So I went for lunch today and behind a local used car dealer place I saw it. It's bright orange so it was hard to miss. Looked like it had seen better days and had that "wheelie" stance to it. No motor and no tranny. PERFECT. It was a TPI 350 and 700R4 car. The price is cheap that the body and unibody are perfect. Now for the question. I would do a mild build, probabaly 400hp and would like to have a 5 speed car. Will the T-5 work or is it not strong enough? I havn't really messed with bellhousings much so I would also like to know if there are different year 350's that have a different bolt pattern for the tranny to bolt to them. I read that the 88-92 T-5's are the better of the two used in the 3rd gens. Will it be enough or should I go a different route. I don't want to have a ton of money in some crazy 6 speed. Thank's

Phil

 

Personally, I have the stock T5 in my car, though I have a stock LO3, 170 (probably less) HP motor in my car. And it does the job, though it won't go into gear sometimes (suspect it's a clutch issue), and I have some a couple of worn synchros.

Anyway, from what I've gathered on here a T5 will not withstand much, quite a few people on here have T5's behind their mild 350's and get along alright, but they know their T5 will go out sometime. 400 HP though, that's alot, the T5 won't last for long at all with that much HP going through it, a T56 swap or one of those hopped up TKO (or w.e it is) T5's is in order.

Hope this helps.

 

That helps alot, thank's. Now I wounder about a good old 4 speed.

Phil