7 Speed Transmission Upgrade?

[Lientz]

Hey guys, im a bit new to cars and modding in general but i was wondering if anyone has heard of replacing the stock 5 speed manual trans for a 7 speed manual transmission? Obviously its a hypothetical and im sure would be a completely custom job, but i was wondering if it was at all possible, and what the upsides to having more gears would be? My daily driver is an 02 convertible gt 4.6L manual and to me more gears=better power over more speed ranges, and (more importantly for a DD) better gas mileage. Correct me if i'm wrong

 

[wmburns]

My daily driver is an 02 convertible gt 4.6L manual and to me more gears=better power over more speed ranges, and (more importantly for a DD) better gas mileage.

Just wondering how much better gas mileage would be reasonable? Let's just say for the sake of discussion that it improved gas mileage by 2 miles per gallon. Per fueleconomy.gov that driving 15k miles per year at $2.37 per gallon would save $988 over 5 years!

I did a quick lookup of the cost of a 6 speed transmission. Just the cost of the transmission plus bell housing would be around 3800.00

http://www.jegs.com/i/Ford-Racing/3...XdmZFf_PYho3mgKIaUWSaSxyEX08fPDmKnRoCtpPw_wcB

It would take 20 years of driving to pay for this upgrade based upon fuel savings.

Obviously if the cost of gas goes up or you do a lot of high speed highway driving the ROI could improve......Try it for yourself. Increase the cost of gas. Try more miles driven per year. Get the idea?

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/savemoney.shtml

It seems to me that this only makes sense if the current transmission can't hold the torque of the stock unit.

Signed.

Ward Cleaver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cleaver

>>
Tremec 6-Speed

• 700 ft/lbs Torque Capacity
  Gear Ratios:

• 1st: 2.97

• 2nd: 2.10

• 3rd: 1.46

• 4th: 1.00

• 5th: 0.74

• 6th: 0.50

 

[Mattstang04]

Yeah beav. What's with the seven gears all of a sudden. You could throw your arm out with that many speeds. Golly gee.

Signed,

Wally Cleaver

 

[Mustang5L5]

To answer this question properly, you'd need to know the 7 gear ratios in the trans to compare to the existing 5spd.

If 5th in the 5spd is equal to 7th gear in the 7spd, it doesn't really make it worth it.