Hello all. Question about switching a trans. I'm in the midst of a turbo 2001 Camaro 3.8 build. I know the 4L60 behind them is the 245mm shaft. I do have the bolt on bell housing. I've been rereading a few threads about overall lengths and stuff.
But my confusion is would using a 298/300mm trans either from the 4.3 or LS trans fit with the 3.8 bellhousing on it. I know the housings are different sizes between the 60/90° engines. But will the larger bellhousing convertors fit in the 60° housing? I've read a few guys switching input drums and what not to beef up the 245mm. But I feel like just starting with a larger period would give more options. Much appreciated.

 

I don't believe that you can get a 298mm converter to fit in a 60 degree V-6 transmission. There may be a high stall converter that will need a 298mm input shaft though. you will need to check with a converter company for that. It seems like I saw something in the Sonnax converter section of their website that showed a kit for using a 245mm converter body for the high stalls.

 

Sorry if I confused, looking to just use a 298/300 complete trans, looking to see if my 3.8 bellhousing will fit that trans period and work behind the 3.8. Eliminating the 245mm trans all together.

 

Yes you can use the 60 degree bell-housing with a gen 2 transmission but your input shaft will be different so your 245 converter won't fit in to it. That is why I said something about Sonnax and their custom converter kits. They may have something so a 298mm 30 spline input shaft can be used in a 245mm converter core.

Why do you think a 245mm input shaft won't work? I have wondered if a S10 2800 stall would work in an application like that.

The difference in the GEN 2 298mm and the GEN 3 300mm converters is the GEN 3 uses a 5/8" deeper bell-housing to accommodate the larger/thicker converter. So I would not even attempt a 300mm shaft set up.

 

I was just looking to just start with beefier trans period. I have a few. Just tossing the trans from the 3.8 and beefing up a V8 trans for the 3.8. That's all I was looking to do. Not switch any parts for the time being. Just doing a junkyard build. I just assumed that with lower HP engines, the small trans was a weakll link and probably wasn't built to handle much above factory HP.

 

I'm not sure about the 3.8L transmission comes from the factory but all 4L60E's can be beefed up. The only one that I'm sure is a different set up is the 2.2L S10. The entire gear-trains are all identical. The exceptions are the the obvious input shafts/bell-housing externally. The 2.2L 3-4 clutch has 5 frictions instead of 6 and has 7 steel instead of 6. The servo is smaller for the band too. Any decent builder could easily take any combo the 3.8L might have and turn it into a V-8 version...