I have seen many "built T5"s in the classifieds. This might be a dumb question, but other than getting a high performance clutch, flywheel,and maybe a shifter, how do you build one up. I have searched the site and can't find anything. I don't have the money for a T56, so I want to make what I have better. Just for the record, I don't know if it is a WC or NWC. If there is a way to look at it and tell, someone could share that with me. I bought it from someone for cheap, and it had really low miles on it. If someone could answer this for me, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks

 

Yours is 92 is 88-up, so it will be the 2nd design aka the TQM / PIT Team / 6-Sigma / ISO9000 buzzword "World Class" :barf:. Either kind will fit, since they are identical externally, as far as bolting up; but you'd do better to stick with the later type.

There's not much you can do to "build up" a T-5, except for aftermarket gears. There aren't alot of those in the world, as a set costs 3 times as much as a known good used T-5. You gotta want em REAL bad to spring that much coin, people aren't going to do $1000 worth of work just to sell a trans for $300 or whatever. Most people who claim that probably haven't even changed out the bearings and other wear parts. In other words, usually it's just ad copy. If there's one you're interested in, and they're claiming that, you'll just have to ask them what they did to it.

Here's what they look like. 1st design on top, 2nd design on the bottom.

 

"building up" a T5 is like leaving a terminal patient on life support, sure it'll live longer, but it's still gonna die.

Don't waste your money beefing a T5, save your pennies and by a better trans.

- check my sig......and for note, they do make an upgraded case, but it'll still die, just more money prolonging it a little longer.

 

every time i see that quote from sofakingdom i still laugh. that has to be one of the greatest statements ive ever seen/heard.

 

If you get the torque arm off of the tail shaft housing it should help. I moved mine to the crossmember and have had good luck with a fairly stout 350 for several years now. Only problem I have had was a broken shift fork, which I'm pretty sure was my fault. Had some slicks on it a couple weekends ago and run a 13.0 with a 1.8 60'.

 

if you're serious about beefin a t-5, go with g-force.. they have stronger cases, upgraded mainshafts, thicker gears, etc.. i'm putting mine to the test.. so far mid 11's.. goal is mid 10's..

 

Is your torque arm mount still on the tailshaft housing or did you move it?

 

my torque arm is still on the tranny as of now.. i'll be moving it to a crossmember within the year.. i just need to get some steel..

 

First of all, Thanks for all the replies. I don't plan on trying to make it run 11s or anything like that.. I'm not even a hard driver, just occasional races on the street. I plan on putting an engine in it that has somewhere between 280 to 315hp and I just want to make sure that my trans will be ok.

 

You should be fine as long as you drive it sensibly. In other words, no power-shifting or high rpm clutch dumps. Those are the 2 main things that'll kill a T5 in short order. As far as getting a good testimonial on the reliability of T5's, that's kinda hard to do. The opinions are split about 50/50 from the posts I've seen here. Some guys have managed to kill them with an underpowered 305, while other members, such as Anesthes, have used one successfully behind motors putting out roughly 400 HP. Again, I think it all boils down to driving one sensibly. For that matter, any transmission will break if you beat on it ignorantly enough, but in the T5's case, it's even easier to break them with abusive treatment. If you race a lot, or even drive real agressive most of the time, the T56 or Tremec TKO are better suited for this.

 

yeah, I had to qoute that just so that I can go back a read it from time to time for a good laugh.

Personally, I beat the living crap out of all my T5's. Yes, they took it, for a while. As has been posted many times, I side-step the clutch at around 5k, then start banging gears, w/o the "aid" of the clutch. 11.7's with 1.66-1.69 60fts. I never broke one during a shift, never broke it on the launch. They break in 3rd gear because it is in the center of the case, thus is the most prone to flex. Taking the tq arm off the tail housing will not help case flex. All the gears(except OD) are in the center of the case, thus the output shaft would be fubared long before the tail housing flexed the case enough to be the cause of failure. The case flexes because there is not enough material between the input shaft/gears and the cluster shaft. 1st thru 4th and reverse all ride on a single shaft w/o any sort of a center support. Helical gears(all factory and most aftermarket) only make the situation worse, as they are trying to push away from each other.

I'm not a T5 basher. I was very impressed with the amount of abuse that mine withstood. The bottom line is that if you put enough power to the ground, you will break it at some point. You can spend a bunch of money on it and make it last longer, or you can spend the money on a trans that is rated for the power and will last indefinitely. - That is not to say a higher rated trans won't need rebuilt from time to time, but when a T5 breaks it will be far beyond a rebuild.

I will also note, again, that my straight shifting was not harsh on the trans. If you can smoothly shift w/ o the use of the clutch, it is no more harsh on the trans than shocking it with the clutch ever gear change, which you are doing unless you let the engine rpm drop to the level of gearing before letting the clutch back out.