T56 & 5.3l

[MunsonAuto]

Hey all,
I just finished mating a 1999 Camaro T56 to my 5.3l and I wanted to let everyone know something that my father and I did not think of and it gave us major troubles.

Well, we pulled the 4l60e out (5.3l & 4l60e swapped in my 91 Nissan 240sx), all that was good. Put the new flywheel on, then remembered we needed to get a pilot bearing/bushing. So we started searching on our NapaProLink (we have a business account with NAPA so we have access to the local store inventory online yada yada). We were thinking we needed a Pilot BEARING, but we couldn't find one for a camaro, but there was a Pilot BUSHING, but at the time we didn't think anything of it. We continued to look and didn't find a pilot bearing for a 5.3l, but we found one for a 4.8l with a T5, a combination only found in some early 1500's blah blah. Anyway, some of you are probably seeing what we did wrong already, but for those of you that don't I'll keep going haha. Anyway, we managed to locate the above pilot BEARING, but it was a good 45-60 min away so I took off and got that. Got back, installed it in the crank, and it sits flush with the "outermost" edge of the crank.

The crank appears to have two "steps" to it, on the inner most one is where the pilot BUSHING which is needed for a T56 goes. Regardless, we spent around 5 hours fooling around with this damn thing and completely demolishing the bearing we had haha.

So, for anyone doing a T56 swap, you need a Pilot BUSHING, not a bearing, there IS a difference haha. I also want to thank those that tried to help me out the other night in figuring this out, and special thanks to TurboMic!
I can get the Napa/Carquest part number of the pilot bushing needed if anyone would like.

Here's some pics of how the bushing should look, and some pics of the bearing we had.

Bushing flush with end of first "step" in the crank:


Two other views:




The BEARING we had that did not work, you can see the marks from where the tranny shaft was hitting the bearing:


Where the bearing went, it was flush with the complete end of the crank when we were working on it last night, but we had it pulled out and didn't want to put it back in just for a picture so that's why it's crooked:


We feel like N00bs now, but we got it done and learned from it so it's all good. Now I just want to drive it, but the damn snow is preventing that....

[ducky]

shoot mayne glad you got it all figured out. of course you can drive it. Snow will help with all that autoXing you do

[MunsonAuto]

They salt the roads here when it snows...my car is from Cali and rust free..so salt + my car = fail. haha or at least in my eyes it does.

[ducky]

yeah thats true good point. Is your car pretty much down for winter then?

[MunsonAuto]

ahhh, I think I've got another week or so as long as the roads dry up it will be fine to drive, just not when it's storming or recently snowed I guess.

[TurboMic]

glad you got it

[GasGuzzler]

The T56 5.7 LS1 I have here came with a bearing installed in the crank out of the crate...and it bolted together. Mine looks different than yours though.

[GasGuzzler]

Agreed George. I think Muson asked for a T5 or NVG3500/4500 bearing. I brought the pilot bearing home that is identical to the one in the LS1 crate engine I installed the FireTurd today but didn't have a chance to post the pic. I'll try again later...

[GasGuzzler]

Here's what the F/Y car LS1 pilot looks like.