Calling all Tremec owners

[rideblue00]

Can anyone give me a close guess on what it will cost me to put a TKO500 behind my 350. Im doing the install and want to stay on the cheap side. Especially since this setup will be worth more than my truck. I have a 66 longbed fleet.

[padresag]

cost of trans , clutch disc to fit input spline, shifter and whatever you have to get done to the d/shaft-frt yoke.
price it out and you should have your answer
ron

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

You will need to get the trans with the shifter ALL the way forward!! I bought mine a long time ago and had to split the trans to loacte shifter full forward, plus a 400+ dollar kit as well. So buy the right trans to start with, A quick time bell housing trust me on that deal. I tried a lake wood , and hays and could not get them in spec even with off set pins. Use of a housing that is not spot on will hurt the input bearing in the trans. linkage or hyd clutch, drive shaft one piece will work in a 8 ft bed. Even though other will tell you other wise. I ran mine for 2 years before tear down on the frame off without any u joint issues with a 1 piece shaft.

One call to modern drive line and you will have what you need. I did mine back when no one had installed the TKO 600 into a truck that i was able to find. Even tremec was of no help on the shifter reloaction at that time. Now they sell it in the correct location.

[rideblue00]

Thanks guys. So far i seem to be coming up with a rough figure of about 4000. There may be some extra stuff im forgetting or dont know about. Seems to be a very expensive adventure. But im amlost sure a fun one to drive.

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

I am running a 3.91 rear gear right now, when I go to the ford 9 inch I will go to a 4 .10 gear as the OD ratio ( .64) is great and I will not be hurt by a tad more gear as well. I have a full 1-5 rpm to mph chart I did on gear calc, I will turn about 2650 rpm at 75 mph . tire growth is something that you do not know unit you really drive it. I am now running 275 40 17 on the rear so I did do a roll out but that will change a bit.

[jocko]

rideblue, what are you going to do with your truck? $4K sounds about right for the TKO route, maybe a tad high, but by the time you add in all the nit-noids and such, you're in the ball park.

If you're gonna have a high hp engine OR gonna drive it like you have a high hp engine, then I suppose a TKO will be required. 350 is borderline for a T5 - but what REALLY matters is how you're gonna drive it. You could have 1000 hp and the T5 would live if you drive it "sanely". Dog it once and it's gear soup.

If you're just after driveability and 5-speed fun factor and mileage - and are NOT gonna bang on it hard, you might consider a T5 swap. I've got well under $1K in mine and I really enjoy it. I almost went down the TKO road, and then the RS400 Keisler road, and while I'm sure they are nice - I'm, very happy with my T5. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=482069

[rideblue00]

I wanna abuse it a little. My 350 was dynoed at 301hp/375tq. So im sure the T5 will be inadequate. I will have to look up the RS400.

Thanks

[Heater63]

Your correct, don't do the T5 with that much engine.
You only need the -500, not the -600, so I think 4 K is way high.

My TKO-500 total package was $2,730 including tax. That included brand new output yoke, installed Mid Shift kit ($275), wiring pigtail for electric speedo, rear mount, and an adapter ring to mount it to the old original cast iron bellhousing. I picked mine up from a TKO dealer, so no shipping cost. I went to Standard Gear in Ft. Worth.

It was $100 to have the driveshaft shortened and balanced and painted.

If you run a bench seat you will need to have the shifter moved to mid position.

[rideblue00]

Thanks Heater63!
4K was an estimate on my part. Im going to call Keisler this week and in the meantime will be looking for prices elsewhere. 2800 sounds more in line for me. I have a 700R4 availible, but really want a manual trans. I wasnt sure about the bell housing to use. Are you using the stock clutch setup as well? I was thinking that you needed the forward most position for the shifter to work with the bench. I need to go through my notes and pictures i gathered about this trans setup.

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

mid shift is still way back, why not just buy the trans with forward shift?? tell you what, if i am wrong you can have all of the parts for the trans to make it mid for free. i will even pay the shipping

[rideblue00]

lol... here is a pic i found awhile back. Not sure what seat its from, or whos truck. Looks like either will work tho.

[rideblue00]

GMR: do you have a finished pic of the floor with carpet in or rubber mat?

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

I do but it is not on this computer. You can run the mid mount however you are not seeing where the floor pan is cut to , thus you have extra work there to weld a piece back into the trans hump. As well if the seat has to be moved forward that is another issue.

I guess if you want it mid mounty go for it. I have a differrent look at things. I have almost 4 years in this new frame off. I will not be going back and do things over. Thus no way would I ever run a tko 500 when for a few bucks more you can have a even stronger trans. I have blown up more t 5 trans than i want to think about. My opinion they are great if you have a stock engine and never hot rod it.

Just my opinion, thats the cool thing about building cars or trucks, its up to you, and what you want. Not any one else.

I will get that pic up first of the week when i am back at work.

My trans runs the stock shifter top , so it is not like the one in the picture.

[pdxhall]

If you're willing to spend as much as you stated then you ought to check out the Keisler transmissions. They will set them up to fit your truck. I got a quote from them for about $3k or a little more.

[rideblue00]

Yea, im gonna call them this week.

