Rowing my own gears in this car is a BLAST. I just thought I'd toss this thread up here in case anyone had questions since it's all fresh in my mind, haha.

I know - T-5's behind V8's are frowned upon, however, I'm not out here powershifting or doing 4,000 rpm clutch dumps, I just drive my car. For that purpose, the T-5 is great

Also I have long-tube headers, so if anyone has fitment questions on that feel free to ask.

peace,

RedLeader289

 

What headers did you use and can you add pictures?

 

I’ve had the headers for over a decade, don’t recall the P/N on those. They’re just Hedman long tubes for D-port angle plug heads. They have the ball/socket style collectors. There is between 1/2” and 1” of space between the slave and the closest tube. HOWEVER the T-5 bell housing (the piece that jogs out at about the 7:00 position) bumps right up against them. I thought about knocking a dent in the driver header but decided against it. I made up some homemade heat shielding and it has worked well keeping the hydraulics in working order.

Only pic I took was this one of the interior (also in the process of fitting G6 GT seats).

 

I have hedman longtubes and ran into the save issues. My swap was 10+years ago - if I recall correctly I dimpled the header slightly, and wrapped it and the hydraulic line in header wrap and heat shielding.

I will say the swap was so much easier than I anticipated, and smiles per mile far exceeded my expectations.

Another benefit, for me at least, was cleaning up the engine bay and getting rid of TV cable and worrying about that adjustment every time I would swap a carb.

 

Yesssss, so much so. How has yours held up if you don't mind me asking? 10 years is a good long time!

 

Held up great! Best performance part I added was the pro 5.0 shifter. I have a growly tob but seems it's common with advance auto replacement parts I used putting the swap together. May try to convert to hydraulic tob someday. In the meantime going to get some fresh tires and start driving her more this year.

 

Im in the middle of doing a t5 swap and was wondering how you wired up the reverse switch, the neutral safety switch, and clutch cruise release switch. Pic would help

 

Sure thing!
For the reverse lights there should be a black oval shaped connector sticking out of the driver side of the trans. Buy one of these pigtails and wire it into the existing reverse light wiring that comes out of the big plug that used to be plugged into your automatic shifter.
https://www.hawksmotorsports.com/82-...56-conversion/

For the neutral safety switch - don't worry about it, unless you're scared a kid will get in your car and start it without taking it out of gear. Simply splice the big yellow & purple (I think that's their color?) wires together from the previously mentioned plug that was hooked into the auto shifter. Make sure the pushrod that was connected to the old shifter is pushed all the way in (i.e. like it would be when in Park). Do this and you'll be good to go.

For cruise control I can't help you there, sorry. I had mine disconnected for over a decade before I did the swap, haha.

 

Oh! Do yourself a favor and check the bushings in your pedals before you install them. If there is any slop go ahead and replace the bushings while you have them out of the car.

That way you don't end up taking the pedals back out 7 months later to take care of it