NV3500 to T56 swap (T56 guys help me lol)
 

I'm going to be swapping out my 4.3 for a LQ9 i got a hold of. The NV3500 is just gonna have to do for now. ( i know it wont hold up, lets get passed that part) This will not be a track truck, basically just my daily driver so im trying to do the swap without any snags. I don't tow very often and when i do its a micro car (800 pounds) on a trailor for 20-30 miles I've been doing my research into the T56 swap and from what I've gathered ill be needing the trans from an LS1, LS7 clutch, Fbody slave, 4l60 driveshaft(?), and definitely some 4.88's. Ill end up doing the drill mod while I'm at it just for the hell of it but my question to you T56 guys is, how strong are these transmissions. I keep seeing these stage 2/3 tranny builds. Is this because yall are tracking your trucks or because the weight these things have behind them. My RCSB isnt much heavier than a CTS-V and lighter than a Ram SRT and these are warrantied from the factory. I dont plan on putting down any more than 400 at the wheels either. So should i just get any T56 and drop it in or bite the bullet and buy a built one?

Well its kinda a a crap shoot. Some guys have decent luck, some guys blow them to pieces in factory 320hp camaros. 400hp seems to be the tipping point on them with my experience.

Personally i wouldn't go through the trouble of doing a swap with a used tranny that may not hold up. I would keep a close eye on ls1 tech for one. Any Fbody or GTO t56 is ideal, GTO trans will need a new shifter cup and starter off a gto however.

Both RAM and CTS-v have stronger trans then a fbody.

Sounds like the safest bet is to call up tick performance and get a stage 2 rebuild. This swap is starting to get quite expensive... I gotta try and make some money off the old motor and trans, every bit counts at this point.

I'm running a T56 from an 01' F-body. I built it up myself with a typical stage 2/3 kit. Basically has all of the upgrades possible before changing input/output shafts. I've been putting close to 600rwhp through it for some time in my heavy ECSB, and no problem chirping tires on 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. The clutch (SPEC 3+) is going out however so I am doing an 80E swap here soon.

If you're near stock power a stock T56 should hold up well. Definitely try to find a GTO T56 which has a much better 1st gear for trucks.

Gto t56 transmissions have c5z gearing. The f body gearing is quite longer.

You can also try to find one out of an ls2 ssr which is supposed to have some stronger case webbing for use in the heavier ssr.

It's not really the HP that kills stock T56's. Usually it boils down to how hard of a life it endured throughout its lifespan. If you're the type of person that likes to speed shift from every stop light then things are obviously going to wear out and fail more quickly, even a built T56.

95% of the internals of a stock T56 will hold up to incredible amounts of power, including the stock main shaft and input shaft. There are just a few components within them that fail and those failures don't have anything to do with hp levels. Most failures occur from abuse, excessive mileage or poor maintenance or any combination of the prior.

Most common failures:
Syncros/blocking rings (worn out or broken they will cause grinding)
stock stamped steel keys (these usually break then get jammed and won't let the syncro slider engage the next gear)
Broken fork pads (these break and won't let the syncro slider fully engage causing grinding)
Stripped/broken slider engagement teeth on drive gear (once these break off it's over for that gear)
Worn syncro sliders (these round off a little bit with every grinding of a gear. Once they get worn out the syncro slider assy needs to be replaced)
Aluminum 3-4 shift fork (these usually either wear out with an oblonged rail hole causing poor syncro slider engagement or they break into pieces)

Bottom line is, a well cared for low mileage stock T56 can live quite comfortably behind a 400-450rwhp car/truck as long as it's not abused on a daily basis. The only downside is that if you're buying a used one it's almost impossible to tell the condition of the internals without cracking it open. Some of these LS style Fbody T56's are 16 years old so finding a decent stock one is a bit difficult.

Good luck.

Mike

T56 swap is not a cheap venture for the most part. I came from a 4l65e to a t56, and went with a t56 magnum. After everything all said and done Im sitting around 9000$

Holy ****! Lol. Well coming from a nv3500 I think it will be much cheaper seeing as how I'm (almost) just swapping out transmissions and have manual components already in place. The motor is getting the auto codes deleted and a simple tune (til the cam swap) with my buddies hp tuner so that's cheap. So I think the stage 2 t56 and gear swap is the only thing that's gonna hurt my wallet.. Thank god for tax returns lol. As far as speed shifting goes, I'm not gonna beat on it daily. Mainly just enjoy the powerband. After all is said and done I'm hoping to put a beat down on my buddies SRT Jeep that he thinks is GOD. Atleast from a roll..

Makes life a little easier that I have a gmt800 boneyard to pick through close by as well :) sort of off topic, but I'm gonna pick up a set of 285/60/17 proxies, is that gonna hold up to 400 at the wheels? What are you guys running?

im running some 275/55R-20 Yokohama Parada Spec-X XL

I wouldn't worry about tires if they are round and hold air you are in good shape....