no core charges.... don't let a vendor of Dave charge you a core charge.... when i got mine it had a tag on it saying "We do not charge core charges but we do want the cores back"..... shipping through Dave was ~$200 each way but i went through a friend of mine who is a shipping broker and got it for ~$120 each way...... it's your choice.... i was just trying to get you all the information so you can research all avenues before you decide..... i prefer maunals and was seriously looking into doing that to mine.... but with the 5th gear problems in the 4500 and clutches being so dang expensive and the 5600 being a bastard tranny i opted to go with a tried and true route... i love my tranny and won't trade it for a manual anyday..... it pulled through a 65% load on the dyno and i had NO converter slip at all.... it was so loaded i saw ~35psi @ 1600rpm in drive......

 

Lots of good info here guys, but we really need to know the primary use of the truck...ie race/tow/daily driver, and the expected hp/torque he is going to achieve as an end result. I personally lean toward the NV due to its ability to be streetable/raceable/towable and from what I've seen pretty indestructible. Everyone keep adding to this thread because this will help others make the right decision.

 

true DD, i don't race never have. maybe give the occasional duramax a run for his money
mostly work truck i have a 20' tandem wheel trailer i tow from time to time.
i have never done 1 burn out with my rig. mostly cuz i'm afraid something will break. the previous owner used the rig for his boat yard towing boats around.

so i have been thinking how much longer will my trans last? i doesn't slip or anything. but it's original trans with 180,000 miles.
so i figure somthing bound to happen.

 

from looking at his list of hopefull mods above...

the 94 had a 160hp pump.... so with that plate and injectors and turbo he should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 225-275HP .... mine with 370's, 191 delivery valves and an HTT64/14 and a 180 pump and a 100 plate i made 358/727......

my truck was a cattle hauler before i got it.....it was used as a farm truck to haul hay and cows for 87K.... i got it and @ 90K had to replace the lockup solonoids (yours is hydrolic so that dosen't matter on yours) and after that it hauled anywhere from 7K-14K pounds daily for ~1 year.... and all this was bone stock with a straight pipe..... @130K i started bombing mine and towing less.... i still tow occationally and when i tow it's heavy.... a 3cyl diesel Massey Fergison with bush hog.....anyway it made it to 162K before all hell broke loose in mine.... the converter was locking up irratically slipping in every gear..... i had bluespots on my conveter from the heat it produced..... 180K on a stock tranny..... i'll be saying a prayer tonight for it....

 

Your a bit low there..........I dyno'd 328/765 with a #10, 370s, 15.5* timing, AFE PG7, and a straight pipe all on a 160 pump.

Dave by far has the best price on a built trans. and if I was on a tight budget he'd be on the top of my list. As for doing a NV4500/5600/G56 swap would still take a fair chunk of change, plus the fabrication/swapping of parts and just the general time it would take you to do it.

 

here's another shameless plug,
i've got a 94 with a freshly rebuilt 5 speed,(remanufactured by blumenthals an OEM factory rebuilder)
factory tranny lost it's 5th gear....
you can have the whole truck for 2K....
then you'll have all the parts to convert your auto....
and you can drive it back to maine.....it gets about 24 mpg....

 

if you was a little closer i would take you up on that maj.
cummins parts trucks are few and far between up here.

i might be able to gte some parts in mass. i know a guy down there that gets some good stuff.. besides that i can get alot of the parts right off ebay. or advertise a wanted ad for complete conversion kit.

 

DTT!!! around 5K

 

that wasn't included in his initial list..... neither was the air intake..... my timing is at stock right now.... or wherever it is... i know i should be getting better numbers than i did.....

 

beat me to it warren. i've been considering the same thing. mine shifts ok but i know the TC is not wut it should be even with only 72k on the whole truck. i've been tossing the idea of rebuild or NV swap. the only real advantage to an auto, IMHO as usual, is that a built auto will smoke a manual in a race. other than that i don't see much of a real benefit to having one.

i'd like to see some real numbers as to wut it'd cost to swap to a manual VS. wut it'd cost to build a decent auto.