Is this tranny a direct bolt in to a T-5 car?
Can I buy the tremec and use the old belhousing, hydrolics, etc.. of the T-5?
I was gonna get a T56 but is the same money either way and the Tremec is stronger.
Thanks

 

Nope, not a direct bolt-on. It requires a custom cross member, GM speedo cable conversion, and I believe a new bellhousing. The stock clutch works if I remember right.

Either way, you might try Darkhorse Performance (www.darkhorseperformance.com), they sell "bolt-in" Tremec conversions for our cars for about $1500 for the 3550 up to a TKO Roadrace for about $2300.

Jason

 

I just installed a TKO in my '91 Z last month so here's the low down. You'll need a speedo adapter & cross-member adapter. The transmission comes w/ a new yoke that will need to be adapted to your driveshaft and theres a small 2" or so plate that welds to your shifter handle and bolts to the shifter to move the handle back to the right position in your console. It's not a direct bolt in b/c it's a mustang tranny modified to be universal, but overall a lot easier to install than the t-56. The only serious mod required was removing one of the eyelets from the casing at the rear mount so the speedo adaptor would clear. I bought mine from Fortes AutoParts for $2200, including accessories & shipping. The TKO is rated at 525 ft. lbs of torque, the highest rated t-56 is 450 ft. lbs. Fortes recommended 1000 miles for break-in and to run regular Dextron II ATF fluid, not synthetic. If you want more info drop me a line. Hope this helps.

------------------
'91 Z28 1LE; 355, Sportsman II heads, Edelbrock TPI w/ 58mm TB, Tremec TKO 5-speed, 3.73's & much, much more

 

what about the cross member mount and the bellhousing. can you use stock? What is the speedo conversion. I have a 91 with a vss now like you. do you have any pics you could send me

 

jesus guys what are you doing? you can get a tko that will bolt into an f-body with very very minor adjustment from fortes

http://www.fortesparts.com/

The kit comes with the tranny, an adapter plate that bolts the tranny up to your stock bellhousing, two spacers for your crossmember to fit the tranny in, a shifter, a speedo adapter, a yoke, and an adapter u-joint. you can use the stock clutch, as the tko has a regular 26 spline gm input shaft on it. i installed it with an engine swap, but its not a tough install at all.

I love the thing, its a great tranny. with everything i bought with it, i paid about 2400 bucks including a pro 5.0 shifter for it.

for all intents and purposes, the thing is a direct bolt in. really easy to do

this is all in my 91 camaro with an electronic speedo

 

I just bought the F body TKO from Fortes last week.
Gonna install it next weekend (when I'll be able to use a lift at my friend's dealership)
Mine's also got the adapter for the electronic speedo.
Mike Fortes kit makes it a bolt-in conversion, like mentioned above.
More tranny than I should ever need.
So glad to be getting rid of the weak T5!
-Rich-

 

ya its a great tranny if you can deal with mike forte....hes a pain in the ***, but he puts out a pretty good package. i live about 20 min from his shop so i deal with him pretty regularly.

 

I bought a Forte's TKO kit and was very pleased. Mike was great to deal with and had the kit at my door in 72 hours.

I wouldn't call it a direct bolt in, but its not exactly custom fabrication.

bolt on the adapter plate to your stock bell housing

remove the shifter and install the tranny to the bell housing

you will need to do some minor cutting and grinding to fit the crossmember relocation kit, it moves the crossmember down and rearward on one side to fit the TKO.

you replace your front ujoint with a spicer that fits the new yoke, if you need a TKO you should have fresh ujoints and do the rear one at the same time.

install the shifter to the tranny and mark and drill the adapter plate to position the shifter handle in the right place.

i have a mechanical speedo so i just needed an adapter

i got the correct backup light switch from Mike.

its a 2 day job if you do it by yourself, my advice is to put the 2 trannys side by side and transfer all the hardware first, the TKO is all sae while the T5 is metric this will be a set back if you are not prepared for it. Other than that its not particularly difficult.

BTW you will love it when your done!!!

 

it shouldnt take you two days to do a swap with that kit as long as you have enough room under the car to work.....i didnt have a lift. but the back of the car was waaaay high, which also makes it easier to slide the engine in.

