transmission pros and cons.
 

hey everyone, since my tranny has about 200k miles on it and is about 32 years old, i was wondering what i should go with, i have a 78 with a 350, by the time i need a tranny i hopefully have some work done to the engine but it is going to stay my daily driver so nothing too extreme. i was wondering what i should go with, i want to keep it standard shift bc i think muscle cars have to be lol but should i keep it 4spd? i noticed that what i have in there now winds up at about 3500 at 70ish, those arnt accurate bc the tach nor the spedo works that well but it sounds a little high, what are the differences between the Saginaw, Bog Warner and Muncie, how much better is one than the other? i dont care too much about originality but still. thank you

All those 4 speeds will be 1:1 in 4th gear, so none are different in giving you lower 70mph cruising rpm's. You would need to change to a 5 spd or 6 spd tranny to get lower rpm's at 70mph.
I'd rather cruise at lower RPM's too, but since you've got a small block Chevy it's a little more forgiving than a big block that way. It's pretty expensive to change to another 5 spd or 6 spd, so you might decide to spend the money elsewhere and live with what you've got.
The Muncie in a M21 or M22 and the Super T10 are the best.

well i am going to live with what i got for now, this is way down the line project, or if maybe one day she explodes on me lol, and i didnt know they were all direct drive in 4th, damn, i was thinking about one day going with the corvette 6spd after i get everything else on the list out of the way lol

The Corvette, or the Camaro 6 spd is nice, but pretty spendy just to buy, not to mention the cost of the swap. Most people I've heard did the swap ended up around $3,000 by the time they were through, even starting with a good used trans. And that's if they can do the work themselves!

lol damn, that is pricey, and i would do the work myself, maybe i could find someone that wants to get rid of their 6spd and wants a 4spd lol wouldnt we all be so lucky? what about the 6spd that was in the 4th gen SS, i think it was a 6spd anyway, is that the same one?

The third gen 6spd T56 is the same as a earlier Corvette. As usual the Camaros get what the Vette had, just later. The T56 will run around $1200-$1500 used., thyen you need to set up the hydraulic clutch master and slave cylinders, plus the trans mount, driveline shortening, etc. Still probably be around $2200 or so.
For $2300 you can get a retrofit T56 that is modified to use your bellhousing and flywheel, plus the mechanical speedo cable, so that saves getting the new flywheel and clutch for the T56, plus using a modified electronic speedo calibrated to your vehicle.
By the way-the tranny in a 3rd gen Camaro was not a T56, and it's a bad choice for a swap, as they're not too strong. Wont hold up to any amount of extra HP increases.

oh yeah i forgot about all of that hydrolic switch over and stuff lol, i do enjoy my mechanical clutch, idk y, then again i do want to make this thing a techno-wonder from the past lol digital dash with a HUD, nice sound system and all that jazz, add an A/C unit in there sometime lol oh the dreams i have for my car, just need the money to do it, but the T56 you mentioned looks like what i want, i need something that will give me some good low end torque because i love the 0-60 spd lol i could care less about the higher end because i dont like to speed, i just like to get to my cruising speed very fast lol

How does the T56 compare to a Muncie 4 speed as far as strength/reliability?

The T56 is as good as the Muncie M21, but probably less strong than a M22. But then again, the M22 is the tranny that we have always all wished we had in our Chevy! :)

So the T56 should be able to handle 450HP?