manual conversion - toyota/supra gearbox into a p6b.

ewokracing

ewokracing

Active Member
I always thought i'd keep my car automatic and that I'd get a second p6b to modify, but I've realised that with house renovations, another car that I'm trying to get on the road and my desire to have another motorcycle, I should really be practical and just start with what I have already.

So, forgetting LT77 boxes or the R380 (too thin on the ground here in Australia and too expensive), this opens up other options.

Tremec T5
pro: cheapish, plentiful here in Australia, simple
cons: weak, plenty around but are usually worn out

Tremec TKO series
pro: strong, T56 and other models are available through being in Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores
cons: I can't find out if there is a suitable bellhousing that allows me to bolt a Rover V8 to a TKO series or T56 box.

Toyota "Supra" W series boxes
pro: plentiful, not too expensive, lots of variants around in different strength ratings, I've read of someone swapping one into a p6b so it can be done.
con: I need to track down advice from someone who's done it and found out what brand bellhousing they have used, Dellow bellhousings seem to have lots of problems, what starter do I use?


Does anyone on here have a Supra equipped p6b? Ideally this will bolt up to a 3.9, 4.0 or 4.6 block. (I'm going to pull the original 3.5 and set it aside)
Other issues I can see are firewall/trans tunnel clearance and that I will need a manual pedal box and some sort of clutch arrangement which could be a headache to sort out.
 
Devine approval of a manual gearbox

grrrrr. Third time this has happened...

I reckon it's a sign that a manual gearbox is definitely in this car's future!
 

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Just thinking Geoff, if it's the third time it has developed the same incontinence issues and you have topped it back up each time I would suspect it's actually overfull and venting the excess out of the breather when it drains back out of the torque convertor.

My dipstick markings appear to have little correlation with the level it should be at so i've basically ended up ignoring them and finding equilibrium where it no longer vents out the breather when left standing.

Cheers,

Al
 
^ haven't topped it up the last two times, so I think it's just the pan gasket leaking.

Mind you, only happens if the car sits for a while, so I think it's also begging for some use.
 
Have a look at the kickdown cable near the accellerator linkage, mine occasionally jetisons fluid from the top of there when it's been stood for a while.
 
Ewokracing - did you find a solution? I am currently garnering information on possible 5 speed conversions and would be interested in how you got on...
 
Hi mate,

no, have been pushing on with my other car to get it on the road (I'm over using my home city's pathetic public transport and sharing a car with the missus), but I will probably be going for a W58 Supra 'box with a Carter 4 barrel carb and will also probably use a Dellow bellhousing. No idea about clutch/starter motor/flywheel, but I have read that you do need to use a 1 inch master cylinder as the one that dellow supplies is too small.

I also need to track down a manual pedal box.
 
Don't know if the pedal box on the 4 cyl cars is the same but the TC up at the Centre Rd wreckers is a manual so you could prob grab it from that and stash it if they are.
 
Is it? Awesome. I think I will have to head there in the coming weekend. I thought it was another auto.

I might try and pull the wheel hubs off that V8 if I am feeling game as well.
 
Hi Geoff,

I have a supra turbo 5 spd box in my P6B with the dellow bell housing and had no problems with it at all. From memory it runs the standard V8 Starter, I certainly don't recall paying for another at the time. The only thing close to an issue was with the mounting of the slave cylinder.

The supra turbo box can take a ridiculous amount of power and torque, more than a 3.5 could throw at that's for certain.

Effortless gear changes are a wonderful thing.

The gear lever does run a little further back than the standard P6 box, but we just cut an appropriate hole in the tunnel.
 
Excellent. Tokyop6b did the conversion to, and had no problems with the Dellow bellhousing. I'm only wary as I have seen Dellow bellhousings that were cast warped and needed the surface to be machined flat.

I used a Series 4 turbo RX-7 gearbox in one of my rotary cars and they take about 300HP, The supra series is the next step up from that (a friend had a turbo supra box in his RX-3 and it took a ton of abuse). I have no doubt that the box won't break, I reckon the diff will be the first to go.
 
ewokracing said:
Excellent. Tokyop6b did the conversion to, and had no problems with the Dellow bellhousing. I'm only wary as I have seen Dellow bellhousings that were cast warped and needed the surface to be machined flat.

I used a Series 4 turbo RX-7 gearbox in one of my rotary cars and they take about 300HP, The supra series is the next step up from that (a friend had a turbo supra box in his RX-3 and it took a ton of abuse). I have no doubt that the box won't break, I reckon the diff will be the first to go.
Click to expand...

That or a uni in the rear half shafts, had one let go through a round about one day, wasn't much fun when the shaft hit the deck.
 
BTW Geoff, mine was a converted auto, I replaced the 4spd standard boat anchor with the supra box. Apparently the Auto tunnel is bigger than the manual on the base unit, but I've never been able to confirm it. In any case it's a pretty straight swap. I'm fairly certain, from memory, all of the bits were rover except the bell housing, everything behind the flywheel and the gearbox cross member.

If I don't end up going down the v8 TDi conversion route, I will swap the rover bellhousing for a 1UZFE bellhousing and keep the same box, they are good for around 600hp which is much more than I intend to run.
 
tvr_v8 said:
Don't know if the pedal box on the 4 cyl cars is the same but the TC up at the Centre Rd wreckers is a manual so you could prob grab it from that and stash it if they are.
Click to expand...

The position of the clutch master cylinder is different on the 4 cylinder cars, and if you look at how close the brake master cyl is to the engine on the V8 there won't be enough room to get another one for the clutch next to it.
 
so the pedal box from a 4 cylinder car is not an option then harvey?

mad pom: if you ever want to sell that dellow bellhousing, yell out. Also how did you mount the gearbox to the bodyshell?
 
Harvey: Do the 2000's have a seperate clutch/brake master cylinder, mine runs as a combined unit, but it was converted from an auto. (sorry I meant reservoir)

Geoff: I'll see if I can crawl under her and post up a photo later today.
 
I've seen a few V8 manual conversions done using a 4 cyl pedal box. If you use an 'S' type clutch master cyl and a decent heat shield between it and the exhaust it seems to work ok.
 
2012-02-19131644.jpg


Probably the best image I can get of it Geoff, you can see where it mounts to standard gearbox mounting points and the bottom of the supra box.

Slave cylinder below

2012-02-19131634.jpg


You can just see the Starter in the image below, looks pretty standard to me.

2012-02-19131821.jpg
 
My V8 is an ex-auto and all I could find at the time in Cape Town was a 4 pot pedal box that came out of a left hand drive..... resulting in some creative ironmongery to get the pedals RHD oriented, but it worked.
Next trick was the master cylinder, and as it looked too close for comfort to the heat of the exhausts, I made up an extended push rod and mounted the master cylinder on the right side just aft of the radiator.
The bell housing was the old auto one that had a hole machined for the clutch release lever and a bracket made up to mount the slave cylinder and it used an adapter plate to locate the LT77 box in place, all of which worked great until the box succumbed to the old input bearing failure thanks to a Crane cam and a heavy right foot......
Clutch master, slave and flywheel are all ex SD1, and thanks to e-bay there is a genuine V8 master cylinder setup waiting for me to Digitum Extractum and fit it all....
 
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