I have my LS1 and my T56 in my 1990 camaro and I was trying to bolt in the transmission crossmember (the Hawks 1984-92 CAMARO/FIREBIRD LSX SWAP TRANS CROSSMEMBER FOR LS SWAP WITH T56 TRANS) with a new poly mount. It was a bit of a pain with the fuel and brake lines, but I made it work (just pushed them up some). My motor is mounted with the 82-92 CAMARO/FIREBIRD LSX SWAP MOTOR MOUNT PADS from Hawks using two original holes in the K member and I drilled two others using the clamshell as a template (no problem).

Anyway, the enigne is in and has about 1/4 of clearance for the oil pan/K member. However, the bolt for the transmission crossmember/mount doesn't line up. It seems the transmission would need to go about 1cm further forward to line up with the slot in the crossmember. It's also just a bit off center (about an inch).

I'm guessing I will need to loosen my bolts holding the clamshells to the K member and that'll fix my left/right alignment issues (a slight change up there should have a large change at the back of the transmission), but I don't know about how seemingly far back the transmission sits. It's well mated/torqued to the bellhousing and engine. And I REALLY don't want to have to try to loosen/tighten those clamshell bolts since it's a royal pain to get to them with the suspension together.

Anyone have thoughts or experience with this?

 

You'll have to play the loosen, shift and tighten game. It can be a pain. The hawks xmember is sub optimal at fitment to begin with. Once you get the left to right adjustment down you may have to fab an extension bracket between the xmember and the trans.

 

That's good to hear. I don't think I CAN move the engine far enough forward without removing it and beating the hell out of the K member (and I'm not excited about removing the engine AGAIN).

 

I had a similar issue but I used ICT adapter mounts and my hawks crossmember would not line up with the transmission mount. My dad welded a piece of metal to the hawks crossmember and redrilled the hole. The transmission mount was like about 1/2 inch off from the crossmember.

 

I had similar issues and ended up notching the K member to fit my LS1 oil pan. There is just not very much room for these motors in these cars!

 

Yeah, I was hoping I didn't have to and so far I have not! ...unless I need to move things forward more. I guess once I get things straightened up, I will see where my shifter fits (after I put the console back in)

 

I loosened the mount bolts a little, but still the thing didn't move any side to side. That's ok, it wasn't very far off. I slotted my Hawks crossmember a bit and was able to mount it all up. The back of the hawks crossmember sags a little... the thing doesn't seem to be as nice as it appears, but I'm sure it'll work.

Thanks to all who said the Hawks unit required modification. Now I have to try to re-tighten those motor mount bolts... eek.

 

Just in case you wish to make your own, or modify a cross-member...

Here is a cross-member that I used to produce for T-56, Early and Late 4L60E.
You can use this image as a reference to make your own: