Will a 5 speed manual transmission from a 1989 Camaro RS V6 work in a 1986 V8 Z28?

I am able to buy the donor car running with the parts I need for $200. Though I am sure I would need the appropriate flywheel for my motor.

 

Not really, unless you significantly downgrade the clutch.

 

What do you mean?

 

You have to put some weenie 6-cyl clutch disc in it, that's a smaller outer diameter. It's supposedly the one from something like an Astro van or some such. But those are about an inch smaller OD than a V8 clutch, so they would have 70% as much grip at best, and probably less.

The thing that's different is the splines on the trans's clutch gear.

If you're talking about doing a whole auto-to-manual swap, pass. Get the right car instead. Don't "alternate engineer" something like that.

 

Well I currently have a 86 Z28 with a 700R4, its got full suspension, 400hp, I use it for drag racing, but I am really getting into SCCA racing but I would definatly benefit from a manual in Solo 1 and 2.

I figured at some point I would buy a whole new 5 or 6 speed manual and swap it for the 700R4. However the oppertunity to get this donor car for $200 just recently sprung up and got the gears spinning. I just figured i could steal the whole clutch, pedal and hydraulic assembly for the car and swap the 5 speed in for now.

 

Not entirely true RB. The Astro disc is 10.5 inch where as the V8 disc is 10.4. The V6 disc is like 9 and 1/4 inch or something tiny like that. McLeod makes a 10 inch disc that is 1 inch by 14 spline. The V8 tranny is 1 and 1/8 by 26 spline I think, somebody might want to correct me on that. I did the same thing that you are doing, I bought a running V6 car for $180 and took the rear end and put it in my 86 Z ( 3.42 ratio) I was going to run the V6 T5 but found a pretty good deal on a complete swap kit with a flywheel, clutch, Ripper shifter, and a rebuilt V8 transmission, so the V6 tranny is on the shelf. It is a weaker transmission because of the smaller input shaft and the lower gear ratio's though. It's your call, I don't think I would try to run it now, but it has been done. Try a search on the transmission board, there is some good info there. Hope this helps some.

 

Even if you get a V6 parts car, you're still going to need the V8 bellhousing and flywheel. By the time you spend money on that crap, you can just get a V8 T5 setup.