LS1/6sp in 70 nova. which motor mounts?

[drednot]

Originally Posted by NOPANTS68

From what I've seen, there isn't a mount kit that installs a T56 without some cutting. It's not bad, but to make all the angles work, you'll need to do some slicing.

As a side note and purely opinion- I'm not sure I'd do a T56 swap in that car again. The T56 is stupid heavy, long, not as strong as a TKO600 and I never, ever used 6th gear. I ran 4.33s and a 28 inch tire and with a manly cam 6th gear meant 1700 rpm at freeway speeds. Useless. I'd probably do a TKO swap or a Richmond which would actually slide right in that tunnel like a Muncie.

Was it the 28 in tire? Don't stock 98-02 TA/Z28s come with 3.73 gears? I don't know the diameter of the stock tires off of the top of my head. It seems the stock F-bodies cruised good in 6th at highway speeds. I do know friends of mine with the 98-02 F-bodies upgraded to 4.10 or 4.11 and their cars screamed.

[NOPANTS68]

No it was that my cam didn't like cruising at 1400 rpm on the freeway. Factory F bodies typically came with 3.42s and a tire in the 25-26 inch range. Keep in mind that the LS1 cars had a camshaft with minimal duration and a tight centerline to make vac everywhere and idle nicely. Guys that have put Trex or MS4 cams in those cars will tell you that they surge in 6th gear at 60-70 mph. In 5th, I could cruise at 2000 rpm all day and the engine was far happier in that range. Plus passing meant just rolling my toe into it rather than pulling down a gear from sixth. I think the T56 is so widely used because it's a natural fit for LSX swapped cars and it's fairly strong stock. I'm just saying that if I had to do it again, I'd go TKO with the .64 5th or Richmond and minimal rear gear. I have a Richmond in our 67 Chevelle build and I'm sold on it. No tunnel mods and it shifts absolutely bitchin with the Long shifter.

[drednot]

After looking around and reading more, I like the look of Novas without the body bushings. But for this it looks like you have to pretty much cut out the entire trans and driveshaft tunnel. I am trying to figure out if that drop or actually raise, would interfere with the engineering of a LS kit like the BRP kit?