Well I have a 85 Iroc with the 305 tpi and 700r4 trans. I have been looking to find a T-5 for awhile and found one for $250 at a junk yard with the shifter pedals and all that fun stuff but its for a 6cyl. I was hoping to get a couple questions answered before I start to avoid having my car down for a long time.
Do I need to change the bellhousing???? Can I reuse the old clutch or would I need a different one? Any major wiring need to be done??? Do I need to change the chip in my ECM and can i even find this for a 85 TPI setup???? Should I also grab the driveshaft or are they the same??? Also are there any other things you think I should know before daring this as Im good with cars and engines and have done some simple trans swaps and so forth but have never tried switching a 700r4 to a T5 and am not sure what to expect so any help would be great. My dad has done one but it was on a older car before the computer crap and he said the bellhousing would have to go but he wasnt sure what else I would need to change.
Thanks in advance for everyones help.

 

you will have to get a v8 bellhousing. from what i hear your stock chip will work and the stock driveshaft will work. from my knowledge the tourque arm mount is different. other than that you should be good. it is recommended to get a new clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and release bearing. i am looking to do this swap as well. id like to find a set up for $250 though that would be nice i found a setup for $400 and then i'll have to buy a clutch kit.

 

you would have to get a custom clutch made to fit the input shaft for the v6 tranny and the flywheel for the v8 engine . . . you would need a chip from a TPI 5-speed, you would need the v8 bellhousing. driveshaft is the same, transmission mount & xmember may or may not be the same(i havent found any predictable pattern as of yet). if the transmission is from a pre 85 car none of the clutch stuff will work(mechanical instead of hydraulic), and it would have to have a cable driven vehicle speed sensor(pre 90 camaros and pre 87 firebirds). The tranny will also have different internal ratios(and the VSS will most likely have different gears, it depends on the rear end ratio).

every part of the v6 tranny is as strong as a v8 tranny except the input shaft(not a problem really), if its from the non-world class years it will be non world class, otherwise its probably world class. honestly you're probably better off looking for a v8 tranny, but it can definitly be done(and has).

 

Hey thanks alot you guys the imformation helps a ton as I didnt want to have to spend forever trying to track parts down trying to use a v6 5spd, but if anybody in the quad cities area is interested ill tell you where the cars sitting as I think I will be much better off looking for the v8 trans. thanks for the help again
Brian

 

good luck finding one man ive been looking forever and havent had any luck around here. closest thing i found was a rebuilt one in GA for $1500 and thats just the tranny. i had the chance to get one cause the motor i bought the car it came out of had a t-5 in it and the boy broke the slider from 1to2 and tryed to give it to me and i declined. then later i realized that he was going to give it to me for free and all and since i was going to take one that i buy and get it worked on anyway i asked him about it but by then his dad had just taken the whole tranny to the dump. the gears in it were good but he had no 1-2 gear cause the slider thing was in two pices. i have the bellhousing and flywheel though. so now all i need is a tranny and everything else! lol

 

Did you happen to get a measurement / template to cut the automatic floor for the T-5 shifter??

Thanks

Dave

 

no but he still has the car so i can go and get all the mesurements and what not . one of my closer friends thought about buing it though since ive got so man parts and he had a 83 crossfire z-28 at one time and misses it.(not the crossfire but the fact it wasa 3rdgen.)

 

Cool, there are many of us out here doing this conversion that would really benefit from template to cut the hole. I have an 85 that I am converting now, the parts were donated from an 86 T/A but the car was scrapped before I could get to it to make this template. Anything you could do would help.

Thanks,

Dave.

 

i can do! i might even be able to cut the center section out of it cause he was talking about putting in a 4sp and a 455 so he will have to cut it anyway so i figured why not. ill see what i can do!

 

The location is the most important thing. The firewall and floor have a seam, it will be a common location, if you measure from there it should give a good idea.

 

Hey were you ever able to get a measurement?

 

i have nt yet been able to since i have nt talked to my friend in a few weeks but im gona give him a call tomarrow and see what i can arrange.

 

I've done it the swap the mec part doing the wrench work is'nt bad if you have TPI good luck i had problems with shaking and stalling i got my tranny from a non TPI firebird car and have no speedo now.It depends on if you like TPI

 

i think you can get an adapter somewhere to make a cabel driven tranny to work w/ electronic gauges and vice versa but i dunno where. im still on the lookout for a 5spd tranny itself. any help will be apreciated

 

Cutting the floor is easier then drilling the holes for the hydraulics
in my opinion, because if the holes are not just right the clutch master cylinder pushrod will not line straight up with the clutch pedal.

 

GM did put the T-5 on V8 cars, so you can order (or yard out) a v8 input shaft and install it on the T-5 and then simply bolt on the V8 bellhousing. I believe this link : https://www.thirdgen.org/manualswap Has everything including the template on it already. It's what I've been using for my swap so far I just need to buy that upgrade kit for the T-5 and I'm in business. Yay.

_bR3T7

 

i already have the v8 bellhousing, flywheel and release fork. i didnt know that i could use a v6 t-5 and instal a v-8 inputshaft i wish i wouldve known this awhile back cause some one local was selling a t5 out of a v6 bird w/ everything for it for $100 in working condition. the local yards have no v8 t5s they dont have many 3rdgens left at all! which i guess is a good thing but not for when i need parts. ill keep on the look out though. where could i get a v8 inputshaft GM? what does one run price wise?

 

theres a lot of places the make the clutch for the v6-v8 conversion, so that should not be a problem. I did the swap in my 85 tpi, it was cake. The sound matting has pre-cut areas for the slave cylinder to mount, so that was easy, just cut it where the holes are, no computer is needed, to do the swap, theres no difference in the computer, just the chip, and not needed for 85's because they do not have the shift light, that did not start to 87 I think. so just get a bell housing and go to a local tranny shop to find the clutch disc