 

It took me 2 days because i did it by myself in 98 degree heat of July with a Torn shoulder. I also had to get sae hardware because i have a lakewood scattersheild, and my crossmember bolt holes were stripped. I didn't have all the hardware for adapting the shifter, my original shift ball was long gone, so i adaped my hurst stick, requiring more hardware i didn'thave.
I don't think its a one day job for most people, i used to change my clutch in a bout 2 hours by my self, not counting time for cutting the fly wheel. this took longer. One other thing to remember is taking the shifter housing off completely ( didn't think i needed to do this) because the TKO is bigger all arounf and closer to the tunnel, you will not be able to get it in with the shifter stub sticking up.

 

My TKO came with a shifter, there was no adaptation required at all.....granted i threw away the ****ty one it came with and put on a pro 5.0 shifter. and yes its alot easier to put the tranny in with the shifter off.

my tranny was in the box with the shifter already mounted in the correct (rearmost) shifter location. I didnt have to fabricate anything.

it seems that the crossmember bolts strip the threads out quite often.....alot of people tend to overtighten them though.

 

the pro 5.0 shifter put it in the stock location?

 

ok guys I am going to be getting a tremec from Forte's soon, I am getting the cheaper of the two. Now from what I can gather it comes with the shifter, the adapter plate for the bellhousing, the yoke for the drive shaft( I can use the stock driveshaft right?). and I will need to buy the spacers for the crossmember, andi have an electric speedo so do i need anythign for that? so shoudl i get out for liek 2 grand?

 

a tremec for a GM car has the shifter located in the same position as it is on a stock t5....on the back near the tailshaft housing. the flange that the shifter bolts to is the same as all the other tremec shifters though....which is a plus....

this allows you to use the mustang tremec pro 5.0 shifter...which is far and away the best shifter for the tremec.

however, you will have to weld a piece on the end of the handle, as it is made for a stang and is about an inch and a half too short. i welded the piece on and drilled new holes, bolted it up to the shifter and it comes about 4 inches above the console....nice short stick.

the transmission comes with a shifter (crappy OEM one) installed on it. it is already setup to go right into the f-body. but remember you must use a tremec shifter, stock f-body shifters and aftermarket shifters for the t5 will not work

 

mine came with the little adapter plate that had to be drilled for proper fit, i didnot use the rubber mounted stock tremec shifter handle i used the hurst stick from my T5 shifter. it also needed to be moved over to fit right. I would like a pro 5.0 but i think the stock shifter ( without the rubber handle) is really good compared to the stock T5 shifter

 

Great post. I am currently converting from the 700R4 to the Tremec TKO. I am using the GM version, Lakewood Bellhousing, and Spohn's crossmember, which will accept the Spohn torque arm that I had with the 700R4. I have scored all the Camaro hardware from a local wreckers but don't have a great feeling about the plastic hydraulics. Anyone ever used the Macleod aftermarket hydraulics?

 

i really dont understand why you had to modify anything to mount the shifter.....unless the particular tranny that you got wasnt the the F-Late (intended for 3rd and 4th gens). like i said before, the tranny came with the tremec shifter installed on it.....it has a rectangular 6 bolt flange. it did have that stupid rubber isolated handle on it. i threw the whole thing away and bolted the pro 5.0 power tower shifter right on

 

"it did have that stupid rubber isolated handle on it. i threw the whole thing away and bolted the pro 5.0 power tower shifter right on"

i did not throw away the Tremec shifter, i used it. I do not have a Pro 5.0. Mine came with an adapter plate aproximately 1 1/4" by 1" by 1/4" thick. it had 2 holes drilled in it to bolt to the shifter stub. the other 2 holes for mounting the shift handle had to be located and drilled, thus allowing you to adjust the angle back and forth. The tremec handle is slightly offset, but as i said i did not use the tremec handle i used the strait handle from the hurst shifter and used washers to make up the offset. It might be possible to just bolt the tremec handle to the stub without the plate but it won't be centerd in neutral.

 

do you mean an adapter to bolt the handle onto the shifter? or to bolt the shifter housing to the transmission?

