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T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:27 pm
by DEVONMAN
Just a few pictures of the progress.
Basically a chopped down Range Rover bell housing welded to a 20mm ali plate drilled and tapped for the T56 Box. A slave cylinder is added outside box to push the release arm forwards. The clutch arm is shortened by about 2" (the bit that normally attaches to the cable and will now be pushed forwards by the slave cylinder threaded push rod.
The box was temporarily mounted vertically on the plate/bellhousing (grease surfaces)and on a spare engine and using the prop yoke the pre mounting drag and post mounting drag was compared to get the best centralised position before drilling and tapping m10 bolts into the 20mm plate. Once the box was bolted down to the 20mm plate, 2 dowel holes were drilled and dowels fitted to ensure future location. Before everything was assembled the bellhousing /plate was skimmed parallel and then dial checked.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:30 pm
by DEVONMAN
More pics

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:33 pm
by DEVONMAN
More pics. In the case of this Ford T56 box the new bell housing needed to be 129mm high to give correct engagement in the spigot bush. I don't like concentric release bearings so I have fitted a slave cylinder outside the box. The master cylinder is a Nascar pull type with max stroke 1" so a large 22mm bore cylinder is needed to get enough clutch bearing movement.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:48 pm
by Coops
Awesome mate, thanks for posting the pics :nw

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:15 pm
by SuperV8
Nice work.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:21 pm
by Pocket rocket
I love threads like this

Thanks for sharing

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 6:38 am
by minorv8
T56 is huge and heavy, in which car are you going to fit it ?

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:12 pm
by DEVONMAN
Twin turbo RV8 Sierra Sapphire.
Just to add, Have got through 2 T5's so need to put in something that will take the torque dished out by the turboed 4.6 RV8. The T5's didn't actually break but got very noisy with time.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:24 pm
by DEVONMAN
Now that the summer outings are finished, the Sierra is off the road and ready for a shoehorning exercise to get the T56 into place. Initial trial installation showed that the tunnel will need minor bashing and the front cross member will need spacing down 12mm and a slightly shorter prop shaft with a conversion UJ to match the sierra yoke to the T56 yoke.
Progress report will follow in a week or so.
IMG_4633.JPG

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:17 am
by richyb66
The box does look huge but then strength generally doesn't come in small packages. If you've got the space to fit it and the determination to do it, it's got to be a worthwhile swap.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:08 pm
by DEVONMAN
The determination comes from the fact that the car currently has a cossie T5 fitted with a 0.6 5th gear and this give effortless economic 70mph cruising at only 1800 RPM. However, this results in a big gap between 4th and 5th. The T56 will fill the gap but keep 6th approximately the same as the old 5th.
Most of the work is in making a bellhousing to mate the T56 to the RV8 and this gave me the incentive to buy a TIg welder and to learn how to use it.
Most of the thinking and shoehorning is done now and I am currently working (porting) on a pair of later cylinder heads to fit instead of the ported SD1 items which had crap valve stem oil seals. Also fabricating a cradle to support the gearbox rear mount which will hang from the sierra's factory floor mount points.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 11:45 am
by Mark
Looks a very similar box to mine, the 10 spline input shaft is good for 450 ftlbs according to the Tremec spec sheet.

Why are you having to space the front cross member down mate?

Do you have any under bonnet pics showing how much of a squeeze it is in a Sierra with twin turbos ? Not sure what direction to go with on mine :|

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:58 am
by DEVONMAN
The Range Rover bell housing I used is quite bulky compared to others I could have used (lesson learnt) so to get more tunnel clearance I spaced the cross member down complete with engine mounts. I was also interested in getting a better prop angle and this helped by effectively reducing the tilt of the engine relative to the shell. A bonus is
SierraAug-22.jpg
that the complete unit with heads and turbos attached can now be installed & removed without jamming between the tunnel and the rack.

Just to add, when we previously fitted the v8 turbo we move the ABS control block to a position higher on the bulkhead to enable the 2.5" exhaust pipes to pass.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:06 pm
by Mark
Thanks for the pic and info mate.

Have you had the car on a dyno?

I had to bash my transmission tunnel upwards quite a bit in the bellhousing area on mine to squeeze the box in, only just enough room for the heater now!

Keep an eye on the angles of the TCA's and steering rods once its on the ground, if the car is lowered and has the cross member spaced down it might result in some strange goings on.

Re: T56 to RV8 conversion.

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:10 pm
by DEVONMAN
Our car is fully fitted out with heater and stereo /screen etc in the tunnel area so too much bashing was not an option. Just out of interest, how much space is there between the factory tunnel and the heater?
As far as the TCA's are concerned, dropping the inner point causes a minimal change in the camber. We have also spaced the anti roll bar (Cossie size) mounts down by 6mm. This gives a bit more clearance at the bottom of the bellhousing which reduces as the front of car fully dives. The car it'self is not lower (Except due to the extra weight of the gearbox LOL) as the wheel to top of strut height is as before.