Hi, I just bought a 92' Firebird for 500$

It's a LH0 3.1 V6 Automatic <--- (Is that the right name for my engine?)
The car has 140,000 miles and runs great.

I want to Convert it to a Manuel but I know almost nothing about cars. I would want to do the work myself. Does anyone here know how to convert and what kinda prices I'd be looking at, also would it damage my car?

 

It's fairly straight forward, although I wouldn't recommend doing it by yourself if you haven't done anything like that before. Basically you would need the following stuff from a V6 5-speed car:
Transmission & Bellhousing
Flywheel
Clutch
Pressure Plate
Clutch pedal assembly
Clutch master cylinder
Clutch slave cylinder
Clutch fork
Shifter
Computer chip from a 5-speed 3.1L car
Console top from a 5-speed car
Pilot and throwout bearings

You also have to cut out a hole for the shifter. Everything except for the computer chip could come from either a 2.8L or 3.1L car, and they're not too hard to find. Probably the best bet would be to find a donor car, and pull everything all at once. I'd guess around $1000 or so in parts, assuming you get a new clutch, pressure plate, pilot, and throwout bearing. It wouldn't do any damage to the car, assuming it was done right. To be honest though, I wouldn't try it without some help. Even if you've done it before, it's a lot of work, and trying to wrestle a transmission around by yourself isn't much fun.

 

Thanks alot for the help!, yeah I am only 17 but I would definitly rather work on the car myself and learn then pay a mecanic 2k to install and stuff.
Maybe I'll try to see if I can PayPal this site some money as it's a great source with great people.

So if I do this conversion my auto transmission would be pretty much useless; because I would have a totally different transmission. Correct? OH and does it have to come from another 92' f-bird? or any car with those parts

 

honestly it would be hard for me to justify putting a grand into a tranny swap on a car that you paid $500 for that has 140,000 miles on the stock v6.

manual transmissions can be fun on a fast car, but IMHO they are just a pain on something that is relatively slow.


i am sorry for the bluntness but that is just how i view things.

 

I see what you mean, im going to be putting in a air filter, exhulst, and a turbo ( all I know that will give me power) so that should bump me up to 220 hp. I heard about doing the Ls1 swap but I don't even know where to begin finding that engine. I'f im right they only come on the 1997 camaro and up?

 

An air filter or a CAI of some sort? With all the stuff you plan on doing, I sure hope you have at least some mechanical know-how or someone else that can help you out a lot. I agree with impaled. It's almost not worth doing if it costs you more to do that than you bought it for.

I'm only 17 as well and I wouldn't have even attempted putting headers on without a friend to help. As well as I had someone help me with my clutch. We were all no older than 18, so as long as you have someone help you, you can do it. Just research it a lot and have some people explain it almost step-by-step you should do just fine.

 

ya, an air filter for the intake; I don't know what a CAI is.
I'm working on it myself but I figured if I used the search feature on here I could get alot of help through that.

 

CAI = cold air intake which is an upgraded intake of what you already have. The search will help you out a lot, but you're still going to need someone who can do the work..

 

im only 18 as well. you should try to look for a beat up V8 5 speed camaro. find one with a 350 or 305 but the 350 is better although you can only find a 5 speed with a 305 unless someone had it swapped. and you will have everything you need to do a engine swap for more power instead of messing with that v6 and youl have the 5 speed outta it and all the parts that youd need to do that to. you can look for a 85-97 camaro for the parts. im saying up to 97 cause you can use the lt1 motor and transmission and rear end outta those cars to. but yea thats all i guess

 

just stick to the auto man, save up your money for the v8 swap or a turbo setup.... later down the road when youve gotten alot more knowledge and experience under your belt go for the manual swap then but its really not worth it on the v6l car, plus if u do run a turbo eventually the automatic will probably be a lil faster. for several reasons 1. no missing shifts, 2. no loss of boost when u shift cause throttle never closes.....i know manuals are fun but u will regret spending all that time and money later on.... and if someone wants to call bs on any of that u better have more then a stock v6 with cold air intake and catback or u are just wasting your breath cause i wont be taking you seriously....

 

Alright thanks for all your information and oppions!

 

even if you were to do a manual swap, with a turbo on the six the tranny would probably not hold up well. if you do a little more reading and learning, you will hear that the reason why GM never mated the 5.7 TPI (L98) with a manual because their manual transmission couldnt handle the power safely, and they are only rated in the 250/3xx hp/tq range.