New transmission and new tires

[CrevetteRouge]

Hello all,
Finally I have time for a little TLC for my vette. But then I'm running more into questions than action :

Question 1 : transmission
My 81 Vette is a standard 4 speed with a 350. Do you know any 5 speed transmission that would fit? Mmmm... Overdrive on a vette

Question 2 : tires
Well, I'm going for the classic 225R70/15 (No 275 like I saw on another topic! :cool ) and while shopping I came out with

....................................Speed Trdwear Traction Temp
Goodyear Eagle RS-A....100V.....360.......A...........B
Michelin Pilot XGT H4......100H.....400.......A..........A
BF Goodrich Radial T/A...100S.....400.......A..........B
Dunlop GT Qualifier T......100T.....440.......A..........B

So what to choose?
Only the Goodrich and Dunlop comes with white lettering (very good for the performances )
The Goodyear is like twice the price of the others but that's what I have and I'm happy with it.
I'm very attracted by the Michelin performances (they're usually way better from my VW Golf experience)... But Michelin on a Corvette?

There is also the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 and the General XP 2000 2, but the Firestone is only a S spped and what is General already?? :t

Well any ideas guys? Did I miss anything?
I think also there was a thread on this forum on choice of tires but couldn't find it...


Thanks in advance!

 

[82ColEd]

Hi, my very unscientific view: I am partial to the BF G.'s, as i dont need the speed (i hardly every go over 100 mp/h here in the US :L ) rating, they seem to last 4ever, and look 'original' with the white lettering.. Though i am running the 255/60 R15's on mine. Just my .02 cents

 

[soxx35]

for the 5 speed check this website out it has everything you need
http://www.keislerauto.com/gm/index.html

for the tires if you want to go over 112 mph alot then go with the michelins H rated is good up to 130 mph. If you want looks then go with the bf goodrich only good up to 112 cause there S rated. the trade is ether looks or speed. if you want you should check out 255/60 r 15 they have a wider tread and look meaner.

 

[bossvette]

I have a Tremec TKO from
http://www.fortesparts.com/
and I run nothing but BFG's on all my cars
the Tremec 3550 will handle a small block, but I went with the TKO since I will eventually go bigger(427) when my 383 breaks

The car is a blast to drive, the lower first gear makes it pull like 4:11s and 2000 is 70+ mph in 5th

PS just noticed you are from Ma. where Fortes is located

 

[CrevetteRouge]

Well, that's funny : Fortes is located not 15 mn from my house
I guess I'll have to swing by this week, thanks bossvette !
it seems to be very attractive ...especially when you see that Keislerauto 5 speed is $1000 more expensive... budget, budget....

Checking the 255/60-15, I'm asking myself if they are the same size (heigth) than my 225/70 15. I think so, but couldn't find anything yet.

For you all to understand what I want, you need to know I'm French (nobody's perfect ) and plan to return to France in a couple of years with my Vette and use it there (and maybe another couple of cars... ). So I need the car to be European-highways-proofed, that is lowering the RPMs at "high" speed (common speed on the highway if you don't want to be passed by a German tourists bus : 90 mph). Thus my wanting a 5 speed with overdrive, and my concern about the size of the 255/60-15....

Anyway, thanks for the help.

 

[82ColEd]

Rouge:
Aeh, i come from Germany (the guys that pass you, ), and i have to say i had never the car beyond ca. 100mp/h (160 km/h) (I cant really tell, because i have 85 mph speedometer), and i dont think the brakes etc are made for that on a C3, unless you modify it. When i had hit the brakes at that speed, it seemed to take forever to slow down. Good luck with shipping and converting, i have done it back and forth now, and it's not fun..
Let me know how you make out.. Bon Chance! Stefan

 

[CrevetteRouge]

Well Herr Stefan , I don't plan to go above 100 mph. And my speedometer is stuck @ 85 too, which sounds a good speed if you need to cruise nicely on the highway... and keep your licence too !
I don't plan to brake neither

As for shipping it seems to be ok and I plan not to converrt the car. In France your can get antique registration : basically you can leave the car as is, just have to pass the inspection once ; on the other hand you're limited +/- to drive in your region. But as we say in French "pas vu, pas pris" [not seen, not caugth"] !

Chris-heading-to-Forteparts


...and ha! the sweet remembrance of German highways and me following an Audi TT in my Golf TDI 115 6 speeds.... :crazy

 

[Johan]

Checking the 255/60-15, I'm asking myself if they are the same size (heigth) than my 225/70 15. I think so, but couldn't find anything yet.

255/60-15 are 255 x .60 = 153 mm high
225/70 15 are 225 x .70 = 157.5 mm high

 

[82ColEd]

Well Herr Stefan , I don't plan to go above 100 mph. And my speedometer is stuck @ 85 too, which sounds a good speed if you need to cruise nicely on the highway... and keep your licence too !
I don't plan to brake neither

As for shipping it seems to be ok and I plan not to converrt the car. In France your can get antique registration : basically you can leave the car as is, just have to pass the inspection once ; on the other hand you're limited +/- to drive in your region. But as we say in French "pas vu, pas pris" [not seen, not caugth"] !

Chris-heading-to-Forteparts


...and ha! the sweet remembrance of German highways and me following an Audi TT in my Golf TDI 115 6 speeds.... :crazy

Oh yeah, i remember those days.. I had a Golf GTI, 110HP, and cookin'.. I learnt driving on a GTI III 16V, and my driving instructor asked me to chase the Mercedes in front of us once, you should have seen the guys face when he saw the Driving Schools Stickers..
Say Hi to Europe/France-Germany for me..

