[rlackey]

Has anyone had experience with a Toyota 21R or 22R 5 speed gearbox and a small block Chevy? I have found a small block bell housing for the Toyota box and can get the box for a good price from a Japanese engine importer in Johannesburg.

It's supposed to be almost indestructable, but I thought I'd find out more about it before shelling out the cash.

Rich

[Crosley]

Some how I do not think the tranny will take double the power and survive.

[rlackey]

Well, not sure. It's popular with a lot of AC Cobra kitcar builders here in South Africa, and most are sbc powered. Now I'm not sure how these engines are built up, but I can't imagine that these guys would be running them if it really wasn't up to the task.

[Neophyte]

Hi Rich,

Is that the Cressida 'box? If so, they are also very popular for use with the 3 litre Ford V6 in the old Cortina mk4 and 5's. I've also heard that they're strong boxes but can unfortunately not speak from any kind of experience.

[rlackey]

Not sure if it's the Cressida box or not. I did a bit of research and found that the 21R and 22R seem to be engine designations not necessarily the gearbox itself.

I pulled up some info on modified 22R Toyota boxes for drag racing (1000bhp+) and also some 4x4 links, seems to also be used in the Hilux. I'm a bit confused by it all now actually, I definitely want to get some concrete info before buying a sbc bell housing for it.

[Elevinpointsixtoone]

I had a little Toyota wrecking yard for a while and can tell you the year of the trani will make a big dif. The 5 spds were crap through 83 with 84 bringing a small improvement. The bearings were too small and would wear out rather quickly taking shafts and synchro's with em. High HP or big tires would greatly exagerate the problem. Now by 85 they improved the tranies to be good but not high HP compatible. The best 5 spds durring the 80's would have been the ones coupled with the turbo engines I believe offered around 87. I'm not sure when the 22r's went away but the 21r's never made it into this country. I'm not sure if they are a 20r or more like the 22r.
I would look for the newest 5spd that would fit and hope for the best but expect the worst. I don't think they are a good choice for a V-8 but the Celeca used them for a while and there might be a high perfomance version made for the higher HP of that car.

[rlackey]

Elevinpointsixtoone, now I feel bad. I wish I had something more useful to say on your thread than what I posted.

Thanks for the advice, maybe I should just throw out the Toyota box idea altogether.

It's hard and expensive here in South Africa to find the heavier boxes that are popular in the U.S. in high HP and V8 applications. So I'm a bit stuck.

I can't stand automatics, I wan't to be able to shift when I want, quickly, at whatever RPM I want with a gearbox that can handle some torque without self destructing.

For some reason I was advised that the Toyota box would work behind the 327sbc I plan to put in the car, I think the words "bulletproof" were even used to describe the Toyota box by the performance shop I was in contact with regarding the bellhousing.

Hmm, okay, back to the drawing board I think, unless I can find out for sure if the box I was told would work is in fact a stronger high performance unit than the stock 5-speed.

[Greg55_99]

The box you want is called the R154 out of the 88-92 Supra Turbo. I believe it's also available in other bodies as well but not in the USA. It's much much tougher than the W58 out of the Celica.

http://www.classicconversions.co.uk/r154.htm
http://www.classicconversions.co.uk/w55.htm
http://www.jeeps-offroad.com/showthread.php?t=4740
http://www.giloeng.com/

Greg

[Elevinpointsixtoone]

Now there ya go! It does not even look like the cases I have pulled. Now you got me thinking I might want one! I would love to have an overdrive 5th gear...my T-10 4 spd is just a 1:1 but it will take the torque of a built V-8.
How about finding two of those units?

[rlackey]

Greg, yeah, that looks a bit more like it!

I'll check with the Japanese engine importers here and see if I can get my hands on one. Toyota are very strong here in South Africa, so hopefully they did in fact import them here and it won't be too hard to find one.

Elevinpointsixtoone, if I can find one, I can find two but we'd have to sort out shipping it to the U.S., the box probably isn't too heavy so it might not cost too much depending on it's size, unless you would want it by air freight in which case shipping might be more than the cost of the gearbox in the first place. I'm not sure about U.S. import duty either.

Rich

[Greg55_99]

You can find an R154 pretty cheap here in the US. I've picked up a couple for around $150 each. Just look around if you want one or go over to the Supra forums. There's always a few for sale over there. http://www.supramania.com/phpBB2/index.php

Really, there's not to much reason to use one of these in the US when so many other trannies are available. T56's, Tremec TKO's and Doug Nash 5-speeds are superior to the R154. However, if you're overseas, then the R154 is the only game in town. It is easily adapted to a Chevy V8. Advance Adapters has a bellhousing and Novak in Utah have an adapter plate. If you prowl Ebay, you can score one or the other for a fraction of the cost new.



Greg

[enjenjo]

They are real popular in Oz, Castlemaine Rod shop makes adapters to fit them to most anything http://www.rodshop.com.au/transmissions.htm