I hope that I might find some answers to a few questions I have. I am building a 69 RS/SS Pro Touring Camaro. I am installing a 454 with roughly 500-600hp. The rear axle is going to be a ford 9" floating with a 4 Link suspension. Coil over front suspension. 4 Wheel disc brakes. frame extenders. The rear wheel wells are tubed and the rear tires are going to be 18/30/330's. I want to put a 6 speed transmission in the car and use a 323 gear (so I can get decent hwy mileage)

I was told that I should go with a Termec T56 Magnum trans, splatter shield, pro touring stage 3 dual ceramic 11" clutch, 26 spline disc and pressure plate.

I'm curious to find out if anyone has done this setup? Can anyone recommend if this is the right way to go? Does anyone have a T56 Magnum Trans for sale?

Thank you to anyone who can give me a little in-site on this.

 

Decent Highway mileage in a 600 HP big block? The fact is that 6 speed is about your only option for a manual trans with overdrive that will handle the torque a Big block is going to through at it. If you are building it old school with a Carb and big CAM then it is going to run like crap under 2800 RPMs. Do the math but at 65-70 MPH your not going to be able to use 6th gear. With those gears even 5th gear will be a shakey ride at 70 MPH. To get a high HP engine with nice street manors at low RPMs it will take a EFI system and some sort of Forced induction (Turbo/supercharger).

In my opinion you are going to have a tuff time finding a used one as they are only in higher end custom built cars. I would shy away from used ones anyways as these transmissions are only going in cars with massive engines and god knows what could be wrong with it.

 

With your engine and a 6 speed (double overdrive), I wouldn't go higher than 3.73 gears in back, and might even consider 4.11's. Have you figured what the torque rating on the engine is going to be? The T56 Magnum is rated at 700 ft lb torque. Another option is the TKO 600 (600 torque rating). Transmissions are torque rated by how much given torque it can sustain under a continuous load, for a given period of time. And they can actually take more than what they are rated at, because the maximum rating isn't referring to "short peak bursts". However, if you have a habit of revving the engine to 6 grand before dumping the clutch, you'll definitely shorten it's life. Another factor is where your engine is making peak torque. If yours is say, at around 4500 rpm, you won't be hurting the trans if you take off "more normally", as you'll be well below the torque rating.

 

Thank you both for your replies. I will be using his car for show and Pro Touring. I am not building this car myself and am not familiar with the best setup. Each time I turn around the car is costing me more and more money. I will eventually like to install a EFI system. But i know that is about an additional $2000.00 which is not in the budget at this time.

I am interested in any suggestions that you both might have on setting up this car. Keep in mind that it has a carburetor (for now), will be 500+, the tires will not change, the rear axle is a floating Ford 9", gear is not determined yet and trans is not determined yet. So any suggestions will help me figure out how i should go with this setup. I did get a price for a new transmission @ $5700.

Thanks again

 

I would recommend you spend some time at some of the pro touring sites, they have some very specific and highly detailed PT build discussions. There are a number of PT cars running well north of 600hp with T56 Magnums without any problems. Just for reference, here are a few shots of my car featuring, among other things, a Moser 9" floater. I hope you have deep pockets, I have nearly 40K in the suspension, drive train and rollers.