Tom moved on from H Craft and we found ourselves in need of a new race shop. Fortunately for us, we found L2 Motorsports which just so happens to be right next door to Road Atlanta. And when I say next door I mean that the back of the complex that L2 is in shares a driveway/gate with the Road Atlanta paddock — convenient!
I had actually met Chris Degioanni and L2 before we blew up the transmission on Project SC300 at Atlanta Motorsports Park. So, while Chris wasn’t surprised to take my call, he was a little surprised that I was bringing him the project with a blown up drivetrain.
Chris, owner of L2, has been working in the racing industry for over 20 years. He and his team have competed at the top levels of American racing including the former World Challenge, former Grand-Am, the IMSA Continental Tires Series, and now the IMSA WeatherTech Series where they are campaigning a brand new Ford Mustangs — and doing well, too. Somehow I was able to convince them that working on MotoIQ’s Project SC300 would bring them more fame and fortune than silly IMSA racing ever could. There wasn’t even any alcohol involved. Maybe I just told them that I could actually pay them for the work that I wanted them to do. That usually is effective.
The funny thing about using a T56 in your car is that you get to buy parts from Summit Racing normally associated with domestics. I picked up a Hurst shift lever and a Summit-branded ball-style shift knob for just around $100. Cute.
Pictured here is the Prothane T56 transmission bushing kit, which unsurprisingly is for a domestic car, along with the Grannas Racing-fabricated transmission mount kit that is engineered specifically to bolt the T56 to the SC300 chassis using the same mounting location as the OE SC300 transmission mount. Also pictured is the hardware kit that Grannas supplies, as well as the Tilton clutch master.
9 comments
Ah cliffhanger!
I T56 swapped my JZZ30 about 5 years ago. Definitely a far better option than going the R154 route as some parts for them are becoming almost impossible to get. Plus the option of going dog engagement down the track.
I used the factory auto bell housing with an adaptor plate. Gearbox is tight, but just fits in the tunnel. I think from memory an obsolete bracket or 2 needs cutting off. And It can be removed and installed as a complete unit. It just requires a few wobble drive extensions.
i would recommend that you loosen the motor mounts, and let the engine ’tilt back’, possibly by hanging a weight from it…then you can get to all the transmission bolts with the aforementioned wobble extensions…i’ve had 2 or 3 feet of wobble extensions, to reach the bolts, which looks ridiculous, but it works.
When doing transmission work on RWD imports:
Step 1 — obtain every 3/8″ extension in the universe
Step 2 — obtain several wobbles
Step 3 — assemble all extensions and wobbles
Step 4 — stand four feet behind the car
Step 5 — tighten that one bolt on top of the transmission
🙂
The V160 would never have to be changed as the aftermarket could easily offer replacement parts including gearing but between the race to the bottom price mentality of the bulk of buyers and the upper-side greed of potential manufacturers it’ll die one of the best high power manuals that ever was!
Shawn, you sound frustrated that I’ve chosen the T56 as opposed to the V160. Is that accurate? Or are you frustrated that there isn’t better aftermarket support for the V160?
Not frustrated at your choice more frustrated at my choices. You know my car from LI, we don’t live far from each other. Keeping myself on the DL 😉
Would prefer V160 all day long but its a hose fest. Glad to see this option but its got to be plug and play. Was originally thinking the late Z unit but the info you’ve provided concerns me with the lack of plug and play for it.
If you have a V160 equipped JZA80 then Grannas’ kits are going to bolt in with no issues. I have an early manual JZZ30/SC300, so there was some question about whether or not the trans tunnel was the same as the later year autos. You’ll see in the coming segments that in the end it wasn’t super difficult to make everything work on my JZZ30.
Good to know as a fallback!
Since V160 parts are still available, albeit rarer, I’m going to have mine rebuild. If all goes well on disassembly it should only need a 3rd gear syncho. Will have all the other weak items replaced with a complete REM polish of all components.
Thank Erik 🙂