 

[bossvette]

Rouge:
I run BFGs on mine 275-60 -15 on back and 255-60 on front
on 8" American Torque thrust 2

they fill the wheel wells nicely

 

[CrevetteRouge]

On the tires:
Bossvette , nice pics ! side exhaust too ! Johan , thanks for the tech info !
Well, still undecided for the brand, but the budget will go mainly on the transmission, so I'll guess I'll be reasonable on the tires and stick with the 225, maybe Dunlop...
Ah... budget... I really have to play the lottery

On the transmission :
I just went to Fortesparts yesterday and it seems that installing the transmission requires a little tweaking but no big challenges. The guy was even interested to do my car to document his web site.
Bossvette was there any problem with yours? How many hours and $ did it require?


On the European highways :
Well, Stephen, I'm not going back before next year, but I'll be sure to try any nice cars over there! This year I tried the VW Passat W8... What an awesome linear engine! Great cruiser. Super ! großartig ! außergewöhnlich! Well... my German is definitly gone

 

[bossvette]

Chris
I could not give an estimate for the time involved as I did an engine swap/trans swap and interior at the same time which took about 4 months working at my leisure.
I did the swap with the engine and trans as a unit and did not cut my trans crossmember like some others have done. The bolt on bracket that the trans mounts to has to be modified. I shortened it some and moved it back also and slotted the mount holes and used 1/4 CRS plate for reinforcement. the driveshaft has to be shortened. It is not a hard swap. the shifter location I just made a new shift plate out of sheetmetal and covered it with burlwood laminate. You can cut and weld an offset on the shifter to get it in the correct location. do a search for Tremec shifer location I have seen it posted.
here is a link to some pictures of mine they have not been orginized yet and the underside of my daily driver is not as pretty as most on this site:L :L TKO SWAP

 

[CrevetteRouge]

Hey thanks for the tips. Especially on the trans mount. I thought it would be more compatible.
Discussing with the guy, he had this idea to bend the transmission side of the shifter to make if fit the regular shifter position. That's an idea.

O
\ visible part of the shifter, bended too.
\
-|----|- bolts
-|----|-
\ bended bottom part
\
======== transmission

I had problems seeing your pictures full size though, just got an X. Is it me, or the web site?

And don't worry about your underside... I drove mine in snow so I'm expecting to pay this sooner or later even if I protect my underside the best way I can... Bad boy, bad boy :bash ... yep but it was so much fun !

 

[CrevetteRouge]

Darn! The spacing in my ASCII drawing disappeared ! Well, I hope you saw what I meant....

O
..\ visible part of the shifter, bended too.
...\
....-|----|- bolts
....-|----|-
..............\ bended bottom part
...............\
..........======== transmission

 

[Johan]

Chris,

Look at zwede's (forum member) page, he has some good pictures and info of a transmission swap and especially the shifter installation.

http://www.corvetteforum.net/c3/zwede/71corvette/71vette.htm

/Johan

 

[bossvette]

Chris

it was probably the web site, just refresh it a few times it should work, or its possible so many people have viewed it that my allotted bandwidth was used up, I'm that case try another day. there are several ways of moving the shifter, I finally went to a B&M ripper and modified shift plate. if you screw up your stock shifter I have 2 spares (bought one on e-bay advertised as short throw, but was same as original)

Craig sr

 

[CrevetteRouge]

All right, some news!

I finally brought my vette to Forte's Parts in Burlington, MA. All I can say is :

Thanks for the tip Bossvette !

The 5 speed Tremec is awesome, Forte's did a very good job on it, for a good price. I'm still waiting for the pictures to be on their web site, www.fortesparts.com. The car is running way better, gaining torque AND top-speed thanks to the new gear rations and overdrive. Why didn't they think of that in 1981????

On the works, they shorten the driveshaft, made a notch in the cross member and that's pretty much all.

On the aesthetic part, there is no difference, the new Tremec having the shift lever on the left now. They put a short stick, which I was not really overjoyed with (I liked the old style long stick) but when I drove it it proved to be a good choice.

Well, as you can see I'm very happy and invite everybody interested to check this awesome trans.

Now, I need to check my tires..... oh.. they're slick.....

 

[bossvette]

Chris
Glad that you like it, I am very satisfied with mine, you will find that around 80 is very comfortable cruise speed with the OD. http://www.fortesparts.com/ is a better deal then the others IMO what did the relocated shifter add to the cost?
I doubt I will change mine as I probably would not be able to use my ripper with the relocated shifter, and I like the short crisp throws it has.
Perhaps you will bring it to
Cruise-Fest 2004

Craig sr

 

[CrevetteRouge]

yep. 80 is good. Especially on the 55 max route 128
Actually from what the guy told me, the shifter was not relocated : they changed the design and it came more on the left, so fitting perfectly.
So I ended up paying $3200 for everything. Not bad.

As for the cruise fest, I'll pass the 12hours cuise to get there with my pregnant wife aboard She would kill me ! She's creating a new corvette fan, so I'm nice with her

 

[phxraptor]

Hi, my very unscientific view: I am partial to the BF G.'s, as i dont need the speed (i hardly every go over 100 mp/h here in the US :L ) rating, they seem to last 4ever, and look 'original' with the white lettering.. Though i am running the 255/60 R15's on mine. Just my .02 cents