Gearbox how strong???

[neal1980]

I currently have a T5 and thinking of going LS power over the winter. Priced up a TKO600 but how strong are our gearboxes? Mine broke a few years ago lost 5th gear (slides off the shaft aparently) had it rebuilt my CTS and modded to stop this happening again, been fine ever since. But dont hear to many stories about them breaking even in cerb's. They use these in the supercharged chims as well. They rate them to 300 i think but out cars are so light does this mean they will take more? And its a road car not race. Or tell me to stop being a tight arse and just buy the TKO600 :-P

[GreenV8S]

Torque is generally reckoned to be the limiting factor - how much torque are you expecting?

[neal1980]

well looking at a crate ls3 so lots :-P probably 400 or there abouts.

[GreenV8S]

My trusty old LT77 has been running with just under 300 lb-ft for years without any problem, and it's coped with just under 400 lb-ft for quite a few thousand miles without going bang so far. And that's generally reckoned to be quite a lot weaker than the T5. It's your time and money, but if that was me I'd take a gamble on the T5 and see how it goes. It's not going to cost you any more to convert later if you find it's breaking too often, than to do the conversion now.

[Boosted LS1]

I'd take a gamble with it as well. You'll probably wheelspin at low rpm's more often then hooking up with the tarmac which is when I'd expect something to break.

[neal1980]

well looking at a crate ls3 so lots :-P probably 400 or there abouts.

[350Matt]

You can beef up the T5 so it can take 400ft/lb+, it involves better quality bearings under all the gears, a bearing fitting to 5th gear and switching to a decent oil from the 'reccommended' ATF.

Bear in mind the T5 is used behind all the tuned cerbera crowd and those boys are at 400ft/lb ish mark.

Next thing to worry about is a driveshaft going pop, don't forget transmission wear /load is very heavily biased by the way you drive

Matt

[neal1980]

Yes exactly you never really drive like a loon all the time. Just looking at SHPUB cerb with LS1 he used the T5 with no probs so far. And it certinly reduces the work and cost a fair bit. Getting very swayed here...

Anyone wanna buy a 4.0 with cam, megasquirt ecu coilpacks etc :-P

[Pink_Floyd]

350Matt said:

and switching to a decent oil from the 'reccommended' ATF.Matt

What gearbox oil would you recomend.

[Don]

neal1980 said:

well looking at a crate ls3 so lots :-P probably 400 or there abouts.

Wow. An echo!

[neal1980]

Tell me more Don

[clive f]

350Matt said:

You can beef up the T5 so it can take 400ft/lb+, it involves better quality bearings under all the gears, a bearing fitting to 5th gear and switching to a decent oil from the 'reccommended' ATF.
Matt

which oil do you recomend matt?

[350Matt]

clive f said:

350Matt said:

You can beef up the T5 so it can take 400ft/lb+, it involves better quality bearings under all the gears, a bearing fitting to 5th gear and switching to a decent oil from the 'reccommended' ATF.
Matt

which oil do you recommend matt?

Use a 75W-85 semi synth or fully synth I personally would use Castrol SMX-S:

http://129.35.64.91/bpglis/lubtds.nsf/technicaldat...

Matt