I've decided to ditch the Saginaw tranny and go forward with a T5 for my '47. I have an 8.5" with 3.42's and am going to use 235/75-15 tires (29"). The engine is either going to be a stock 250 inline 6 or a mildly modified 250 with flat tops, a small cam, headers, and 4 bbl intake & carb. The one that I have needs a rebuild, and if I go with that one, it will get the above mods. I'm trying, though, to convince a good friend out of the bone stock one that runs perfect from his '72 Nova. He already told me I can have it when he puts a smallblock in it, but he's a bit of a procrastinator for his own stuff since he has two shops that he runs (plus has 2 drag cars).
Anyway, I've read tons about the swap and have printed off lots of info with tag numbers and so forth. My question is this: is there any T5 that can bolt to a GM bellhhousing (which I already have from a 250) without an adapter plate? I'd like to just bolt on and be good, but am still unsure which one I can do that with and which one needs modified or needs an adapter. I will be using a new stock flywheel for a 250 and a stock bellhousing for a 250. I've gotten some parts recently from a local (large) salvage yard, and they have a bunch (15-20) T5's on the shelves for sale (around $250-275?) from various S10s. I've done the RPM calculator many times, and I'm thinking that any of the ratios would work with the 3.42's. I just wanted to have the process of bolting up to be as easy and simple as possible. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you.
Wayne
BTW, I saw Lugnutz recent (and very imformative) post about this subject, so if there are multiple T5's to choose from, which would be the best (most economic) one to start with?
A few build pics:
Truck pics
