t5: will it live?

thats the main thing im debating about this swap.

its a world class 94 cobra trans that has ~75k on it. my frined will let it go to me for $300.

ill be putting it in a ~3500LB plymouth duster. motor makes 386HP and just shy of 400 ft-lbs at the wheels.

the car does get autocrossed. no serious speed shifting or clutch dropping, though.

no slicks, jsut 240 treadwear street tires.

reason im looking at the T5 is due to the fitment issues in these cars with any of the tremec stuff. with those, you have to cut the torsion bar corssmember pretty severly. and i dont want to do that.

any BUDGET upgrades to make it live a longer and healthier life?

thanks

Michael

there's some kits with steel bearing supports. The case has a tendency to flex a bit in stock form. Without a little upgrading it will probably have a shortened life with the extra torque.

It WILL break. Not when or if, it WILL break.

I broke the one in my old car with stock level HP, 225hp, and torque, 300 ft/lbs. I installed a rebuilt one to replace it, and it did nothing but whine and hard to shift.

You can rebuild a T5 to handle just about anything, the low-budget thing to do is run it till it blows and upgrade the gearset then. We're in the same boat (albeit with half the cylinders) we have a 4cyl W/C T5 out of a TurboCoupe rated to 240ft/lbs behind a 2.3T pushing 30psi of boost from a Holset knowing full well we're waaaaaay over powering it. Seems to hold up just fine for AutoX (thus far) usage. I say go for it as is...

What 1st gear ratio did that one have? A t-5 "Z" trans has a 330 lb-ft torque rating, and has the steel input shaft sleeve (if yours doesn't, add it). But this is a figure based on Ford's 24 hour test cycle, not a peak. And remember it's not the torque that the engine makes that matters, it's what you can put down to the road. And if you aren't doing hard launches, you aren't putting down anywhere near the torque to the wheels as your engine's peak torque. Do make sure to use a shifter with a postive stop.
You won't have a lot of margin, but if the trans is in good shape and you respect it, it will live no problem. MuscleFord dot com has been running one in an 11 second drag Mustang with slicks for years and it hasn't failed.

I have run a T5 in my challenger for the past 2 years with badly damaged syncros, last year I made about 550hp, and the 8.8 broke, of course I never got any grip so when that actually happens I will report.

G-Force Transmissions makes a KILLER kit for the T5. They make a straight cut gear set with dog-leg engagement (read no clutch shifts). They also make a helical cut gear set (read no whine). Both are rated at over 1,000 ft. lbs if memory serves. I had a friend with the straight cut gear T5 in his Stang, friggin AWESOME!!!!

Work on your shifting in another car first (quick and smooth). To the point quick upshifts and your heel-toe downshifts are accurate > 90% of the time, and practice rolling starts, ie let the clutch out fully in 1st gear with minimum throttle, THEN go WOT. Won't be too much slower at an autox, or maybe at all if they do the offset timing lights at the start, and the transmission will live 10x longer.

In reply to racinginc215:

Unfortunately . . . .any T-5 with WC and Mustang attached to them seem to be price $300 + and higher around here. Prices as high as $800 for rebuilt units from unknown rebuild shops