NV3500 5-speed swap

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Texas82GP

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Apr 3, 2015
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Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment. I'm curious about your overall setup. What rear gear ratio do you have in the car? What size are your tires? Do you know what the first gear ratio is in the trans. or would you remind me what the trans. is out of? I'll bet you have a smile on your face when you get to work this morning. That's awesome.
 
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Wageslave

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Jan 25, 2017
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Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment. I'm curious about your overall setup. What rear gear ratio do you have in the car? What size are your tires? Do you know what the first gear ratio is in the trans. or would you remind me what the trans. is out of? I'll bet you have a smile on your face when you get to work this morning. That's awesome.
The transmission is a close ratio M50 NV3500 out of a 2002 S10. I am currently running a 2.73 gear ratio with the stock size tires. I think the 1st gear ratio is about 3.49:1.

I filled the tank up today to see what kind of mileage gains I might gain.
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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The transmission is a close ratio M50 NV3500 out of a 2002 S10. I am currently running a 2.73 gear ratio with the stock size tires. I think the 1st gear ratio is about 3.49:1.

I filled the tank up today to see what kind of mileage gains I might gain.
2.73x3.49=9.5 final drive ratio in first gear. That's right in the sweet spot. With a .73 overdrive, that's a nice budget setup.

What is your tire size?
 

Wageslave

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Jan 25, 2017
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2.73x3.49=9.5 final drive ratio in first gear. That's right in the sweet spot. With a .73 overdrive, that's a nice budget setup.

What is your tire size?
I think they are 205-75 R14's
 

Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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I think they are 205-75 R14's
That's a 26" tall tire. With your 2.73 that should have you turning 2179 RPM at 85 mph in overdrive. That's a nice setup. Much better than the Silverado NV3500 with its 4.01 first gear.
 

Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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A quick search online indicates it will handle 300 ft. lbs. of torque. I'll bet that trans is a lot easier to find than a Camaro T5 or an LT1 T56. Nice.
 
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Wageslave

Royal Smart Person
Jan 25, 2017
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2.73x3.49=9.5 final drive ratio in first gear. That's right in the sweet spot. With a .73 overdrive, that's a nice budget setup.

What is your tire size?
I think they are 205-75 R14's
That's a 26" tall tire. With your 2.73 that should have you turning 2179 RPM at 85 mph in overdrive. That's a nice setup. Much better than the Silverado NV3500 with its 4.01 first gear
A quick search online indicates it will handle 300 ft. lbs. of torque. I'll bet that trans is a lot easier to find than a Camaro T5 or an LT1 T56. Nice.
The disadvantage is that the best version of this transmission has an electronic speedometer drive only. It works well for me since I have the digital dash, but could require a mechanical drive adapter if you want to use factory gauges.
 

kalidromos13

Master Mechanic
Oct 12, 2016
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I appreciate you posting this, man if i knew that NV3500's were going for under a grand i would've went this route! Possibly in the future, i should definitely grab one while theyre relatively cheap!
Awesome work!
 

Wageslave

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Jan 25, 2017
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No problem.

I just wanted to make sure this was well documented as there was very little info on this swap outside of the S10 forums, and even then nobody went into much detail on what component parts to use.

I will try to consolidate my list of parts used a little better when I get back to a desktop machine.
 
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