gearbox swop on a polly 318A

[The Russ]

Hi all.
I would like to know what gearbox i could mount behind a poly 318A V8 motor. Have a 4 gear steering shift behind the motor at the moment. Plan is to swop out the gearbox and replace it with somthing that can help with feul consumption. Being from the southern part of africa we tend not to have much mopar fundis here. Tried the same question on a local forum, all advice i got was to find a hurst shifter. Want a stickshift, but with more gears to bring consumption down. Hopefully all u MOPAR lovers could give me more advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[YY1]

833 O/D

Poly bell housing might be tough to find.

 

[66 coronet]

Poly bell housing is the same as any LA engine. More gears do not always mean better fuel millage but if you can find a dodge dakota truck junked out there with the 5 speed in it the bell housing is one piece with the transmission and will bolt to the A and LA blocks.

 

[66Satellite_in_NC]

Any year dodge dakota or does it need to be specific?

 

[66 coronet]

Not 100% sure about the year Dakota I know the 98 and 99 V8 , I've been told the v6 is the same bolt pattern as well. I'll do some more research and get back to you.

- - - Updated - - -

A v8 Dakota of any year should work the magnum engine has the same pattern as the LA and A engines.

 

[YY1]

Uh, Dakota trans is WAY different, and requires cutting of trans mount and fabrication.

You sure about bell housing? Maybe, but isn't there at least one bolt different?

 

[66 coronet]

Yes I know the mount would have to be fabricated and the clutch setup is hydrolic so clutch linkage would have to fabricated as well.
I thought about doing this conversion to the poly head in my 66 coronet. Check on the poly head site on yahoo that's where I was reading about this.

 

[rumblefish360]

The Poly series "A" engine has the same pattern as the "LA" series engines. The problem he faces is the rear of the crank being drilled to accept the manual trans input shaft.

A place like Passon or Brewers Perfoance will have all the other parts though there pricey. Passon has a bolt in 5spd manual trans that bolts in though it will take a while to get the 855-5spd trans. It looks a whole lot like the MoPar 4spd trans.

Transmission choices of the MoPar only flavor are the 883 O.D. Trans.
The Dakota 5apd manual requires cutting up the car a little bit and figuring out where to mount the slave cylinder and such parts.

Then there's the Tremac trans.
Also the Richmond trans or a Jerico racing unit. Putting in a GM 6apd trans requires major surgery to instal and there huge!