Found a guy with a tremec 3550 for a grand. it's brand new in the box with a bellhousing. does this "drop in" to my car or will something need to be modded, and does anyone have any opinions on that specific trans? and the price he's asking?
brand new in the box must be at least 3 years old then. they stopped making them and changed the name over to tko 500. I run one but a few things to remember. The input shaft is still 10-spline. A common break/problem component is the output shaft has a tendency to bend. I didn't know this until after it happened to me. all and all a good tranny, hasn't given me any problems save for the bend shaft which i only found after i pulled it to upgrade to 26-spline. supposed to hold back like 500 hp.
the price is decent enough. Not sure if you have to switch to a fox bell housing but mine is. Otherwise it should bolt up. I didn't perform the swap so i can't be much help there, it was done before i bought the car.
I doubt it will drop in, you will have to bring it up from the bottom, and there will be bolts and nuts involved, and that is after removing the tranny thats already in there
I use a 3550 transmission. It's an excellent piece. Your current transmission uses a 10 spline input shaft, so it will the be the same. I snapped the input shaft in two once, but I have like 630 ft./lbs of torque. You will have to modify the crossmember, because it's shorter than the T-5 in the SN. You will also need a spacer for the driveshaft to make up for the fact that the transmission is 5/8" shorter. You will need a Foxbody clutch fork. Also, the hangers that hold up the H-pipe will not work. You will have to leave them off, or make your own brackets. The 26 spline upgrade is only like $128. If you are going to buy a new clutch anyway, now is the time to upgrade, because you will need a 26 spline clutch disk o go with it. They don't make a bellhousing for the 3550 that uses your clutch fork, so they are labeled as Foxbody bellhousings.
haha, well the good news is that i dont use the hangers on my x pipe anyway.....other then that i'd have to do all the other stuff you mentioned, haha, so consesus seems to be telling me that 1000 is a good price?
$1,000 is a good price if its never been bolted up before. Mines hooked up to my 351 and its been through 2 years of racing so far and 5K dumps on slicks all last summer.
I will add that while that's a descent price, many people (myself included) experienced the infamous "3550" vibrations. I tried flipping the crossmember, different mount, mount spacing, etc etc... and nothing worked. I ended up trading mine for a little cash and a T5! The T5 drives like a Caddy compared to the Tremec unit, but that's comparing apples to oranges. All in all, I wasn't happy with mine because of all the vibration troubles.
That's a very decent price for a transmission that's never installed. I've never even heard of any "infamous" vibration problems with a Tremec. For me, it drove just as well as the T-5. Another thing to note. That transmission is designed to be lubricated with GM Synchromesh tranny fluid. Amsoil makes a Synchromesh that is half the price of the stuff from the dealer.