240 5.3 lm7 swap parts gathering

Hi everyone, I am in the process of gathering parts to do a V8 swap and I have a few questions. I have a 5.3 LM7 pulled from a wrecked 2004 truck but I have not decide what transmission to go with. I would like to go with a manual transmission and after doing some research, I see people using a T56, T5, or AR5.

To my understanding if I were to use the AR5, I would need the fabbot adapter + 4l60e bellhousing. For this configuration, will the shifter be too far forward? I cant recall who it was but I saw one where the shifter ended up right behind the ashtray.

T56 - which car should I find the T56 from? Would a 4th generation Camaro transmission / bellhousing work? Would the shifter come close to where the factory shifter would be?

My budget for this build is to hopefully be able to have it running for $6-7k in parts.

Here are the parts list that I have, please let me know if I am missing anything:

Complete 5.3 lm7 with all wire harness and ecu and all accessories
STS motor mount
STS iron exhaust manifold
STS heater core fitting
302-1 oil pan
Volvo 960 radiator
T56 or AR5 transmission
Clutch / flywheel from F-Body t56
1 piece shortened driveshaft from ???

What is everyone else using as a solution for driveshaft?

I will be using the stock rear end in the meantime.

I only have experience with the T56, but it's the most straightforward and durable of the choices you listed. It's also the most expensive.

The Camaro T56 is what you want. The shifter lines up nearly perfectly if about an inch or two back. Easily solved by trimming a bit off the shifter hump.

For a driveshaft, I just had one built. I stressed over this for months since I had a once piece 3" shaft in the car when it was a turbo redblock with the 1031 diff, and it rubbed super bad.

I think my driveshaft wound up costing me around $350 once you factor in the slip yoke and pinion yokes. I have 1350 joints in mine, and since the pinion of an 8.8 sits lower than the pinion of a 1031, I have had zero issues with driveshaft rub.

I wound up swapping in a Ford 8.8 axle, which I don't see on your list but I'd strongly recommend. It's a much better, much more durable diff than the OEM one, and you have much better choices to change rear gearing and lockers if you want.

Thanks! That is exactly what I am looking for which is the most straightforward to install.

Did you use the stock volvo transmission mount?

What did you use for a master cylinder?

Vwrado said:

Thanks! That is exactly what I am looking for which is the most straightforward to install.

Did you use the stock volvo transmission mount?

What did you use for a master cylinder?

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No, I built a trans crossmember for mine, but the early cars lack a pair of threaded holes in the crossmember. Later cars (81+ maybe?) have that pair of holes and you can adapt a factory crossmember to work with a little welding pretty easily.

For the master cylinder, I used a Ford SN95 master on the factory booster. I did that since the calipers I used paired better with that. Everything will clear a factory master cylinder just fine.

Unless you're talking about the clutch master, in which case I used some sort of Wilwood clutch master that came on the car I got the swap out of.

My stock axle is still hanging in after a couple of years and 6 - 7K miles of driving behind a 500-550-ish HP 5.3 and a 6-spd manual, but that's really a testament to the lack of traction than any inherent strength of the axle. It simply boils off any excess torque in 1/2/3 and sometimes 4th gears.

My swap project had just dragged on long enough at that point and I left a few things as-is to get it going.

Plans are still to add more fuel pump (it's topped out the DW300 at 6 psi of boost already), the Ford 8.8 I have sitting in the garage all ready to go (after a regear and figuring out what to do with the speedo/odo/abs sensor signal), but boost control on it and start raising the boost, and squeeze as much tire as I can under the fenders with rolled lips.

I forgot to address the fuel pump, what kind of in tank fuel pump are you guys running?

Walbro 255 here, but a number of people have discovered that the factory fuel pumps can support a surprising amount of hp.

I used a T56 with my 5.3 swap. The tunnel had to be massaged with a BFH to get clearance. The clutch is a stock Camaro clutch from O’ Reilly’s- came with a new flywheel. Had to make clearance for the lockout solenoid to the left of the shifter.

Vwrado said:

I forgot to address the fuel pump, what kind of in tank fuel pump are you guys running?

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I have a DW300 I'd put in to work with the previous 350-ish whp 16V turbo running on E85.

It would be more than enough to feed a normally aspirated 5.3.

I'm just running out of fuel on the top right corner of the VE map - 7 psi of boost and 4500-ish on up RPM (I'm really not bothering to spin it very fast). With the fuel pump running out of flow, the VE values have to get a bit wonky there, and it's not a good thing.

I kept the stock fuel system on my car for a while with the 16V turbo, seems like it was out of flow at roughly 300 hp worth of E85. Not sure what sort of LPH that indicates. E85 requires about 25-ish percent more flow per HP than gasoline does.

Probably worth noting that I did (probably) blow up a motor due to not adding more fuel pump soon enough, the DW300 went in along with a new motor (broken rings, a few bent ring lands, a split bore in the block).

Thanks for the input everyone! Very helpful information. I am going to leave my existing fuel pump until I feel the need to replace it.

As for as messaging the transmission tunnel, was it a significant amount of hammering to get clearance?

Also, will I need to get a MAF sensor installed before the throttle body to make this work?

I'm using a Nissan CD009 style transmission (JK40C from a G37 IIRC) and it needed a very modest bit of hammering, plus some judicious lump removal with an angle grinder.

The CD009's are a lot cheaper, and by reputation just as strong and maybe shift a little nicer. But then you have to add in a kit to adapt the LS to it, and a custom top mount shifter. And at that point, the cost advantage is pretty much gone. I guess if you broke a trans and had to replace it you'd finally come out ahead. And my top mount shifter just isn't all that great.

