Your SS should have the 4T65E-HD which is stronger than non-SS models. How many miles on your car, and how long have you had it (wondering if you know if transmission has been repaired prior).

I've never considered installing a manual transmission in one of these Impalas. You'll need structure to hang clutch pedal and you'll need a nifty and expensive GM tool to fool all the Codes and Faults resulting from not having any TCM interface, just for starters.

IMO its not money well spent. I would sooner buy car built to play hard and use the SS for daily driver stuff.

But that's just me. If you proceed I'm gonna be very interested in following!

 

Yeah I'm not looking to build a speed demon by any means, I was just hoping for a more reliable alternative to a replacement/rebuild. I have owned the car for almost 2 years, without issue. It has almost 150k miles and the trans is original. It does not get driven much, I live in Florida and work in Ohio, so when I fly up there for work I pick the car up at the airport and drive it 1-2 hours to my job where it then mostly sits until I go home, aside for the occasional night out for dinner or whatever. Sounds like I'll be looking into a rebuild...

 

Anything is possible with a bucket of money, how much are you willing to spend? All sarcasm aside I'm not sure there's a transaxle strong enough to put up with a 5.3LS or actually fit in the confines of the Impala SS chassis, these were very tight to begin with and many of the underhood parts were specific to the 5.3LS with no interchange. There's also the under dash to contend with and the numerous brackets in the area where the clutch pedal would normally be located, not saying this can't be modified but again I'd seek professional psychiatric assistance before going further... then again you will never see a custom motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrists office.

 

It's possible to use the 4T80 from the Cadillac DTS if you have a bale of cash and mad fab skills.

The Fiero guys mate the LS4 to a GM MR6/F40 6 speed manual. Again it's a bale of cash and fab work. The Fiero was available with manual transaxles. The W-body never came with a manual so clutch & brake pedals will need to be fabricated and you'll need the cable to stick shift setup from your donor SAAB or Opel. That's the least of the troubles.
This is an LS4/F40 swap on Pennocks Fiero board. https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/Archive-000001/HTML/20130314-2-098254.html

I would consider a Stage II rebuild from Triple Edge Performance if Dave is still building 4T65E-HD transaxles. Triple Edge Performance

 

Thanks, I will look into the rebuild.

 

Sometimes I just lol at these hopes and dreams.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was afraid of. Not building a race car, not trying to hemmorage money for a project. Just wanted to find a way to make my already reliable car even more so.

 

The loss of the reverse might be related to low line pressures or some other issue that has nothing to do with the low/reverse clutch pack. That being said I'd drop the pan and take a look for any burnt carnage that would indicate a friction element failure. These are known for problems with the electronic controls.