Hi, Folks. First time vette owner (since Friday). I am in the curious
situation of owning both a 280ZX Turbo and a C5 6-spd Vette. You may
know that the Z has a BW T5 in it, whereas my "blue car" has a T56.
That is to say I am accustomed to some transmission noise. In the Z, I
have some low-gear noise. It sounds like a rotating noise that I'd
expect from being in low gear. This is fairly constant, when you can
hear the transmission over the rest of the car (the Z is ... a project
of mine, and is well into the 300hp range, it is loud).

In the Vette, I have noise that is similar, but more.. "unhappy"
sounding. I'd say almost gravelly. This sound is between 1000 and 1500
rpm, especially in first and second gear, while the car is under way.
Not so much while idling. This to me almost seems like a throwout
bearing. The car was bought used, and I haven't the luxury of an
owners video, owners manual, or factory service manual. There are
several Vette owners at work, and I intend to run the noise by them to
see if they know what it is. I suspect it might be the normal "Vette
T56 noise" that others have described in the newsgroup. What's a sure
way to tell the difference?

I looked at a few sites today, notably zfdoc, but I couldn't find
anything that was real definitive. The description I've heard repeated
was "rocks in a can." I could maybe think the noise was similar to
that, but the fact that it is so transient, and the fact that the car
seems otherwise healthy, make me think it might just be normal
transmission noise.

The one thing that worries me is there is an occasional (say one out
of 20 shifts from neutral into first) unwillingness to engage first.
throwing down to second and back up into first works, but it's kind of
embarassing at a light. I actually had some twit in a Rav-4 honk at
me.

Are the owners manual/videos available online somewhere? Is the $1700
price for a new transmission I read earlier today (from 2000) still
valid? If the transmission is hosed, what can I expect to pay to
replace the whole thing? Is it worth finding a hardened transmission
(such as from zfdoc)? I spent a lot of money hardening everything in
the Z -- halfshafts, hubs, driveshaft, differential, etc -- after I
started piling on modifications. I'm not so sure the Vette needs the
help the Z does, but it couldn't hurt, right?

Thanks in advance, sory for asking so many questions. :-)

Alex

ps, for those that love baby pictures (me included):

http://mithril.posixnap.net/~alex/stable.jpg

(the vette is the one on the right)