What's the cost and difficulty level of swapping out an A4 tranny, and replacing it with an M6 in a Z28?

I've got a guy wanting to buy my car, but he wants to know if it's expensive, and you have to hack a bunch of crap up to swap it in.

 

From what I was calculating I was expecting to spend $2300 after labor. It's not that common of a swap. Then you still have the 2.73/3.23 rear end and automatic radiator, etc.

 

It really depends on how far you want to go and how much of the work you can do. 99% of the parts can be purchased over the counter if desired, or you can try saving some green and buying used stuff. I went the new route as well as a built tranny from D&D Performance and it ended up being almost 4k . Most people on here will claim that they only spent 1.5-2k on their conversion only to find that they bought a junk tranny and have to fork another 1.5k a few months later. I just decided to bite the bullit and do things right the first time. As far as price, I'd say 2k-4k depending upon needs and desires of the owner. If he doesn't mind used and doesn't need a performance clutch 2k is very doable. But he if is **** like me and needs something that can take a beating, lean closer to 3-4k.

The level of difficulty isn't hard at all. If s/he can drop a tranny and change a clutch, they should be able to do the swap. Most everything is a straight bolt-in with the exceptiion of cutting a hole for the shifter and clutch master cylinder. The wiring is straight forward as well and can be accomplished in about an hour.

 

If you can pull a tranny to change a clutch, you can convert to an M6.

 

a couple of people from my area did it. I know marcin did, but I can't remember his board name.

ninja edit: just came to me. xxultrasaint69 or something along those lines.

 

I did it to my old Formula (a '94) back in '02. I also had the luxury of the donor car being parked 15 feet away. I relied heavily on a site that had a step by step break down of it it including all the wiring changes necessary. I'm sure it's still around.

I think the heads/cam swap I did was more difficult and involving.

As long as you take your time, it is a fairly straight-forward swap. I'm not sure what parts go for now, I'd guess $2000 or so.

 

xxsaint69x

 

I converted my 91 Firebird to a T-56. It is pretty straight forward. What gave me the biggest pain in my *** was drilling out and lining up the holes for the master cylinder. I did this with the brake booster in place though. I give this job a 6.5-10 for difficulty.

Zach

 

GMHTP magazine just did this swap in their last issue. I think they said $4700 including the tranny and all the parts.

 

if you doit yourself there is NO WAY it will cost 4700. You can get a wrecked donor car and part out what u dont need or find someone who did a TH350/400 swap and get buy all their stuff. From what I've seen its not THAT hard to do. I think there is a place online that sells a kit with everything needed for like 2100-2300.

 

my friend did it to his SS a while ago, he said it was pretty easy. i think it was like 2500 bucks for the parts, not sure

 

htf did they come up w/ that number? lol

 

Not that hard, took me 12 hours on my back with minimal tools.

Cost: Got a complete tranny, clutch, pedals, shifter, etc for $1500. Sold my A4 with converter for $900.

So for me $600 and 12 hours of my own labor.

This was back in 2001 though.

Doug D