Hi, not sure if this was already discussed but i have an 86 ss monte that just eats too much gas to drive everyday so i was looking into the 03-05 ss montes. the only problem is i want a manual car.. I was thinking of possibly putting a 5 or 6 speed out of an 02 camaro... How hard would this be if possible?

 

You can't and its been discussed here a million times already. There are no manual alternatives to the 6th gen montes. Unless you're budget is well over $10,000 then you can convert to RWD using perhaps an lsx/6spd drivetrain. You will find all you're questions answered if you care to do the search on this website.

 

03-05 SS monte is front wheel drive, 02 camaro is rear wheel drive- the two transmission types are totally different and are not even remotely interchangeable. See pictures below:






There are FWD manual transmissions that would at least get the input and output of the transmission in the right spot, but no manual transmission is a drop in/bolt in for the wbody using off the shelf parts. It certainly can be done, but if the intent is to save money on gas mileage- you'll certainly completely blow that and more doing the swap.


I guess my first question is- what gas mileage does your car actually get?

I pulled up some quick figures on fueleconomy.gov

86 monte SS - 15 city / 23 hwy - 18 combined
03 monte SS - 17 city / 27 hwy - 20 combined

The 2 mpg difference yields about a 55 gallon a year difference at 10k miles a year, or about $200 extra a year @ $3.75/gal.


Even if we widen the gap, and say your monte only gets 15 mpg, and the new monte will get 25 mpg- that's a 266 gal/yr difference or about $1000 / yr @ 3.75 / gal.

So even if you don't do a transmission swap or any modifications- you're still talking about spending $3k or so for a decent car, plus insurance, plus registration and such- you'd be talking 3.5-4 years just to break even from continuing to drive your current monte.


My second thought it- if the idea is to buy a car as a DD for better gas mileage, and a manual is a must- why not get a 4 cylinder car? That will help widen the gap in gas mileage, and would be able to justify the cost of a new car quicker.

 

Hi I have a 2005 Monte Carlo ls wit the 3400 and I have a question. If you wire it right and you hook it up right and you get the right parts brackets and such. Could you take a transmission from a 3.4 L V6 Toyota Tacoma from 00/05 and slap it on? Or would the 4 x 4 thing ruin it?

 

It wouldnt be possible without a ton of money and/or custom work.

 

There's no slapping anything on.

You're talking not just a trans swap, but also a RWD conversion (or 4x4 conversion, its hard to tell). Thats an enormous undertaking in itself made more complicated by the desire to run some completely random transmission.

You can make absolutely anything work with enough money as just about everything you can imagine can be adapted to work with custom parts. Whoever does the RWD conversion will also have the skills / equipment (or have access to a shop that does) to make the required adapters.

I'd just strongly reccomend against complicating it with this random transmission unless there was a very good reason for doing so. There are plenty of GM rwd autos and manuals that either bolt up or bolt up with an off the shelf adapter to cover almost any need / power level. It would add significant cost to engineer and fab a brand new adapter for a trans that hasn't been done before.