Hey folks,

Just wondering how many 6 speed transmissions are out there available for the Mustang, and what they go for. I noticed the GT500 has a Tremec 6 spd in it, and was wondering if that's all you could get if you wanted one. Any input would be much appreciated, as I'm still trying to figure out how to use my old 5.0 1990 Town Car engine to build a nice s197. Thanks!

 

The GT500 transmission is absurdly expenisve. The last time I looked it up it was about $15,000 from Ford. Perhaps it has come down since then, or perhaps you could find a used one?

The T-56 is the most common swap in these cars. The whole package costs about $5,000. That's the transmission, shifter, new driveshaft, crossmember, throwout bearing adapter, etc. Do a forum search, the details have been discussed several times before.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that, I'm glad there's a relative "bargain" alternative for the 6spd out there. I'll check the forum for details, just wondering if anyone might know if Ebay is good to start looking, or if there's some other place I could find one affordably??? Might not get to check this again until lunch time tomorrow, so that should give enough time for some good input...

 

The T-56 is used in many high end sports cars. I know the Viperuses it and it is often referred to as the Viper T-56 transmission and can handle more HP than our stock transmissions.

 

The new Viper as well as the GT500 both use a T6060. It's the next generation of the T-56 with a triple syncro as well as other beefed up internals. Some trans builders have been converting the T-56 over to triple syncro for a while now also. Basically the T6060 is the sum of all the lessons learned on building up the T-56.

I've seen the T-6060 sell for around $5500 for just the trans.

 

I would think that the T-56 would be good enough for me in regular form? I'd be happy with anything from 350-400hp out of the 5.0, so I wonder if that transmission is fine for that. What's the lowest I could come across one of those for?

 

Definatley! The T-56 is was used in the Cobra R, Corvette (incl. Z06), Viper, and the Aston-Martin Vanquish. Stock it can handle well over 600 HP and if that's not enough it can be built to handle more with somesimple andinexpensiveupgrades. I have seen a rebuilt T-56 with warrantyforaround $2000. You could get used ones for less I'm sure. The problem is that you can't just drop one into the Mustang as-is. These cars have a lot of non-standard items that have to be modified. That's why the price for the trans itself might be around $2K but once you factor all the other stuff in there it jumps up to more than double that!

See here for more info:
https://mustangforums.com/m_2918432/tm.htm

and:
http://ddperformance.com/new_parts.htm

 

That's good to know, Al. I was hoping there wouldn't need to be too much fabrication involved, just puzzle piecing together the right parts. It looks like there may have to be some custom work involved, what do you think will be the hardest part for me, being fairly inexperienced?

 

I think you basically have three choices:

1) Buy the GT500 parts and swap them in. Of course, this happens to be VERY expensive but it should be a direct bolt-in. If you are a good scrounger and can find a used

2) Buy the T-56 Kit from D&D or someplace similar.

3) You could try to duplicate the D&D kit yourself, but that is not a simple task. They are re-machning the transmission's housing and adding some custom-made parts in order to make the throwout bearing and the shifter work. Some of the parts are off-the-shelf, but others are things that they have designed and custom machined. The crossmember is going to require steel cutting and welding, and then there is a custom driveshaft as well (though this you could "farm out" fairly easily). I don't want to be presumptuous, but I'd have to say that if you need to ask what's involved then you probably don't have the resources to do it. I am a very good welder and I have access to a full machine shop (and I know how to use the machinery) but I still wouldn't want to attempt this. I am sure that I could do it, but the amount of work involved is very daunting.

I know the D&D kit seems pricey, but when you figure what the kit includes the price is not that unreasonable. By the way, I did speak with D&D on the phone a few months back, and at least back then they told me they could make a similar kit but use a Cobra spec T-56 instead of the Viper T-56 and the cost would be about $3500 instead of $5000. (that price is my memory..may not be accurate). The difference is that the Cobra T-56 is slightly weaker than the Viper and has different gear ratios...but either would be strong enough for your application.

 

That's really cool that you broke it down like that, and yeah, I definitely don't have access to any facilities like that anymore, did when I was on base a while back, but even then, it would have been pushing it because I've never involved myself in something this complex. I'll definitely check on the Cobra version kit, if it's still available, I probably won't even push that one to the limit, it's mainly about putting together a project with parts that make sense together. I'd like to learn alot along the way, I just hope I can learn as economically as possible...