As stated above... after i toast my stage II TCS tranny (if I do, its been great) I will need a change..so I was considering a Lenko. Anyone have opinions on putting one on a LS1?
And is it politically correct to refer to my 6.0 iron block as an LS1? Seriously...

 

It would actually be kinda cool...... but a Lenco itself costs like 6K I think and then ya gotta add the price for the clutches n stuff too I think. I'm not very familiar with them though.

IMO go with a 200R4 or a TH400 with a brake!

Josh S.

 

5k...and was told if I break it..they will replace it...period. I like to buy things once. Just have no idea if the LS1 world has gotten involved...

 

I think it would be badass. I don't know how streetable it would be though.

 

I had a "street" car with a Lenco way back. The car was barely streetable and the Lenco was less than fun after a while. Great at the track though and bulletproof.

 

Using a Lenco with anything less then 1000HP is like hunting ants with 20lb. sledge hammer. You will not like downshifting in traffic with a Lenco. They have no free replacement. You break it, you buy a new one. A local is putting one in his 69 Camaro....but it has over 1700HP, and he got tired of feeding it Powerglides.

 

what's a lenco?

 

A very high performance racing transmission. If you see this:

(the five shift levers) you know it's probably serious.

It acts like a series of 2 speed transmissions. You upshift each one at a time to get from low to high gears. The short lever is for reverse. Pro Stockers use these a lot. You'll see them on the in-car camera shots.

 

Sounds like they're tougher than hell, and plenty unstreetable.

 

they have straight cut gears and they do not like to be downshifted at all.Maybe a jerico would be a lil better.

 

Doing more research, and replacment would be strickly base on relationship, not a "lifetime' warranty. As far as streetable, thats relative... my friend drives with his just as I would with mine (weekends and track) if i can get another car for the lapping sessions it will be a consideration. Puts the fun back in actually driving the car. Would suck as a daily driver! I suppose it would be merely for kicks as this car will never make the kind of power that the lenko is designed for...unless i can fit another motor and two more turbos under the hood.

 

it's like a bunch of gear vendors units. do you still need the clutch to shift?

 

it would probaly bog u down with all that clutch and not enough power

 

A lenco is a planetary transmission, no clutch needed to shift.

Each section has a one way roller clutch (sprag), a planatary gear set and a stack of clutches and steels. All that happens is the gear set is revolving , when you engage it a tapered fork wedges the clutches, the sprag grabs and then its 1:1 - pretty simple. All you are doing is 'stopping' each section in a 2,3 or 4 speed until you get to 1:1.

Each 'underdrive unit' is seperate, 1 section is a 2 speed (1 gear set + 1:1), 2 sections is a 3 speed, etc. The last one is the reverse/neutral/direct.

I drove one on the street, raced them quite a bit and used to rubuild them for a few local guys, they are simple and excellent transmissions but are a major pain to street drive. There is no 'neutral,' the neutral is on a seperate lever and every lever has to pushed all the way forward everytime you stop - sounds cool untill you have to do it They are fairly noisy and leaky but you wont hurt one.

They also use very little horsepower, they were used in all kinds of competition eliminator cars, cases are magnesium so they are light. Right now you can pick up a used small sprag 4 speed lenco with reverse/neutral (lot of older lencos dont have neutral but it can be added) for around 2000.00. Large sprag (late model) ones are a bit higher used. Used prices have dropped since liberty kinda took the market over a few yaers ago.

Problem with using one on an LS1 is the bellhousing, you can set one up to work with a regular chevy scattershield and get the input shaft made in any length/spline/pilot but releasing the clutch will be a bit of a challange..

They are easily rebuilt and maintained, even a small sprag unit will easily take 1000hp and there are hundredss of gear ratio combinations. They do exchanges on gearsets, used to be like 175.00 to exchange one ratio for another if you had a good set to trade. Plus, the most important part, the people at lenco are great to deal with and are exactly what a performane company should be - they will do their best to get your car down the track if you bought trans new or used and will spare you the BS if you dont have the 'latest and greatest' setup from them. You can even put a lenco behind a torque converter (bruno) if you wish.

I have thought about doing a lenco in one of these, the tunnel on these cars are pretty big and a rear mount shifter would be pretty close (you will have to really blow a big hole in the floor though) but the bellhousing is a problem, there isnt a real lot of room to fit a conventional scattershield in there I dont think. Food for thought anyhow

Here is a couple pages (out of seven) for 4 speed ratio combinations - cool stuff. Also a diagram of what a section (or underdrive unit as they call it) looks like inside.

Have fun

 

why u don't look at the ,,G-Force drag racing 5 speed 5th gear is 1:1,,
i saw one in a 68 camero with 900rwhp they guy told me that he never had a proplem with this tranny for 3 years

 

Thanks for the detailed info on the Lenko...I've been researching it and you gave a great, easy to read summary of what I've been finding . The issue you mentioned with the scattershield and let just say overall fittment is the brick wall...being a 30th conv, I'd feel as though i'm trashing the car (this is going a little father than not having matching numbers ) if I have to invade the firewall with a plasma cutter.
I'll look into the G-Force..thanks. Reality is a T400 w/ overdrive or a built 2004r would be the easir solution...and would support my power... just not as unique.