I'm in the process of collecting parts for a 240Z LS1 swap. I was considering the T56 but thought that it would be worth checking into a T5...

The T5 can be upgraded to put up with the torque, fits better in the tranny tunnel of my donor car, is ~100 pounds lighter. The cost to upgrade a T5 vs buying a T56 is comparable...

During the process of having the T5 "beefed up" you can select any gears you want, that's yet another benefit...

Will a stock GM style T5 bell housing bolt up to a LS1? Any issues?

Will there be any issues with the ECM? (Speed sensing stuff Ect)

Thanks!
Ken

 

trust me, dont do the T5. if you tear them both apart and compare them together you will see why. no matter what, you will never get a T5 to hold as much power as the T56 will. if you are still wanting to do a T5 then the ford version is a little bit stronger but will be a bitch to put be hind a LS1

 

You've made a couple good points for wanting the T5, Ken.

The problems are these: The Lakewood scatter shield for the LS1 which fits the Gen III has only a "straight up" bolt pattern as far as I know. Look at the 15015(I think) Lakewood to see one with the dual pattern (straight up and tilted) patterns. The F-body V8 T5 is tilted to the drivers side about 17 degrees. You could bolt it up, and then you'd be figuring out the transmission mount & altering a shifter (I like the Hurst Comp Plus for the T5.)

A T5 bellhousing bolts up to a Gen III as the bolt pattern is the same. But, the input shaft is shorter, and I don't know that an extended pilot bushing will do the trick there. And, at that point you are then left to figure out how to mate a compatible clutch together, although this may not be too bad since the GM V8 T5 has the same spline / input dia. as the Gen III T56 input.

You won't be saving 100 lbs. directly comparing a T5 to a T56. More like 40-50.

You should be able to add a reluctor ring from an f-body T56 to a T5 since the outputs are the same spline / size, but you'd have to mount the VSS pickup properly in orientation to the ring.

And yeah, I 100% agree with the above post; the T56 is quite a bit better design. When you get done upgrading to the whatstheirname bulletproof T5 parts, and go through all this crap, you'll be better off having just gone with the T56. I don't see where the T5 + upgrades is cheaper all things considered.

The McLeod bellhousing setup they've recently released may be helpful with this, but I'd still go T56.