alright so my project car (87 trans am, 350 carb, 5spd, posi traction, unknown gears) is currently my DD, but will soon be in my shop as a work of art in progress ;P and I plan on doing the engine up to around 400 or 450 HP and I wanna know if I should get a kit for the transmission to handle it or if I should just do a swap. Won't have drag radials, will be my DD, and sometimes a track car (possibly in the future), and I won't be doing any super hard launches like you'd see at the strip. It's going to be a daily driver, so I won't be driving it over 4k that much, probably more like 3500 and under lol so yeah, give me your opinions on what I should do, transmission rebuild, or swap?? from what I know, the transmission is stock with the engine being the custom part haha thanks guys :P

 

You could do one of the g force t5 upgrade kits to handle more power. The cost for one of those kits is around 1300-1500 bucks. The only problem even with one of those kits though is that the case is still a real weak point on those transmissions. Your other options are doing a t56 conversion (not cheap, lots of modifications to be made), or upgrading to a tko 500 or 600 ($2300-$2600). I personally went with the tko600 and don't have any complaints about it at all.

 

If your daily driving it and keeping street tires then keep the T5 until it breaks. It may surprise you.

 

I'm still running the original V6 T5 behind my 350. So far it's lasted 2 1/2 summers, and even outlasted the engine(bent pushrod). Hoping to have the engine back together for this summer after sitting in the garage for 2 years. I never launched it real hard, but do drive it hard through the twisty back roads here in PA.

 

Thanks guys from what I'm hearing, just stick with the t5 then?? And about the tko600, is it fairly straight forward swap? Or a lot of custom fab and stuff??

 

It was a pretty straight forward swap. They give you an adapter plate that bolts to the bellhousing to mount the tko straight up instead of tipped like the t5 is. You also need a new yoke for the transmission and have a little bit of work to do to put the shifter right where you want it to be. Not a very complicated swap in my opinion.

 

hmm... I'll have to look more into that, thanks

 

If i remember correctly the entire kit was about 3300 full bolt in ready to go