Bellhousing will bolt up but that first gear sucks its too low. Leanlow since your truck is lifter with bigger tires you could probably get away with it but its still not a performance tranny and you will munch the damn synchros when you try and speed shift it. I would just do the 80e like I said alot less fabricting and you can get in it and drive and hual *** and outrun everyone. The manual takes too long to shift and is useless IMO. Im an automatic kind of guy though.

 

if this truck is ever taken offroading, and driven on the highway as well, then the ZF 6-speed would be about perfect. a granny low can be awesome trying to crawl something

for the extra time a manual may take for the average guy to shift, it makes up for with 20+hp less parasitic loss. plus, it makes tuning easier, especially with a stand alone, and allows a larger cam than would be street friendly with an automatic.

 

I think what i am going to do for now is just go with the built 80e and get everything running like we want, but that is not to say that we wont do it someday. What gear ratio should i have in the tranny and rear? My truck is a little on the heavy side so i need a good take off, but it is also going to be used on the interstate and hy so i need a good high gear.

Where would be a good place to get a 80e, send me some links, i have looked at finish line that was rec. to me. Looks good

 

Not trying to step on your toes but a manual is not the way to go with that heavy of a truck and that much hp if it was so good dont you think the top guys would be using one but amazingly none use a manual all are automatics with 80e variants in it. Bottom line an 80e bullet proof when built correctly and will last forever. A stall can be put in it to stall to the correct rpm needed and its consistant a touch of the throttle the wrong way with a manual and you have instant burning tires or bog the engien with a stall it takes off the same way evrytime. Tuning that is true but when you are going to the trouble of sopending all that money you can get someone to tune it correctly. Something tells me this truck wont be taken offroad. With the gutter sucking sts any deep water or just simply throwing mud up onto the filter could kill the engine and with a 13grand engien I wouldnt recommend that. The 6speeds super low first gear will give him nothing but smoke shows even if 4wd IMO something with a first gear ratio of closer to 3 would be bettter IE the 80e with the first gear ratio modified with the kit. Like I said in an earlier post I would go with 3.73s thats a good highway gear and you will have plenty of power to move that truck on out just fine.

 

who are these "top guys" that insist upon the 4l80e? street racers? automatic lovers like yourself? sure, it's a cheap way to get your automatic truck to take more power, but it's certainly not a bulletproof cure for the power and weight proposed.

and why is this truck lifted with big wheels/tires if it's never going to go offroad? does he just love blowing money on gas and parts that he'll never use? and no one seams to be having any problems with their STS's offroad... if fact, I have yet to hear of anyone actually hydrolocking their engine. that's speculation that borders on libel.

and 3.73's with 33"+ tires and that much weight will be a dog. 3.73's don't even give me and my 30" tires much fun. now the ZF 6-speed and 3.08-3.54's would rock on and off road

 

actually hes very knowledgable...and i'm pretty sure he's not 17

3.73 sounds a bit low, but with that much power, i'm not sure you would want any higher gears because of traction issues
however, automatics really are not as bad as you make it out to be.
a built 80 is pretty bulletproof. check out the FLP level 5 80E...it is bulletproof enough for parish...

that being said, a 6 speed with that much power would be pretty cool. the only problem would be being able to launch well...most people cant do it better than automatics can do it

my opinion...flp level 5 4l80e

 

Ok read this thread, f8l z71 killed his engine running through heavy rain
https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...d.php?t=232660
The "top" guys are parish8, blacksheep, 2toneblown(th400 with transbrake) and turbobeserker there are many mroe and guess what they all run autos.
I dont know why his truck is lifted and is spending all this money that would be a question to ask leanlow btu the sts system is not going to be happy going through deep mud holes and so on or else I would have bought one a long time ago. Next 3.73s with 900hp is a big difference then your 30inchers with what maybe 300rwhp I dotn know your mods. I have 3.73s with 32" tires and with 325rwhp it gets up and goes pretty good. The stall cures the bottom end woes. Next parish I believe has thoroughly tested a well built 80e he killed one cause he kept the converter locked trough the shifts thats extremely hard on a transmission. HE since got it fixed and has put 1100hp through it and run the **** out of it and no problems. You dont want to get in a pissing match with me and I dont want to get in one with oyu. I am well informed and have been through a bunch of **** and do all my work myself so I know what I am talking about. My friend mjhoward(sn here on pt.net) has a 4.8 with a radix and a 5 speed his truck hauls *** but the shifts take too long and it is hard for him to get traction cause he has to launch it jsut right. Now leanlow has 4wd but we are tlaking twice the hp and I spun all four out of the hole when I jsut had a stock motor with full bolt ons expcet lt headers with a 100shot. Thats why I say stay with the 3.73s they will give good gas mileage on the highway like he wants and will be all the gear he needs with that mcuh power. Any more thigns oyu want try and call me on.

I dont believe he is full of it either he lives about an hour from where I live and is going ot go to the track with me when he gets his stuff running and when I get my 408 in and tuned well.

 

BTW Parish has a FLT 80e not FLP they are two different companies.

If the comment about "him" being 17 was directed towards me I am 19 and have broek a bunch of **** and learned how to do it the right way. I have riden in/driven many high hp trucks and cars(mainly f-bodies) and I love a manual in a car but in a truck with that mcuh weight its jsut not practical. I realize hd trucks use them but when you are tryign to race the shift recovery from each shift is too much IMO. Not to mention with that much hp you need to concentrate on driving that big *** brick not shifting with a 12 inch throw on it.

 

how involved is a zf 6 speed swap and how parasitic is it?

 

Ok ok, lets stop this sh*t, this thread was started to help me decide what to do. Everyone on here knows alot about trucks or i would not have posted these questions in the first place. Age in not a factor, i am 23 and i am sure there is older as well as younger people that know alot more than me, we can all learn from each other.

As for the sts and my truck being lifted, we have had some ideas about that. We are thinking of some type of skid plate under the turbo and instead of having the snorkel kit with the sts ( with the filter still under the truck) we are thinking about just bringing the intake tube right through the bed of the truck. There is a bed cover on it and it will keep the filter free of mud, rain or what ever else. Plus there is going to be other things mounted in there so why not it. Tell me what you think.

The tranny is going to be a built 80e, but what stall do i need?
Did we decide what gears to be in the trans.?
And for the rear i think we are going to try 3.73
What upgrading do i need to do to the rear, i think someone has already told me but i have lost or forgot where it was.
Thank all of you for the help thus far.