Need advice on tranny work (long)

F8Lstang

Member
Dec 6, 2003
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took my 90 LX in today. been having some grinding noises at low rpms, and wanted to make sure everything is cool for this year.

here's what they told me: clutch is bad, needs to be replaced $200 installed. fine. They drained the fluid, and found some metal shavings in it. said that internal damage has probably occured, due to age, bad clutch etc. I will be having them pull and open the tranny when they do the clutch, to see what the extent of the damage is. Worst case scenario is a new tranny for $1500 installed (their quote) if it just needs some rebuilding, I will most likely have them do that, assuming its not too expensive. However, if it gets up into the 1000+ range, I am considering having them put in a tremec, so I wont have to worry as much about the tranny down the line.

This car is going to be a daily driver for the next few years, so it has to be reliable. I will be taking it to the 1/4 mile occasionally, but autoxing and open track racing as often as I can. Ideally I would like around 350hp, so I realize the stock T5 isn't going to cut it. Would I be better off with a tremec, or should I have them rebuild the T5 with stronger internals?

edit: should I get an aftermarket clutch? They said it would be replaced with a Luk piece that should handle higher hp levels fine, but they may have been trying to make a sale...
 
You should be able to have a tranny rebuilt and installed for a lot less than 1500. There are some things they can do to a T-5 to make it stronger. I would just buy a tremec and install it yourself if you can do it.
 
cmclean said:
You should be able to have a tranny rebuilt and installed for a lot less than 1500. There are some things they can do to a T-5 to make it stronger. I would just buy a tremec and install it yourself if you can do it.
I don't know anything about tranny installation/work. the 1500 was the price for a new T5 installed, rebuild would be less.