Hey guys, I have a 91 camaro RS, the 305 in it, and 4L60 are no paperweights.

I'm trying to make an informed decision about what to buy when it comes to a late model LS style motor..

Long story short, i'm looking at doing an Auto to Manual conversion, and either installing a T5 or T56, and either a 5.3L or a 6.0L vortech.

A little background, i've owned TWO LS1 camaro's both with a T56, i am partial to them, i love the platform, they are reliable and powerful, but... i can't afford an LS1..

i CAN however afford the aforementioned. But with that said, i have tons and tons of questions about them.

Notably, the most important question at the moment being:

Can you (EASILY) mate up a T56 to an LQ4 or LQ9 ? .. i.e. will the bell housing for a camaro T56 fit directly to an LQ4 ???

for that matter, i probably wont be able to afford a T56, though a T5 is about half the price, and... i can afford that. i guess i need to post a thread in the transmission section about whether a T5 and T56 bell housing are the same or not....

Don't worry about the car itself and and what i have to do to convert it from auto to standard... that part is easy enough. I just don't want to buy a T5/56 transmission to find out that there's no way to make it work with an LQ4/9..

with that said too, i will PROBABLY go for an LQ4, because of the lower compression. I plan to turbo this beast, and it gives me a good lower compression platform to do so, yet a lot of usable power immediately without heavily modifying it out of the box.

SO......... what are my transmission options with an..... LQ4?

I'll ask the other questions in other threads as time goes on lol.

Thanks guys

 

Its actually Vortec not "vortech''.


A Gen III is a Gen III like a 350 all will bolt right up to the Ls style T56. Now that said there is one exception and that is the early 6.0L LQ4's 99-00 they will have the long crank flange and will not work but those motors are getting rare now days.



The T5 can be made to work as well. Just need the right collection of parts.

Just make sure the crank flange is flush with the rear cover and your good to go motor wise.

 

Wow did i really say Vortec(h) like 50 times?

i don't know, i guess i think it looks better with the H.

But at least i didn't say Vtech or Veeteck, or Veetak like i see fairly often.

eeh...... what's this world coming to..... kidding


ok, so i did read something about the early motors having the crank sensor, or a long shaft or something to that effect elsewhere, and i'm glad to see the clarification.

In the off chance he ends up giving me a 99-00 model, is it possible to change the crank out to the 01-07 model to be able to fit the Manual trans?

i'll put it this way...

The motor is going to be on the a stand either way, i may as well swap out the cam, swap out the valves, clean up the heads etc before i put it into my car, so if it happens to be the 99-00 model, i'd like to know it's possible to swap it out so i can fit a T56 behind it.

and i guess with that said, like you said, it more than likely won't be that model. The guy im getting the motor from is a friend of my family, has a junk yard and buys up wrecked trucks and sells the motors etc. we get a hell of a price on them.

i can get a 5.3 for dirt cheap.. um... like.. somewhere around a 10th of the price of an LS1. a 6.0 is a few hundred more, that's all. and comes with everything needed to make it run.


so i'm REALLY trying to decide between the 5.3 or 6.0 now, and it's a hard decision for a few reasons.

1 being weight. cast iron block v aluminum. however... the POS 305 TBI (Tough But Inadequate) i have in the car currently im SURE weighs more than a 5.3 cast iron motor.. so im not too worried about it, plus the hp gain from 179 to what.. 327-365? is a significant step up, especially considering i got about 16mpg in that freakin motor before i blew the trans in my car, vs the 28/29 highway i got in my 00' Z28 with the LS1. jeez.... yeah.....

....


side note "T5 can be made to work with the right collection of parts" ... i.e. ????? I kno the T5 was made for the older model motors, but it's been my understanding till now that you can pretty much change out the bell housing and it will mate right up as normal.... true????? or no?? what else would i need?

I guess i'm trying to figure out if it is cost effective at all to get a T5 instead of a T56? a T56 generally runs around 1500-2500 depending upon the level of admitted dilapidation, and, i ALWAYS have to expect to spend about another 500-1k to have it rebuilt regardless of how GOOD they say the tranny is.. i wouldn't trust just buying one and shoving it in the car unless it's from an incredibly reliable source. (of which i know nonnneeee.. Transmission shops are always scam artists...)

im not sure how many questions were in there, but i think there were a few. thx

 

In all honesty..just start with the parts you want.take your time and save up and do it they way you want the first time..save the headache.

Get a Lq4 between 01-04 and t56 ..no headache there and all will bolt up fine without changing parts inbetween.

Dont worry too much about upgrading the trans right away unless it really needs a rebuild..they are stout from factory in good shape.Mine takes a serious beating and still going strong.Ill rebuild next year with a stage 1 kit when I upgrade from the ls7 clutch.

The lq4 is great platform for boost..same with the 5.3.I favor the lq4 more.On the 3rdgen car..I suggest getting longtubes from the start of your swap..I regret not doing this.Id supercharge it but if you want turbo then hang on to the stock manifolds and flip them and build your turbo setup from there.

Be realistic and set goals for the motor and your budget..or you will just have a money pit to no end.keep in mind on this body style..either you run the ls1 fbody front accessories and oil pan using the stock 3rdgen k member..or you go tubular and run the lq4 accessories.The lq4 intake will not fit under the stock hood either..so you can change to the fbody ls1/6 intake and fuel rail or small cowl hood.

 

No harm done just like getting things right.

You could swap cranks if need be that said you could even spring for a stroker kit if you had to buy a crank. Now that said the long crank might work with the early T56's used with the LT motors due to the crank spacing being the same as them. But I can't say for sure.