The need for a MAF is dependent on what ECU you're using. If it's factory, you'll need it before the throttle body.

JohnMc said:

I'm using a Nissan CD009 style transmission (JK40C from a G37 IIRC) and it needed a very modest bit of hammering, plus some judicious lump removal with an angle grinder.

The CD009's are a lot cheaper, and by reputation just as strong and maybe shift a little nicer. But then you have to add in a kit to adapt the LS to it, and a custom top mount shifter. And at that point, the cost advantage is pretty much gone. I guess if you broke a trans and had to replace it you'd finally come out ahead. And my top mount shifter just isn't all that great.

The need for a MAF is dependent on what ECU you're using. If it's factory, you'll need it before the throttle body.

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What adapters are needed to make a CD009 trans work?

There are several kits to fit a CD009 onto an LS. I got a Collins kit because it used almost all stock parts, other than the clutch disc itself. Camaro T56 flywheel, bellhousing, pressure plate, throwout bearing.

https://collinsadapters.com/lsx-to-350z-370z-vq-transmission-adapter-plate.html

There were some other ones more intended to fit an LS into a car that had a CD009 already in it, used special flywheels, special starters for the LS, all smaller diameter to it would fit into a 350/370/G35/37 better. I figured better to keep to easy to find stock GM parts if at all possible. Makes it all easy to maintain in the future.

And again, you do have to take the CD009 halfway apart to put a top mount shifter in it, and (on mine) it didn't even fit all that great after anyhow. Better than the shortest rear mount would have been, but a bit too far forward.

JohnMc said:

There are several kits to fit a CD009 onto an LS. I got a Collins kit because it used almost all stock parts, other than the clutch disc itself. Camaro T56 flywheel, bellhousing, pressure plate, throwout bearing.

https://collinsadapters.com/lsx-to-350z-370z-vq-transmission-adapter-plate.html

There were some other ones more intended to fit an LS into a car that had a CD009 already in it, used special flywheels, special starters for the LS, all smaller diameter to it would fit into a 350/370/G35/37 better. I figured better to keep to easy to find stock GM parts if at all possible. Makes it all easy to maintain in the future.

And again, you do have to take the CD009 halfway apart to put a top mount shifter in it, and (on mine) it didn't even fit all that great after anyhow. Better than the shortest rear mount would have been, but a bit too far forward.

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Great info, I am going to look more into this. How does the shifter feel in the CD009?

By reputation, they shift better than the T56's. But mine's just not all that great, mostly the fault of the top mount shifter I'm using. It's a CBF Performance, and the way it's made it just has some smallish amount of 'twist' present in the shifter. Normally this wouldn't matter at all, but I'm also using an offset lever on it to move the stick over to the center of the 240's shifter hole. This is a pic of a rear mount shifter, but it's the type of offset I'm talking about:


So when you have an offset, and the shifter has a little bit of slack twist in it, and you have 6 gears and a reverse all squeezed into a pretty small area... it's just not as good as I wanted it to be. It's just all right. Then I go drive my Miata which has the same number of gears crammed into a small shift pattern and it's SO DAMN NICE, it just irks me about the CBF shifter all over again.

The CBF shifter's slack is all due to the design. They have a plastic pivot ball that slides onto the shifter rod, and is retained by a pin that slides through. This is not a tight fit (probably should be) and introduces some twist. Then some slots on the ball fit into some pins on the side of the shifter turret/housing, allowing it to rotate forward and backward, and also pivot side to side. These don't fit all that tightly either (they can't be too tight without binding, but they could be snugger). All together, when working through that offset lever.

There's also the CD00A, which is an updated CD09. Someone I was talking to the other day had bought a brand hammer new one for a swap for like $1800.

Yeah, I'm using CD009 loosely, like the 'LS' family of engines.

Mine's a JK40C. CD009 is just the earliest version you should get. Nissan's earlier versions were NOT strong, and caused warranty nightmares through several revisions. Until Nissan finally had ENOUGH of the insanity and overbuilt the CD009 (and on) transmissions to stop the bloodletting. The overbuilt versions are the ones that are as strong/maybe stronger than the T56.

I just looked up the cost of a brand spanking new CD009 style - $2400, without looking around too hard. Iffy junkyard T56's cost that much. "Known bad" rebuildable T56 cores aren't all that much cheaper, judging on local CL ads.

I just wish my shifter worked better. I should take it apart again and try to work out some of the slop - perhaps drill out that plastic ball and put some metal shims in it.

Shifting topics, Are there any long tube headers that will fit with this application or are we stuck with the cast iron manifold?

I used an AR5 in my 242 with a 4.8L.

Pros:

-Cheapest transmission unit. They can still be found for $3-500

-Smallest dimensions. No hammering required

Cons:

-Weakest(?). To be continued. I have had no issues with mine behind a ~300hp V8, but I know some guys do

-Gearing. You'll likely need to regear your rear end to ~3.10 or so. I've been running mine with a 3.73 and 1st is pretty much useless but I can still have fun with the car

-5 speed. Pro/Con? I'm not bothered by it


There are definitely things to consider on both sides. I still came out cheaper with the AR5 than a T56 or CD009, but in hindsight I wish I had just ponied up the extra grand or so to get a T56. Also, shifter wise, Fabbot now makes a relocation shifter that should line up a Colorado AR5 to factory location perfectly