Okay so I have read all the text documents and all the sites talking about the whole Auto to Manual swap, so I am not going into this blind. I have a few questions tho. I have a donor car that a friend will sell me for a couple hundred dollars. It has a 5 Speed manual transmission behind a 305 Carb'd engine. I believe the car is an 87 or 88 camaro. Now the questions that I have are a little deeper than the articles I have read. To the best of my knowledge the 87-88 are a one piece rear main seal block, and I am fairly positive that the transmission would be a t-5 correct? the engine in my camaro is a 1978 4 bolt main block built to a 500+hp 383 Stroker. I am tearing through 700R4's like nothing, and i cant afford them anymore. With this donor I would have everything I need to do the swap, so it Seems logical right? well i need to know if my engine is going to tear through this t5 and/or clutches? als more importantly is the flywheel compatible from the 87 engine to the 78 and I dont think so, and if not where could i find a flywheel to work on my motor and my the t5? also how well does a t5 perform, with a 3.73 behind it or a 3.42? like hwy rpms and so forth, take offs. is there anything i need to know about. any information would be so greatly appreciated. please help if you can. thanks

 

You need the flywheel for a 82-85 305 with a T-5. If your motor is internally bablanced (i.e. has a 350 flex plate now), just bolt it up and run it. If your motor is externally balanced (i.e. your flex plate is for a 400), take the above flywheel to your local balanace shop, and have them "unbalance" it to the stock 400 spec.

 

IMO, from what I have heard through people that were working at BWA during production of the T-5 say that it was not designed for much more than a stock 350 at the most. I have seen people say they run a t-5 on 400 hp motors, but I just figured I would let you know that according to specs, the T-5 was only made to handle around 300 ft-lb of torque. A lot of people say that much over a stock engine you have a good possibility of going through synchros and bearings. Just my 2 cents.