Hey all, good morning.

Anyways, as you can see by my post count, I am new here and will probably be posting here for a while. I am the soon-to-be owner of an 85 Firebird. My previous experience were with building a strip/barely streetable 1972 Monte Carlo which now just sits in the parking lot because gas consumption is horrendous. I have no fears about people trying to steal it because they won't get out of the lot lol.

Anyhow, I'm pretty ignorant about third gens altogether, but a small reprieve is that the previous owner swapped out the ported FI 305 for a carbed 350 from a 70's Camaro, something I am MUCH more familiar with. Endstate is to have a mild 350 motor street vehicle.

My post is about the trans. I'm aware that it's a stock nwc T-5 with about 100k miles on it, so it is need a rebuild.

My question is, how much does this transmission suck? Will it suck extra behind a 350? Should I look for a new trans or are there any good rebuild kits+manuals that will stay alive behind 350-400ponies and 320-350tq? Basically whatever you guys suggest is what I'm going to do.

 

Welcome to TGO.

The standard answer to your question is that the T5 will stand up well enough normal/rational driving; however, iff you drop the clutch, shift hard, use sticky tires and so on, the life expectancy is limited. Note that I've run the T-5 behind my 350/330 for several years without issues. If you plan to rod the car, there are various after market trans that will stand up to much more horsepower. A search on site (which is always a good idea, since there aren't many questions that haven't been asked and answered) will provide more info.

JamesC