Man I drove across the state last night after work. What a cluster. Winter rolled in and kicked my *** to the tune of 10 hrs on the road for a four hour trip. It took me 3hrs to get out of the city I work in. Every highway headed east was shut down to clean up pileups. I was stuck doing 45 mph the whole way and praying to live as I encountered semi trucks. BUT! I am now the new owner of a T56 and my Camaro will be able to run highway trips in the summer with ease.

Grabbing 6th is gonna be so weird.

 

Congrats Damon! You'll love the T56, and it will make your Camaro much more drivable in all types of driving. Just put a T56 in my buddy's '69 Nova, and surprised how easily the swap was once we figured out the hydraulic clutch master/slave mounting and new crossmember.

 

T56 in a gasser is just odd. But yeah, I got an LT1 trans. The bell is the same. I need a conversion flywheel though. It came with the pedals, hydraulics, pressure plate, clutch and flywheel. I havent looked at the clutch and pressure plate to see if they were usable but I will upgrade when funds are available. The clutch I want/need is close to 600 bucks. Just crazy for a clutch but it acts like stock and will stop the rotation of the earth if dropped in the dirt. I dont know what you guys did for a crossmember but from what I read I simply need to cut the mount off mine and flip it to the other side and weld it back on. No that hard. I will need a shortened driveshaft of course but the way the T56 shifter comes through the floor lets me keep my super nice auto console. Instead of trying for three years now to find a nice red manual and still not liking where the factory put the shifter.

I cant wait for spring. I have most of everything ready to get this thing moving under its own power.

 

Nice work, looking forward to seeing it installed.

 

Yeah, I would not have chosen a T56 in a gasser style build either, but it will see way more street use, and he wants to drive it a lot around town, and on long tours, so he chose the T56.
We found the original crossmember wasn't even close, so cutting it off and turning it around didn't look like an option. We built a new rectangle tubing crossmember and bolted it farther back on the subframe. We also had to cut the under side of the trans tunnel brace away to allow the shifter boss to clear and the trans to come up high enough to let the engine/trans sit level again. We made up brackets that we welded to the under side of the floor brace on either side of the tunnel and they also bolt to the ne crossmember to brace the floor. I don't think it really was necessary, but he was worried the tunnel might flex.
Here's what we built to use the stock master/slave, and retain the factory Z bar setup to operate it. Works perfect, and just needed a small "massage" of the tunnel to clear the master when installed.

 

I will have to cut the same brace on my car. My plan was to box it back in. No harm done. It only falls about the first third of the way into it. As far as the slave, I have an LT1 trans and it came with everything. So it should just be a matter of redrilling the clutch pedal and mounting the master cylinder. I have also thought about modifying the pedals that came with the trans to fit my car. I'll cross that bridge when the weather clears. Today started in the low 30's them we had a thunderstorm in Feb. followed by a flood warning, then a freezing rain warning. It was 18* and blizzarding Mon. when I went and got the trans then 45* the next two days and it will be back in the teens by the end of the weekend. I dont know what coat to wear or when I can get get out in the garage. LOL

 

looking good bro,see you are way ahead of me,lol.

 

His Nova hit about 1/2 of the brace, but once we cut it out, the remainder still interfered with raising the trans fully up to get the engine level and not be tight against the shifter mounting plate. We ended up taking a parting wheel to the edge and flushing it off with the floor pan.
Here's another picture of the Nova with the correct tires and wheels, and the exhaust system done out the back.

 

It reminds me of my '76. Mine dint have the nose bleed look though. Camaros are said to get away with very little if a LT1 trans is used. A LS trans needs a adapter plate that moves it 1/2" farther back. The tunnel (as with all) narrows as it goes toward the back. The tunnel pic is the LS style the console pic is a LT1.

 

Looks just the opposite of what we got using an LT1 T56 in the Nova. It sat towards the back half of the bracket, so no offset shifter needed to get it in the right location. I guess 3rd gen Nova and 2nd gen Camaro must be quite different. The round rubber boot situated right at the back half of that brace, so it required the whole brace to be trimmed so the rectangle plate wouldn't hit the brace.