took it home, test fit (LIKE A GLOVE! MEH MEH MEH!) and now the paint is drying.

I'll try and post here and there, and a writeup will follow at some point after the car is on the road.

8-29-2012

Wiring is finished, crossmember paint is done. On to the mechanical side!

9-5-2012

So for the first time since April 13, the Firebird went for a drive. Fired it up yesterday after doing the T-56 swap, took a lot longer to do than anticipated, but it is done!

Need to re-tune it and do some final adjustments along with putting the rest of the interior back in the car but I am happy to see the car running.

9-6-2012

Video will come soon. No banging gears yet, doing the break-in driving and I gotta get the PCM reflashed to manual trans setting.

10-23-2012

Engine > Adapter plate > T56 bellhousing > T56 > driveshaft > rear end > tires > SMOKY BURNOUT!

Yeah you got it right. I haven't had time to do any updates or a write up because I have been flat out busy, but I'll have a week of downtime and I'm getting a new high quality camera so hopefully I can take some good pictures of the underside of the car to show what else is going on.

I don't know about the spline count on the LT1 T56, but the LS1 F-body and GTO T-56 has the same spline count as the V6 T5, so you can use a stock clutch.

10-25-2012

I used an oem throwout with a spacer but a Tick adjustable master.