 

handle onto shifter, yess

 

ahhh i see said the blind man.....

you lie said his deaf and dumb brother as the paraplegic got up and ran away.....

but thats where i was confused, i was talkin about the shifter body itself onto the tranny.

i took the 1/4 stick that came with the pro 5.0 and welded a piece on the end about an inch and a half long. it fits mint now, and its about 3-4 inches above the console, and the action is nice short and tight. i highly recommend it unless your really partial to what you have now.

 

i'm not partial to what i have now, infact im glad to here you really like the pro 5.0. its just an extra 200 bucks right now is too much for me. maybe by summer

 

i paid about 150 or 160 for mine i think, it was well worth the cash.....you'll love it

 

Installed my TKO today.
Started at 11 AM, finished by 6.
Time inluded two trips to the hardware store and lunch.
Did it on the lift at the dealership my friend works at.

Bought from Fortes,
no real complications, was able to get it in without removing the shifter stub (something I was never able to do with my T5) adapted the stick of my Hurst Comp Plus shifter from the T5, but will probably get the Pro 5.0 Shifter in the Spring.
Clutch looked good, so I put it back in, but installed a new T.O. Bearing and Pilot Bearing while I was in there.


I'll be breaking it in all day tomorrow!

-Rich-

 

cool man.....i see your from california, its crazy how far away some people are that buy stuff from mike. i have the luxury of being right down the street from him, so when i dont like something i can go rip him a new ******* in person lol. the equipment is usually good, but if you need to deal with someone down there, dave mikes right hand man is the guy to talk to. theres this other guy leighton but he doesnt know his a*ss from his elbow. i was in there one day, while mike was on the phone selling someone a tranny in england....weird

 

Just an FYI, D&D Performance sells the TKO for $1300. We bought one from there for my brother's 96 GT, and I'll be getting one soon for my 91 GT. It just comes with a shifter, bellhousing adapter, and the driveshaft yoke, though. How much is the total coast of the speedo adapter, and crossmember adapter(or Spohn crossmember)? You could fabricate your own crossmember, or modify the stock one and save quite a bit of money! Also, I would highly suggest using GM Synchromesh fluid. IIRC, that might be what TTC suggests also.

 

The TKO for the mustang is cheaper than the ones modified for GM applications.

 

The GM unit has a different input shaft (26 spline) and the shaft and bearing retainer are longer to make up for the difference of the adapter plate (1" thick).
The original crossmember works, but needs to be modified a little and spaced down about 3/4".
The electronic speedo adapter was $89 (I think).
And it came with 3 quarts of GM Syncromesh fluid.
-Rich-

 

mike forte changes his mind on what he reccomends for fluid on a daily basis.....whatever happens to be more expensive at the time you buy the tranny actually. i have GM synchromesh in the trans right now, and i think that the redline ATF i had in it before was better.....the shifts seemed smoother.

just for info,

i once watched mike forte roll up a 20 dollar bill and smoke it in front of a customer to illustrate how meaningless 20 bucks was in the course of building an engine/car. hes a weirdo

 

Every TKO has a 26 spline input shaft. Mustangs have to get a special clutch disk because stock ones have 10 splines.

 

Does Forte's Tremec 3550 come with the bellhousing? The picture on the site shows a nice red painted bellhousing attached to the trans. I currently have an auto and will need a bellhousing...

 

But,, i will probably have an extra. my 3550 has arrived today and it will have one I will likely not need. PM me if interrested.

 

You need to reuse a T5 bellhousing...it doesn't come with one.

 

so what does the spacer that goes between the bellhousing and tremec do? Does it move the tranny so it sits straight instead of canted like the t-5? When I get the tko i plan on getting the lakewood bellhousing and spohn crossmember and torque arm kit.

 

The adapter does line the trans vertically, instead of at an angle like the stock T5.
The Adapter's 1" thick, so the input shaft and bearing retainer are both also 1" longer than the T5's to make up for the difference.
This makes it possible to use the exact same clutch and throwout bearing as with the T5.
The only guy I spoke to that had the Lakewood bellhousing said he had to try a few different throwout bearings to get the release where he wanted it with the Tremec trans.
I'd like to get one of those Spohn crossmember/torque arms when I can afford one.
-Rich-

 

thanks for the info RICH92RS350!