Anybody ever heard of a '89 Camaro with a factory 6 speed? A friend of mine says he has one. There's no motor (originally a v6) and it has the f41 code. Was this an option in 1989?

 

Welcome to TGO. No OE 6-speed was ever produced that I'm aware of.

JamesC

 

Thanks. I didnt think so, but he knows a lot about camaros and swears it was a very rare option that went with the f41.

 

Here's more about the F41 option (and it has nothing to do with transmissions):

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...41-camaro.html

JamesC

 

Yes that $40 F41 RPO had a lot of extra performance items, wish I had it...

 

Unless your counting reverse as a "speed" then no camaro factory produced car came 6 speed especially a v-6. 5 forward gear selections at the most.

 

Anything is possible. Check out this link

www.firebirdgallery.com/hawklot1.htm

Its possible that he is just mistaken about the year and that its a firebird instead of a camaro. The ZF 6 was the standard tranny for corvettes from '89-94.

 

that would not be a FACTORY 6 speed car, and ur friend is an idiot and does not have a car that came factory v6 and 6 speed and u are an idiot for keeping on about this when we tell you otherwise.....

 

Im sorry oh great f body guru... I forgot that you personally witnessed EVERY car roll off of te assembly lines at both factories...

www.thirdgen.org/1992-pontiac-firebird

...and I may be an idiot.

"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Ben Franklin

 

If you have ever seen a ZF-6 transmission, you would know that there is no way in hell that the ZF-6 could be installed into a 3rd gen. Its part of the trans axle on the C4 corvette. The transmission is mounted on the rear of the car and is connected to the engine by a Uni-Drive shaft.

Same goes for all those rumors of "factory equipped" LT5 3rd gens. It never happened. Only one 1992 25th anniversary 3rd gen came with the LT5 and at that it was a prototype. That car is currently in the GM heritage collection.

 

The ZF is not mounted in the rear, that's the T56 on C5 and C6s. The ZF6 S6-40 is a normal engine mounted tranny with a c beam pad on the rear, no rear mount. It's a very bulky transmission but the only real obstacle in installing one is the position of the clutch slave. Most come w/ magnesium bellhousings, if you have an 89 it came w/ an aluminum one and you can cut and weld it to reposition the slave cyl downward to clear the floor.

This is a ZF6 speed:

 

Ok. I dont want to keep beating a dead horse, but Im getting conflicting information. Check out this link. Look at the diagrams. Read the tech notes. I dont think that it mounts to the rear of the car.

www.zfdoc.com/techinfo.htm


Also, the ZF 6 WAS on the '92 Firehawks. So it is possible to put that tranny into a third gen.

 

well didn't they also build 2 prototypes of the 25th anniversary camaro with a ZF 6speed installed? probably not related to this though. and imho, this 25th anniv we speak of was equipped with a corvette-like L98.

 

Yes...

"A Special 25th Anniversary 'Collector's Edition' 1992 Chevrolet Camaro was planned, but then dropped. There were to be 602 (same as the number of 1967 Z/28's) produced. Only two prototypes were completed however. The prototype Collector's Edition Camaro started as a white Heritage Edition RS with black stripes and body colored grill. Then the B4C police package was added. It was equipped with the Corvette L98 5.7 aluminum head engine, fitted with siamesed intake runners, and then tubular headers. This brought the horsepower rating up to 270. They were also equipped with a ZF 6-speed and GTA black `lace' 16x8 wheels. Only 1 of the 2 cars were kept by GM and can still be seen at shows."


It is very unlikely that we ar talking about the second prototype... but it isnt impossible.

 

Exactly, and last week or so I posted a pic of a GM car with the LT5 and S6-40
(ZR1 engine + ZF6) so it does fit with some hacking and sawing. Stick location is a little far back though, here's a ZF w/ a T5 next to it

 

That is a beefy damn tranny.

 

Yes, it's f-in huge Too bad I've got no comparison pic but it's a good bit larger than a T56 even and also much bigger than a TKO600. I could snap a pic w/ the T56 next to it, the TKO is in a car so no way there.

It shifts like butter though, I like the one in my 91 so much better than the T56 that was in the 2001 C5 or the 2005 C6, they are much more notchy than the ZF

If it wasn't such a PITA I'd have put it in the camaro. The one in the pic does have an alu bell. The one in my 1st pic has a magnesium bell (it even says magnesium right on it on the pass side)

 

Im thinking that IF this guys car is a 6 spd, it almost has to be the zf6.

 

well since 89 minus 25 results in a year where no camaros were built yet..

nice info on the C4 ZF 6speed. i read that thing was beefy, but damn that thing is big really!

 

I havent actually seen this car yet, and wont for about another month since Im in the army stationed in El Paso and my ets isnt until 1 July and the car is in my hometown in Arkansas. What Im getting at, is for all I know this guy could be a complete moron and really have a damn c4... I was just trying to get some information from a few knowledgable sources to see if it was even worth wasting my time to look at. I have to admit that all this has made me curious about what it really is. I dont think you could mistake a 6 spd tranny for anything else.

 

It's real easy to see if it has a ZF6, the reverse lockou it under the **** and it has the reverse gear next to the 6th, not the 5th. The 94 tranny is a crash through reverse lockout.

 

That is the first I've seen the ZF setup like that. I was in the Corvette Museum a couple weeks ago and the ZF was installed in the rear of the Corvette. Where the trans normally goes was the Uni-Drive that connected the engine to the trans.

ZF is made by a German based company, so what they have over there may not necessarily be what we get over here.

 

No, that's a T56, the C5 corvette was the 1st to come with a rear diff w/ tranny, sort of like a transaxle setup. It uses a torque tube to connect the engine (w/ clutch/flywheel) to the transmission.

ZF is Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshaven (literally means gear factory in the town of Friedrichshaven) but the blue tags are all made in the US. The black tags (the ones I have) are made in Germany.

There never was another ZF tranny installed in a vette after the C4.

 

This is a C5 Borg Warner T56 complete with torque tube. The diff is a getrag unit.

 

oh

 

which is a better transmission the ZF6 or the t56?

 

T56 in terms of install, parts availablility and price. When it comes to butter smooth shifting, the ZF is hard to beat. It shifts better than the C5 & C6 trannies. The black tags are german built and a little tougher than the blue tag americans (and all replacements are blue tags also)

 

This board and its members have come across virtually every combination of these cars ever produced. As far as I'm concerned, TGO is the authority on 3rdgen production combinations. No there was no 6 speed ever put in a 3rdgen V6 car. The ZF was put into some Firebirds BY SLP to turn them into Firehawks; It still rolled off the assembly line at GM as a Firebird Formula.

 

The neutral indexing of the synchros in a ZF S6-40 was copied & implemented in the Tremec TR-6060.

The synchronization teeth height is at varying levels in the S6-40, whereas if a T56 is subject to poor clutch hydraulics / driving, all teeth get wiped out at once.

The mainshaft of the F-body T56 is small GM 27 spline; the S6-40 is big GM 32 spline.

To answer your question, probably the ZF6 S6-40. But, the T56 is easier and cheaper to rebuild in comparison. The TR-6060 is probably best of the 3.