How hard is the swap? I got a 700R4 cuurently and wanna switch to a T-5.

 

"hard" is a subjective term. A lot of people around here will tell you if you wanted a V8 that you better sell your v6 car and buy a V8 one cause its too hard. Some with lots of experience will tell you if you want a quick thirdgen your probably better off buying a v6 car and swapping it.

This really is one of those things that comes down to experience and knowledge.

IMHO, get yourself the parts and go at it, one of the annoying things will be installing the pedals as its frustrating working up under the dash. I would suggest installing them and the master cyl before removing your auto trans. Then you will have very limited downtime, beyond that part all there really is left is to cut a hole for the shifter and bolt the new trans in place.

 

check out the tech article onit. Kar;'s article too while you're there

 

its not hard . . . it may take a while, ive been whittling at it for a week now, because my auto was broken, so i wasnt driving my car anyway. honestly the hardest part was getting the master cylinder in the hole without taking off the whole brake booster, unless you count taking off a bellhousing bolt that was torqued to ~200 ft/lbs. it takes a while to get it all done, especially if you drill the bolt holes through the firewall wrong.

it was pretty much my first major mechanical job, and i've found it pretty straightforward and simple. total cost of the swap with all the little parts, like $110 in various shipping charges, a new clutch kit and a new (reman) flywheel ran me around $520. tranny had 76k miles on it. seeing as i was looking at rebuilding/replacing my auto tranny anyways, it was quite worth it.

 

Was it worth the swap or should I just try and find another V-sixer with a 5 speed?

 

if your car is in good condition, its definitly better than trying to find a good condition 5speed car. other than that it depends on how attached you are to your car/how long you can stand to have it on jackstands. if you absolutly need it every day you could buy a new car, but really the difficulty of the swap is nowhere near hard enough to warrant buying a different car instead.

 

When I get all the parts can yall walk me threw it so I dont mess up? And are the holes where I should drill for the pedals already there, well not drilled obviously but shouldnt there be like a mark from the factory or something?? Thanks

 

if you have the factory padding under you're carpet there are holes in it for the master cyl and the u-bolt. although the bollt holes didnt line up right for me have to take the cylinder out again and redrill one of them.

theres a good tech article here and on some other site(ill find it in a few), they are basically the same but the other one has some pictures.

and there really isnt anything you can totally mess up(within limits of course, im sure you coud screw up if you wanted to), just dont push on the master cylinder rod while the slave is off the car, trust me. ask any questions you have whenever they come up and those of us who have done it will be glad to answer. i think there is a thread in the transmission and drivetrain forum dedicated to auto->manual swaps too.

edit:
https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...nualswap.shtml
and
http://www.fbodymotorsports.com/thirdgen5spdconversion

 

the rewards of having a 5 spd are incredible

i'd never have a automatic v6 thirdgen