Bellhousing adapters?

[mlemorie]

Was doing some digging around companies that make adapters and found that the gearbox I have isn't too popular to swap into anything. I have an Isuzu MSG-5 that I want to put behind an engine. Is there any company making custom adapters that won't break the bank? I have a second transmission that I could send out to be used for reference as well.

 

[oilhammer]

Is there something very specific to THAT transmission that you are hung on? What was it originally used in?

 

[mlemorie]

It's the 5mt that is currently in my diesel chevette. If I'm able to use it, that makes the MTDI swap much more straight forward. Plus I have a spare if needed lol.

 

[oilhammer]

Ah, OK, that makes sense. I had one of those. Great engine, absolutely miserable car. And bad structural rust, yours has I guess not lived its whole life in Michigan?

Anyway, the issue becomes.... is it easier to custom make an adapter for a transmission in one instance, or easier to use one for a much more common transmission like one of the Aisin boxes or the Mazda units in Fords? Those are likely to be bigger transmissions, though, and the Chevette's tunnel is pretty tiny from what I remember.

 

[mlemorie]

Parts were near impossible to find for the little 4fb1 15 years ago when I picked this thing up lol. It has some rust but isn't actually terrible. It's been taking up space in my garage for the last 10 years. It is a small tunnel without much wiggle room. Thinking that it is probably easier in the long run to adapt the engine to the trans instead of adapting the engine to a different trans, and then also adapting the car to that new trans. At least for now anyway. I know I'm an oddball, but I have a soft spot for weird cars and doing things with them that shouldn't be done. Even with my RC stuff, I got a race class put together for probably one of the worst handling vehicles because it was fun lol

 

[Alberta 7.3]

Those diesel Chevettes were quite rare, I only knew they existed because I saw one at a u-pull 25 years ago. A bit of google search and it sounds like they may have used a Borg-Warner T5 transmission. The T5 was used on quite a few brands and models of vehicles. You may be able to swap the bell housing to something that an adapter is commonly available for, which might entail also swapping the input shaft.

 

[PickleRick]

The t5 would need more than a bell swap most likely. Add a matching input shaft then internal gears.


You'd likely be better off running a Chevy 5 speed 2wd transmission found behind the 2.8v6 or preferably the 4.3 as there are already 60 and 90 Chevy adapters.


Then there are the 2wd 22re/3.0 and 3.4 Toyota pickup/supra 5 speeds with readily available adapters. The Yota transmission would be the my choice out of these, aisin as @oilhammer suggested.



All are small 5 speeds.




I realize you already have the transmission and it could POSSIBLY save you a custom or modified drive shaft but there's a good chance your transmission won't be able to stay in the same spot anyway.


The t5 wasn't known for reliability, the V8 swapped guys ate them up pretty quickly and eventually upgraded. I don't know how much power you plan on putting down on your mtdi