a little more talk about t5 trannys...

[no1udknow]

Ok, so I wanted to pass on some research I did today. I love reading this site along with many others and I take a lot of information from the forums I read as I am sure many of us do, but there also comes a time where we need to do a little digging for ourselves. I have asked about Tremec T5 transmissions on this board nd read reviews on many other boards and I always hear the same thing, "It won't handle the torque/HP". Today I happened to be watching an internet show on /Drive where the host Mike Musto was in a 69 Mustang with a stroked 347 ford engine and while doing a smoking burnout, he said it had none other than a T5. So I thought to myself, why would the ford T5 hold up to this abuse but not the WC T5? So I decided to call a few professionals in the transmission industry. I called 3 shops who specialize in performance built T5's. They all told me the same thing, and that was basically that as long as I was not running my truck at the drag strip, and I wasn't pushing well over 400lbs/ft of torque, it should be fine. One of the guys I talked to told me that especially because I was driving a truck that is very light in the rear, unless I really hooked up, it would be hard to snap the input shaft as many suggested. He also told me that the bigger concern would be a 2nd to 3rd shift around 6000 rpm, he said that was where he had seen the most failures, but the transmission could be beefed up to counter this problem for about $1100. So I think I am going to go get the T5 I have had my eye on, but I just wanted to pass along what I found because we all know opinions are like a-holes and everyone has them, some people just pass along opinions they have heard, so I wanted to get the advice of a professional and share their info.

[tranz am]

hey thanks for passing on the knowledge. I can attest to the 3rd gear failures having shared the teeth clean off of my t5. this of course was a t-5 behind a well built 454. Lasted me one week

T56 is a much better choice in my opinion.

[SS Tim]

With moderate use you should be fine. Based on what I have seen other's T5s do and my own issues with the T56 in my 99 SS Camaro they are not however a "do all" trans in stock form.
Jocko's write up of his T5 swap should be a reference of yours as well.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=482069

[67ChevyRedneck]

I rebuilt one of the Ford versions, starting at post 387:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...526257&page=16

I believe the one I have is rated for 300HP, so my 200HP 289 will never hurt it.

Spending a lot of time on a classic Mustang forum I see quite a few posts on busted T5s, but almost all were admittedly abused when they broke, so it's hard to gauge how well they can do with a motor above their HP/TQ "comfort zone" if they're not romped on.

I rebuilt mine with a $20 hanlon motorsports video, a $300 rebuild kit, a $125 Pick N Pull trans, and about ~$100 to replace a chewed up 1-2 slider & rear idler gear. It was my first trans rebuild of any kind ever. It has 4,ooo+ miles on it now... and I've even had the joy of a couple mustang guys saying "hey, that shifter looks really good on the hurst lever, where did you get that?"... oh... from a first gen S10 pickup! I snuck a few GM parts into my car

There's really only one major difference between WC and NWC. The NWC take gear oil. The gears are mounted directly to the shaft while all WC transmissions have needle bearings under each gear and use automatic trans fluid as their oil. WC and NWC has nothing to do with the strength of the trans, however, because the NWC are much older, most were built to handle much less power than the WC. Same with the T5Z with mustangs, it was just the newer, updated T5 that could handle more power.