Should the WC T5 be able to handle a Stock TBI 350 out of a pickup.

 

Welcome to TGO. Your question is one that's asked often. The general consensus is that if you drive normally--and not like you just stole it--it'll hold up (my non-WC has). A search, which is always a good idea on TGO, will provide other opinions.

JamesC

 

Thank you

 

A very knowledgeable friend who was on a pro road race team using T-5's, had a lot of failures. A Transmission builder recommended that they swap out the ATF and use Mobil1 5W30 engine oil, and the transmission failures ceased completely.

TA

 

NO. There is a reason the T5 was never offered behind a 350. If you baby it, you'll probably get by though.

 

It depends on when you ask the question.
I've been on this board forever.
At times in years past the whole board ranted and raved about how the T5 was the better of the 2 trannies and the 700r4 was junk.

Now that's done a 180* and the T5 is glass and the 700r4 can be built better.
What's this mean?
It means this board is full of group think and once one idea gets going everyone just rolls with it because the other guy did.

Just try it.
I doubt a 350tbi is anymore powerful then the 305tpi they came behind stock.

 

my brother has a non-wc t5(lot of miles on it too, pretty worn out) behind a 350 with heads and a cam in his 82 grand prix and he thrashes that thing and it still has held up. he put it in about a year ago. but on the other hand people say they have broken wc t5s with stock 305s. i have no idea how they would ever do that unless they were doin something stupid with it like 6000rpm clutch drops over and over.

 

Not sure how different a chevy truck t-5 is from our fbody version but my bro had an 89 chevy truck that started life as a t-5/tbi 305 and he stabbed in a zz4 with a few extras, all he did to the trans was upgrade the cluch and he drove it extremely hard for about 60,000 miles with no problems at all.