okay I went to a tranny shop and asked them the prices of converting my y1 to the ls 5th gear, do able at about $400-500 dollars with both trannies out of the car. That is with a complete rebuild and fixing anything that might be bad from the y1 and using parts from the YS1. Just letting you guys know.
the main thing i would focus on as advantages for 5th gear swap is overall wear on your engine. if doing the swap puts your 70mph rpm from 4500 to 3500- that’s an over 20%less wear on your engine. not to mention the milage savings, your gonna save money over time cause you traveled the same distance and you motor didn’t have to work as hard, which means internale last longer, fuel system last longer, etc. now with the ys1 tranny there’s not a huge diff, from what i’ve heard, in highway rpm, but the y1 tranny there is a considerable diff. at 85mph i’m at 4700rpm with my y1. from what i remember, that’s high 3k’s or low 4k’s on an ls(someone help me out here with exact #'s) now i don’t believe that’s a completely accurate comparison b/c the final drive is diff on both tranny’s. if someone knows how to work the math and figure out the diff with the 5th gear ls in the ys1- go for it- for me it’s too early and my head would explode. later
how difficult would this be to do myself? i have a pretty good knowledge of pulling apart engines and such, but have never looked inside a tranny? are any special tools needed and would they be rentable at an autoparts store? about how long should it take after both trannies are out and laying on the floor in my basement? i have the tranny that came with the car still sitting on my back porch attached to the old engine, and i may as well use it for something.
one more thing… the tranny can be pulled without pulling the engine, correct? do i need to support the engine with a chain while the tranny is out or will 3 of 4 motor mounts suffice? and is there any special trick to remating the tranny to the engine or just line it up and start tightening bolts?
Originally posted by Habitforming
or will 3 of 4 motor mounts suffice
If you pull your tranny, you’re only going to have one engine mount connecting the engine to the car. The other 3 are on the tranny. Yes you will need to support the engine, with either a chain or a jack.
-Steve
building on what steve says, he’s absolutely right. I dropped my tranny out because i threw 2 major bearings that were in it. noises weren’t friendly ones. but he’s very right, there’s only one mount after you take the tranny out. while i was working on getting the tranny out and looking at the internals to see if it was salvageable (which it wasn’t), i used something similar:
15-ton cranes are fun. 
then after i realized i needed a new tranny, while i had the car sitting outside (that building is where my dad works, and we couldn’t leave it in there for a week) i took the bellhousing, and bolted it back onto the engine and re-attached the front and rear mounts (which attach to the bellhousing) so that i had 3 mounts holding it in as opposed to just 1.
Originally posted by zoomintegra
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ZoomIntegra, dang that building reminds me of playing Max Payne. You could use that crane to fix lots of thing on your car. Iowa is cooooool.
Do you know where Red Oak is?
yep. i drove thru there once when i was lost looking for i-29.
actually i have a friend who lives on a farm just off highway 34 about 4 miles west of red oak. so i’ve been there a couple times. population of what, 400? heh…that’s iowa. 
oh and that’s the local power plant, dad’s kinda like homer simpson.
My Father graduated from Red Oak High School with about 11 other kids. What a ‘Grad Night’ that must have been, eh?
Originally posted by zoomintegra
[B]building on what steve says, he’s absolutely right. I dropped my tranny out because i threw 2 major bearings that were in it. noises weren’t friendly ones. but he’s very right, there’s only one mount after you take the tranny out. while i was working on getting the tranny out and looking at the internals to see if it was salvageable (which it wasn’t), i used something similar:
15-ton cranes are fun. 
then after i realized i needed a new tranny, while i had the car sitting outside (that building is where my dad works, and we couldn’t leave it in there for a week) i took the bellhousing, and bolted it back onto the engine and re-attached the front and rear mounts (which attach to the bellhousing) so that i had 3 mounts holding it in as opposed to just 1. [/B]
WTF is that holding the hood up?!!?? Is that the optional OEM super hood prop that I didn’t go for? hehe:shock:
The LS 5th gear is a dog unless you have a ton of top-end power. Just a word to the wise if you wanna take it to a track or something.
Originally posted by Eric
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WTF is that holding the hood up?!!?? Is that the optional OEM super hood prop that I didn’t go for? hehe:shock: [/B]
lol…no that would be the bigass piece of red pipe we found laying around that was long enough to hold the hood higher than the stock rod would.
The LS 5th gear is a dog unless you have a ton of top-end power. Just a word to the wise if you wanna take it to a track or something
MrFatBooty I am going to assume that you are talking about an autox track. I have never been to an autox event so I know very little about it. I would have thought that you wouldn’t use 5th much because your turning so often. The 92-93 LS’s have 140hp stock and have no problem with it anyone doing this swap would have at least 160hp so why would you need a ton of top end power?