[Clownpuncher]

Prices ad up depending on if your going to do full hydro bearing and if you have a bell housing. If you do re-use your bell housing you need to center the input shaft on the TKO's, or I should say "Dial in" the bell housing. If that input shaft is off at all it will make shifting the trans a nightmare
I bought a TKO600 for my Nova and it came to $3800.00 that was bell housing, hydraulics pedals everything

Decent cruiser trans but don't beat on it past 6,500 rpm's haha I found out the hard way

[Heater63]

Originally Posted by rideblue00

Thanks Heater63!
4K was an estimate on my part. Im going to call Keisler this week and in the meantime will be looking for prices elsewhere. 2800 sounds more in line for me. I have a 700R4 availible, but really want a manual trans. I wasnt sure about the bell housing to use. Are you using the stock clutch setup as well? I was thinking that you needed the forward most position for the shifter to work with the bench. I need to go through my notes and pictures i gathered about this trans setup.

I'm using the original '63 cast iron bellhousing that had a saginaw 3 speed behind it. The only thing I had to modify for the TKO is use a small spacer ring supplied by Standard Gear- as the Tremec face is a little smaller than the old saginaw 3 speed. As clownpuncher mentioned, be sure and dial in your bellhousing. Mine was within tolerances.
My clutch setup is basic, except I am using a hydraulic slave kit from Novak.
I think the Mid Shift location will be perfect, but I haven't got to drive mine yet. I haven't heard anyone saying use the front location until GMR-Perf...you might keep researching that...my contacts said use Mid Shifter location for bench seats. (I'm under 6' with average arms)

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

the 6500 rpm thing came up from tremec, they called me about high rpm upshifts. I spun the old engine to 7600 and never had a issue. I do not know why a rpm level would be a issue???


With the shifter forward I had to trim a bit to get it through the stock shifter hole location. But it cleared everything fine and gives me room to move the seat if my wife drove.

I will say this, to correctly install the trans you must check bell housing run out. If its wrong you must correct it. I tried a few off set dowels, the issue was the bell housing, the quick time is top notch and was spot on with out off set dowels.

[Clownpuncher]

Originally Posted by GMR-PERFORMANCE

the 6500 rpm thing came up from tremec, they called me about high rpm upshifts. I spun the old engine to 7600 and never had a issue. I do not know why a rpm level would be a issue???


With the shifter forward I had to trim a bit to get it through the stock shifter hole location. But it cleared everything fine and gives me room to move the seat if my wife drove.

I will say this, to correctly install the trans you must check bell housing run out. If its wrong you must correct it. I tried a few off set dowels, the issue was the bell housing, the quick time is top notch and was spot on with out off set dowels.

The rail system used on the TKO flexed alot, plus with it being a synchro'd trans it's purpose was to slow down the gear so it can shift firmly. Spinning it to fast caused problems. The T56 didn't have this issue.
Mine could never spin past 6800 rpm. If I shifted around that point it would grind a little and would be hard to go in on the 2-3 shift.

I had the trans yanked out and face plated and never had any issues again. I was able to spin my LS2 to 7,200 no problems. There is alot of people out there with this issue this is one of the reasons why Keisler came out with the RS trans.

Dont get me wrong I would buy another in a heart beat if I kept the rpms low behuind maybe a torquer motor.

7600 is incredible

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

HMMM, well it may have been when I located the shifter forward that it did not flex. As the new parts where installed. I may have been able to correct a issue that I was not aware of to start with. I recall the new parts being shorter due to the new location, but that was almost 7 or 8 years ago now. Good to know, like I said I never had any issues what so ever, to be honest I was a bit taken back when they asked so many questions about high rpm up shifting..?? Makes sense know.. HA HA

That little 383 is dead and the new 406 will only be a 6500-6700 shift engine, much less cam , I wanted to move the tq range to a lower rpm range. These trucks are flying bricks, and I do not live close to a track, just a stout street machine at the end of the day.

Those where full throttle upshifts with just a slight flare on the clutch to grab the next gear.

[rideblue00]

The RS dosent look like it will work with a bench seat tho. Im workin towards not buying now. The cost keeps going up. I was hoping this was a trans that could take some abuse(within reason of course)I see that HYD TO bearings are pretty expensive too. Ill still be thinking about it tho.

Thanks for the info guys.

[shiny]

Rideblue00, why not get a NV3500 out of a 4.3 S-10. It will bolt right up to your mill and the shifter is in the right place. They take some abuse and you get the O/D too. and best of all it sounds like it'll work for your budget. you can even run the T/O bearing it comes with.

-Shiny

[rideblue00]

I havent done any research on the NV3500 or 4500. I will be considering it tho.

[Captainfab]

The NV3500 is rated at only 300ftlbs of torque. Although GM did put them behind some Vortec 350's which produce 330ftlbs of torque.

[Heater63]

Originally Posted by rideblue00

The RS dosent look like it will work with a bench seat tho. Im workin towards not buying now. The cost keeps going up. I was hoping this was a trans that could take some abuse(within reason of course)I see that HYD TO bearings are pretty expensive too. Ill still be thinking about it tho.

Thanks for the info guys.

I wouldn't run a HYD TO bearing, as any problems and you have to pull the tranny. Run a traditional, and mount a HYD slave if you already have a HYD master in the truck.
Did you give up on the TKO-500?