I'll play:
trans #1-
original 1996 4L60e,
Transgo HD2 shift kit
Corvette servo
billit 4th servo
stock converter
mods did -okay- at best. I installed them and everything went good. the HD2 kit I got was missing a valve for it and I didn't notice until 1/2 way though the isntallation. I decided to just keep the stock one in there and continue installing the kit. instructions mentioned that the valve wasn't needed on all vehicles and some later transmissions may have already had the correct valve in it. finished the install and it drove great. everything was fine for about 4 months and the trans lost overdrive. took it in and it turns out that that valve they think was the cause of the failure, not sure what exactally it did to make it fail, but whatever. had it rebuilt, and it did fine, shifts were better than stock, but 'eh nothing to write home about.
Trans #2
1994 LT1 T56 6 speed manual
so after I did all that to the 60e, I found out, guess what, its still a 4Lcrappy-e, and decided to do what I really wanted and swap it out for a manual. I found a used T56, that was fairly beat up and in need of some TLC, I rebuilt it and replaced the needed parts (several gears, all new seals/bearings/etc), all new synchros, upgraded to carbon blocker rings, steel 3/4 fork, all bronze pads, billit keys, modified the shift rail to move the shifter up to the mid inspection plate, modified a cobra pro 5.0 shifter to use the inspection area, installed it in the truck with a SPEC stage 3 clutch, using a stock truck master cylinder mated to an aluminum camaro slave.
swapping to a manual was the best trans mod I have done. I always hated the 60e. the 1-2 gearing gap sucked, even with extensive tuning I never got the low speed shifting how I wanted it, and the if you count the rebuild after the shift kit was installed, it needed 2 full blown rebuilds by 125k miles (this is a daily driver, saw minimal towing, minimal abuse, well maintained, and had a trans cooler too), sucked power away, PITA to work on, etc, etc. the T56 has been in for almost a year (though almost 1/2 of that time it wasn't driven while I did alot of separate mods), but it has worked out great, I have tried several clutch discs including a SPEC stage 2, and a Mcleod, both worked okay, the stage 2 got oil contaminated by a rear main leak, and the Mcleod worked okay, but was overly chattery and I decided to replace it when the blower went on to get a better friction material in there. the current stage 3 clutch is phenomenal, great driving charactoristics, holds nicely, easy to drive. next clutch replacement I'll put in a 3+ (which is the same clutch disk material, but full faced instead of a puck style disc like the 3). T56 swap was fairly simple. only issue now is with the double overdrive and DEEP .50 6th gear overdrive, my 3.73's dont pull well enough in 6th, so I'm re-gearing to 4.88's very soon. should be fun
