Okay so heres the deal. I have an 81 vette that has a crate 350 with roughly 350-400 hp and a newer 3 speed auto in it with factory rearend gears which i think is either 2.73 or 2.88. Something along those lines. Now my problem is i wish i could have a manual transmission in the car with probably around 3.73 gears. I've looked into the keisler 5 speed conversion kits for the car. I was wondering if any of you have any insight on if the extra money is worth the5 speed or should i try to collect parts of a 4 speed car and swap that into the car. Also the factory 4 speed for the 81 model year was the S10 right? If so, how much power can that tranny be good up to? Or would it be good to try to find an muncie to swap in. Any info you guys could share with me would be very helpful.

 

should be pretty quick? You ran it in the quarter mile yet?

You know whats funny about Keisler transmissions. I live in Muncie, IN, home of the WORLD FAMOUS Muncie 4 spd. They just finally tore down the Muncie plant on 8th street and when they liquidated it all, Keisler came in and bought ALL of the old 4 spd dies and tooling so they can remanufacture period correct transmissions, go figure... Maybe if GM woulda done that they coulda got new contracts and kept the place runnin'.

If funny, they tore down the 5 block long build, but left the front wall up, so whenyou drive down 8th, it looks like the place is still there, but then turn onto Elliot and its a massive empty lot...

 

Yeah, Its pretty quick at the moment. I havent ran it at the track but i would guess the quarter to be somewhere in the 13s. Thats pretty interesting about the muncie plant. I'm from Mishawaka, IN. Not sure if you heard of it, Its up near South Bend. Im about 20 mins south east of Notre Dame.

 

without changing the engine or weight, you would need lower gears to go faster. Most stock 4 spds aren't much better than a TH350 2.20ish 1st gear. Whats a rear end change run for a Vette? $1500 for some 3.73s that would wakeup the stock auto, and the Keisler 5 spd has a 1 first gear ratio of 3.27 which would be seat of the pants performance increase as leaving your rear end stock... after the first gear, those Keisler things really aren't much better for acceleration. Seems to be about the same as a 700r4, and for $5000?

I'd say, leave the auto, get a shift kit, a decent stall (because any non-roller 350-400 hp engine would need it!)and some lower rear end gears

And, I looked a Plymouth in Mishawaka, my brother lives in Michigan City, IN

 

Thanks for the info. If i got a higher gears with the 3 speed auto how much is that going to effect my top end speed and highway cruising?

 

Top end speed will be reduced, highway cruising RPM's will be increased.

Ricmond Gear offers a 5 speed and a 6 speed transmission with low gearing for racing. Cost about $3500.00 They also have an RPM calculator on their site so you can play around with the gear #'s.

[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

Does the richmond tranny come as a complete kit? Thanks!

 

Is it against the rules to post websites? www.richmondgear.com

 

Nope, it's done all the time.
How else we gonna let people know where to find stuff?
Dialing 411 for info won't help.

 

I have a built 350 turbo with a tci 3000-3500 stahl convertor with about 300 miles on it all. A friend of mine built it for his 65 chevelle with 3:73 rear gears used it for about a week then sold the car minus engine and trans so he could move to WA.
I bought it for a camaro i had but ended up sell it before i got to install the trans so i dont need it now?? let me know if your interested? Im in illinois about 3-4 hrs from south bend