See, if you use the right aftermarket flywheel, you can bolt a regular Gen 1 Chevy bellhousing and trans to an LS and use the regular old Chevy clutch. You wind up short one bellhousing bolt, but there are a bunch of folks running them like this.

I had already bought a special T56 bellhousing for the small block made by a guy in California named Weir. It allowed the LT1 trans to be used on any big or small block Chevy. You could use a 1 or 2 piece rear seal and any size flywheel. It came with a custom hydraulic throwout bearing that made all this possible.

I started thinking that if you could hang a regular 4 speed on an LS with the right flywheel, why couldn't I hang my LT1 trans on one using the bellhousing I had? It turns out after some measuring that it will work. It's not the ideal setup, because it actually costs more to do it this way. The Weir bellhousings are kind of rare (I found mine on EBAY)and I don't know if he even still makes them. I already had the parts so it was cheaper for me. Boy, that sounds like hard justification if I ever heard it, but where there's a will there's a way!

Soooo, I decided to go back to the LS engine I wanted to start with. The trouble was, I didn't have one.



The Weir bellhousing is very well made and heavy duty. It isn't rated as a scattershield, but it is a very thick casting. You could make several of the stock LT1 bellhousings with the metal in the Weir part.



This is the LT1 T56 I have. It has a 2.97 1st gear and a .64 6th. It's my understanding that this is considered a close ratio unit.