Identifying used ls t56
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 917
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From: Traverse City MI
Identifying used ls t56 I recently purchased a used t56 that was supposedly out of a running and driving ls1 car.
I just got around to cleaning the grime all off of it and found some things of concern.
Theres red rtv at all of the joints, except black rtv between the main case and midplate.
Theres no TREMEC markings on the case, just borg warner.
Theres no green ID tag on the tail housing.
It looks like theres some junk yard yellow maint markings still on the case.
To me it looks like the previous owner may have blown his stock tranny, and bought a junkyard lt1 t56 and changed the mid plate/input shaft and bellhousing.
My main concern is figuring out what year this is from. Is there any way to tell if its the weaker, 93 model t56?
Is this something I should bring up to the seller of the transmission? I feel a little mislead and unsure if I want to run this trans with out tearing it down now.
I just got around to cleaning the grime all off of it and found some things of concern.
Theres red rtv at all of the joints, except black rtv between the main case and midplate.
Theres no TREMEC markings on the case, just borg warner.
Theres no green ID tag on the tail housing.
It looks like theres some junk yard yellow maint markings still on the case.
To me it looks like the previous owner may have blown his stock tranny, and bought a junkyard lt1 t56 and changed the mid plate/input shaft and bellhousing.
My main concern is figuring out what year this is from. Is there any way to tell if its the weaker, 93 model t56?
Is this something I should bring up to the seller of the transmission? I feel a little mislead and unsure if I want to run this trans with out tearing it down now.
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 917
Likes: 77
From: Traverse City MI
It looks like the ls input shaft/midplate/bellhousing has been swapped onto a junkyard lt1 t56.
I'm pretty certain its not the weaker 93 model since it has cags.
Is there much difference internally between a stock ls/lt1 trans other then the input shaft?
I'm pretty certain its not the weaker 93 model since it has cags.
Is there much difference internally between a stock ls/lt1 trans other then the input shaft?
Nothing externally substanntiates your guess, as Tremec used B-W castings.
The answer is contingent upon "what was changed when it was apart each of the multiple prior times?"
And what year it was serviced.
Red RTV means at least once before serviced. Probably in addition to the input swap.
I read your post for content before spewing out the following.
The answer is contingent upon "what was changed when it was apart each of the multiple prior times?"
And what year it was serviced.
Red RTV means at least once before serviced. Probably in addition to the input swap.
I read your post for content before spewing out the following.
The Borg Warner castings were used all the way up to ~99-00 on the F-body and C5 T56 cases. This could be just a rebuilt early LS1 T56. It is really tough to tell for sure without the tag. The VIN of the original car will be etched into the driver side of the main case forward of the fill hole. That will tell you what it was out of originally. You can see it in the last picture but I cannot make out the second digit. Call your local dealership with the last 8 digits of that number and they will be able to tell you what it is out of.
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I called my dealership and ran it as R2208246, W2208246 and X2208246 and they were all autos or V6 cars. So Im probably reading one of the numbers wrong. The 4 is kinda hard to make out.
Unfortunately the VIN is the only way to figure out what it was originally out of.
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Verdad Gallardo Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 917
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From: Traverse City MI
I found this thread:https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...-location.html
According to this the 2w at the beginning would mean my transmission is out of a 98 pontiac. Does that seem correct?
According to this the 2w at the beginning would mean my transmission is out of a 98 pontiac. Does that seem correct?
I found this thread:https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...-location.html
According to this the 2w at the beginning would mean my transmission is out of a 98 pontiac. Does that seem correct?
According to this the 2w at the beginning would mean my transmission is out of a 98 pontiac. Does that seem correct?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 917
Likes: 77
From: Traverse City MI
The third to last digit is z, not 2 if that makes a difference? I'm pretty confident it's not from a v6 auto car lol. Thanks again for looking into it Jeremy.
With these transmissions getting old, hard to tell exactly what you have, but I would agree its hard to tell if its a legit LS1 T56 or a LT1 version that was converted. Regardless the power rating is very close to each other and in a LS1 configuration now. What would worry be is the orange RTV. No respectable transmission builder would ever use orange RTV. Someone who knows what they are doing would use Ultra Grey or atleast Ultra Black.
That first "2" looks like a "Z" to me.
ZW2208Z46
That first "2" looks like a "Z" to me.
ZW2208Z46
Can you take another picture of just the VIN area?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 917
Likes: 77
From: Traverse City MI
I was told it came out of an ls1 car with just under 95k miles. Its supposed to work good says the seller so I'll run it. With the orange rtv, it definitely looks like its been apart before.
If I have any issues I'll have a buddy go through it like he did my lt1 t56.
If I have any issues I'll have a buddy go through it like he did my lt1 t56.