4 OR 5 speed

[Chris_69_SS]

Well, as my 69 chevelle gets closer to completion, I am more and more set on retiring it from the odd 1/4 mile duty. That said, it is time to put it back to manual from the TH400 combo I threw in a few years back.

That said, what are your thoughts on going back to a Muncie 4 speed (either rebuild original core or the beefed up Autogear unit with Iron midplate and stronger gearset) OR a Tremec TKO 5 speed (requires floor surgery)?

Now, the car has 4.10 gears but will prob. swap back to 3.55s (with 550 ft lbs @3500 itll still be a handfull!).

Muncie: Is the M22 noise a pain? With 3.55s I think I could live with highway cruising

Tremec: Would the floor surgery really be worth having the overdrive?

What are your thoughts?

[COPO427]

If you go with the offset shifter and the Tremec then you won't need to butcher the floor. See http://www.classicchevy5speed.com/

If the Tremec is anything like the 5-spd Richmond, then you may want to go with the 6 speed as 5th gear is darn close to reverse since it's back and not to the front as the 4-spd.

The M22 is sweet noise to your ears, here's mine with 4.10 in my 70 Z28 www.nastyz28.com/~copo/m22sounds.zip
The M22 will be a slouch with 3.55's off the line. The M20 would be the best combo with the 3.55's. I'd go with the M22 wide ratio with the 3.55's. The ratio of the M22W is close to the M20 so if you like the noise in the 1,2 gears mostly then go with it.

[mockingbird812]

Mark,

Nice sound bites. Concur with your assessment of Rockcrusher sound. To not like it, is akin to saying you don't like an aggressive exhaust sound. However, if you are a radio listener.....wave off !!

Aggressive Exhaust Tone + M22 Whine = <font color="red">Sweet Bliss!
</font>

[markjohnson]

Wow, thanks for the sound bites. It took all of my will power to set the phone down and not order one of those new M22's just now! Can you get any more American than that gear noise? I actually want that on CD to listen to while I drive my Honda.

[COPO427]

I like the M20 ratio better than the M21/M22 ratio so I'm going to order M22W. The M22W has the 2.56:1 1st gear.

See http://www.autogear.net/m22ratios.htm

Year 1966-1974 M20 Ratio: 2.52 / 1.88 / 1.46 / 1.00
Year 1963-1974 M21 Ratio: 2.20 / 1.64 / 1.28 / 1.00
Year 1967-1974 M22 Ratio: 2.20 / 1.64 / 1.28 / 1.00

[Chris_69_SS]

You know, It has been so long since I had a muncie in my Chevelle that listening to your clip convinced me to go with the M22...SWEET! I currently have 4.10s so I can just leave the diff alone.

Thanks,

[tom406]

No right or wrong answers here, obviously. I personally hate driving cars without overdrive that have steeper gears than 3.50 or so. I had 4.11's in a Mustang a while back, and it sang at like 3500 rpms on the highway at 60mph. Very tiresome. I did a World Class T5 (2.95 1st, .59 or so OD -IIRC) 5 speed swap and loved it. I left the 4.11's, but even with an aluminum flywheel, 1st gear was pretty useless, and 2nd gear starts were no problem. If I had kept it, I would have done 3.50 gears and I think it would have been perfect.

Kiesler seems the best for these conversions, as they were the first to really tackle the engineering side of these things:

http://www.keislerauto.com/gm/chevelle-gen2-kits.html

If you want to keep your 4.10's, I'd go with the TKO600 highway OD model for sure. With a TKO500 and that steep 3.27 first gear, you'll probably want to go back to 3.55's or maybe even 3.23's if its quarter mile days are over.

If that audio track has made you want the Muncie, then by all means go for the wide ratio M20-geared unit. That 2.20 M21/M22 1st gear is just so high. (In '63 Bill Jenkins used Ford T-10 2.36 first gears instead of Chevy 2.20 gears in his 409/Z11 race cars for an advantage.) I much preferred the M20 in my RS Z28 over the M21 in my first Z. But the 5 speeds I've had were by far my favorites overall.

Just my $.02.....

[olredalert]

-------Just a thought but how about a super T-10. Even wider spread of ratios than an M20. 1st is in the 3.0s Makes for a really nice 1st with a set of 355s.........Bill S

[Fast67VelleN2O]

Just watch this movie for info on M22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JosOgWEwOaw

[SOM2001SS]

Why only have 4 or 5 gears when you can have 6? I have 2 4th gen Camaros with T56's and can't imagine running a 4-speed anymore. Eventually the TH400 in my Chevelle will be replaced with a T56.