The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun T-5 in a 1 ton

I put a T-5 in my last 235 powered 53 1/2 ton and loved it. I now am building a 51 1 ton and seeing how the open driveshaft lends itself easily to the swap im going to do it. I used the tire,gear calculator and came up with 2470RPM @ 60mph with 5.13:1 gears in OD. Most of us dont haul any real loads with our trucks so do you think it will hold up under normal use? There cant be that much strain on the driveline with the multiplcation of 5.13:1 gears. What you guys think, has anyone else done it?

The 235 doesnt have that much torque (about 200 lb-ft), so it should be just as fine as in a half ton. The T5 for the 4-cylinder and V6 was rated at 220 lb-ft from GM and the V8 version in the Camaro was rated at 300-330 lb-ft (depending on year)

Most of us?
What are trucks for then?

If you truly do have a 1 ton truck and don't plan to ever haul anything I expect you'll get away with it and be happy.
But I really do find it hard to believe you won't ever haul a load of firewood, bricks, mulch.. the list goes on.
Truck are by design are extremely useful for hauling stuff.
I suppose if you take a 1 ton truck and castrate it it'll still look like a truck, but won't perform like it once did, might let you down when you need a truck with.. what's the proper term?.. balls?.

I've got a few T-5's here and just judging by appearance and original use I'd be scared to put one in my 1 ton pickup.
A loaded 1 ton AD truck can weight 8,800 lb (or more), what's the max GVW on a vehicle with a T-5 originally?

Grigg

I dought most people drive around with a ton in the back of there truck most of the time. I use my trucks and often and put an engine, trans and rearend on it, probobly 1200lbs max and not for far. 220ft lbs rating with a 130hp 235 seems plenty strong to me. I however like to throw a cooler and picnic basket in the back and drive 2-300 miles on a weekend so the T-5 makes sence. I Guess I might be the guinea pig on this one.

With a cooler and a picnic basket you'll be as heavy or heavier than the vehicles the T-5 was designed for. When you chance that load of mulch or lumber or whatever for your cute neighbor is when you'll be at risk.

With limited power under the hood if you don't abuse things it may work out fine. Its when you load heavy and then push the motor and transmission hard that I would fear problems.

Let us know how it works!

I've replaced a number of T-5's over the years in S-10 pick-ups that had a 2.8 V6. Just knowing that I'd be cautious of putting one in anything other than a driver 1/2 ton. It just doesn't make sense to expect something that was designed for low torque applications to work as a heavy truck application. Just my 2 cents. Don