Hello ,I'm new to this and have a question regarding a project I'm building. I have a 2.3 with a C-3 behind it in my Belly Tanker. I'm in the process of final assembly and was wondering if anyone knew the overall length of a 4 speed manual transmission. I have the engine and trans mounted in the chassis but would like to make it  a manual  but due to space limitations I can't get any additional length if swapping out the C-3,my driveshaft is only 5 7/8 long and according to the math can't be any shorter to allow for suspension movement. I originally was going with a 5 speed (I should have stuck with that plan) but put in the C-3 due to it being small and lite. The engine is stock rebuild with a header and Holley carb so the C-3 would probably live behind it but I was going to make some performance upgrades to the engine prior to final assembly. Any help in what overall length of a standard transmission conversion would be greatly appreciated. I have searched around here and haven't found anything, but I probably aren't searching it correctly  .

Joe Escobar put a tape measure on one toward the bottom of the page here: http://www.joe-escobar.com/pinto.html

Looks like 30.125".

An option you might look into is adapting a Jeep T5. Those gearboxes have a very short tail section. There's also the T9 five-speed which is based on the FOG and is a direct swap for it. They were used in the '85-89 Merkur XR4Ti. The problem is that they're hard to find these days. They're not as strong as a T5, but would do well behind a naturally-aspirated 2.3.

What other performance upgrades are you going to do?