Manual Swap
 

It’s been a while since I sold my 72 to buy my wife a new vehicle when I had my second kid.

Looking to get back into another one, I’m trying to decide between a 69 Chevy k10 350/sm465 suburban that needs a lot of metal work or a 72 GMC k10 350/350 suburban in far better shape. Every vendor I reached out to that sells “complete” manual swap kits wants to sell me a tremec 5 speed for $7.5k. That’s more than the 2 suburbans I’m looking at.

I found a guy from eBay that pulled his sm465/np205 still together with bell and adapter.

What other components would I need to purchase to make this a straight forward swap?

Thanks in advance

Re: Manual Swap
 

Have you considered buying both and swapping the transmissions? Then sell the 69 as an automatic. It would certainly cut down how much extra stuff you would have to round up, and pay for later.

Re: Manual Swap
 

The Tremec 5 speed that you are looking at, presumably a TR4050 or TKO/TKX, would be a much better transmission for restomod. But a SM465 is a great transmission for a cruiser. Another part of this is how the transmission pairs with the rear end gear ratio/tire size. A 4:56 rear gear with 30" tires will need that overdrive where a SM465 with 3:42 rear gear with 30" tires would be tolerable. Playing around with an RPM calculator will help you with this decision.

HO455 does have a decent idea with buying both Suburbans and swapping to the trans that you want. All of the little nickel and dime parts will add up faster that you think, along with having the factory positions as a resource, is worth some expense. Are there any good old junkyards near you? This may be an alternative to buying the two Suburbans.