how much crap will the t56 put up with. Is it a hard transmission to break, and how much power will it handle with out any upgrades.
BTW what is power shifting

 

Power Shifting is shifting w/o the clutch. A T56 tranny will stand up to a lot of power, depending on how you drive it. I know guys with stock setups that can't drive w/ tranny problems. And then again I have about 425 RWHP w/ heads, cam, exhaust, etc. and have no problems. There are 6 speed cars in the 9's, so I would say they are tough. No tranny is going to be trouble free, I just think these trannys get blamed for more operator problems than mechanical. My .02
-Travis
PS I did tear my output shaft in half, but that was launching at 6500 rpms on ET Drags

 

what do u mean by shifting w/o the clutch, and do u let up on the gas when u shift, and how bad is it on the tranny.

 

Power shift the tranny w/o the clutch by grinding the synchros forcing it into the next gear.

 

far as i know i have the fastest 6 speed currently, car is street driven and race weight is 3500 pounds, have pulled some high 1.2X 60's and run a 9.60 @ 141.52 mph, they can take some abuse. the only other 9 sec 6 speed is my best friend roman, he ran a 9.94 last april. his is an ls1

 

Yeah you have to let up on the gas a little, just enough so the car is neither acelerating or deacelerating. It's hard on the tranny, but a lot of people seem to be getting away with it on the T-56. I don't do it unless I'm driving the company truck!

 

You got that one right. There seems to be a lot of people that own these cars that have never really learned to handle a stick correctly. Many of them have never even heard of double-clutching or speed matching.

 

In the quarter what is the best way to shift

 

Cal perhaps you should enlighten some.

 

With the exception of those that launch at 6500 rpm, the only time a manual is vulnerable is while changing gears, so you want to understand what your synchros are doing and try to help them a little. In fact someone that is really good does most of the sychronizing themselves and the syncros just help them a little to make up for slight differences in shaft speed. When you change gears, you want the input shaft and the output shaft of the trans rotating at the same speed or close to it (taking into account which ratio you're after.) The output shaft turns with the vehicle, so you can't control that. But when you push in the clutch or the trans is in neutral, you can set the speed of the input shaft to what ever you want with the engine, especially with the clutch out. When you upshift, let the input shaft coast down to the new rpm it will be at. When you downshift, pop the clutch out in neutral and quickly tap the gas to rev the input shaft up to the new higher rpm it will be at in the new, lower gear. If you use these procedures, you can shift faster and the tranmission will last longer. To save even more time, some people rev the engine in neutral without poping the clutch back out, since the clutch never totally disengages anyway. It's a faster technique, but not as reliable IMO. If you could do all of this perfectly, in theory you would never even need to use the clutch, except when shifting into gear from a dead stop.

 

I suck at taking written directions.... So I have to disect this lil bit slowly. But it doesnt make sense to me yet. Usually say I'm doing 70 on 6th on the freeway my rpms are like 1600, I'm gonna downshift to 4th. So I pop the clutch in and drop it in 4th and then step on the gas. Is there a better way?

 

Darn near indestructable if you know how to drive.

I have 2523 runs on my [STOCK] T-56,it has NEVER been serviced besides changing fluid every year.And I have blown a few shifts over the past 9 years,done 2-1 at redline,done 3-2 a couple of times,never said a word and still works like new,I got very lucky!!!!!!

 

For going from 6th to 5th that should be fine. But for a real performance downshift, especially skipping gears like your example, there is a better way: 1)push in the clutch and pull the shift lever into neutral and let the lever center itself on the springs 2)let the clutch back out quick (but you are still in neutral) and tap the gas at the same time to rev the engine to the rpm you think you will be at in 4th 3) push the clutch back in and pull the shift lever straight back into 4th 4) let the clutch out quick and floor it at the same time. I know it sounds complicated, but you can do it fast with some practice. You will know when you have done it right, because it will drop right in the lower gear so easy you will be amazed. Going from 4th to second will be even more dramatic.

 

So basically guess where the rpm is gonna land in the selected gear and make sure it has enough time to align itself properly before you put the clutch back in. I think I can swing that. One question, all this when your trying to smoke someone? Seems like it takes a few secs vs. instant downshift. But thanks for the breakdown. I appreciate bro.

 

Like I said, you will get fast with practice. It doesn't take seconds to do this, only tenths of a second. Some of those steps can also be done at the same time. To speed it up even more, don't let the clutch back out in neutral, just stomp on the gas while still in neutral with the clutch in; there will still be enough friction to spin the gears up; I like to double clutch it though. There is no waiting to "make sure it has enough time to align itself properly before you put the clutch back in," you just go for it because you have it spun up. Also with practice you don't even need to look at the tach, you will know by the sound of the engine if its right. Another reason to have a loud exhaust . . . You may even find you can downshift faster this way, since you don't have to wait for the syncros to spin up the gears as you attempt to force it into a much lower gear.

 

watch the movie Bullitt with Steve McQueen, there is one man who knew how to match revs!!!!

 

Well I haven't seen Bullitt, I see that's from 1968, I'll have to rent that one. Listening to someone that can really drive is music to the ears. Hey I'll tell ya another one, this one's my favorite so far: "Rendezvous." "To make this film, renowned French director Claude Lelouch first mounted a camera on the nose of his Ferrari, then drove flat out through the streets of Paris at dawn." The whole thing is just this high reving V-12, being shifted up and down and never missing a shift as the driver dodges other cars, garbage trucks, pedestrians, you name it! In one place he runs three red lights in a row. Suposedly none of it was staged either. This is the wildest friggin' car flick I've ever seen! It was filmed in 1970, but was only recently released as the statute of limitations ran out on liabilty to the driver. From Pyramid Film & Video.

 

BTW, once you guys master double clutching, you're still not done learning to really drive because you must develop a good "heel & toe" technique. Doing this you can apply the brakes and slow down with your heel while at the same time blipping the throttle with the toes of the same foot to double-clutch your way down through the gears. Once you get good enough to do that and hit every gear at the right rpm, you will be having so much fun you will never understand why in the hell anybody buys a sports car with an automatic transmission!

 

Cal your crazy....lol but yea I'll work on it buddy. Maybe someday I'll get it. Or Not. Still have fun driving my M6!!!!!!

 

Oh yeah, but you will have a lot more fun if you can get this down. May sound crazy, but it's not that hard once you understand what to do and practice it a bit. Hell, I heal & toe / double clutch many times a day on the way to & from work. I could do it in my sleep. It's kinda like riding a bicycle. My father in law and his brother taught it to me; they are both in their 60's and are still better at it than I am. They drive exotic cars where double clutching is more a requirement than an option.