t5 durability

[dusterbd13]

after looking long and hard at all my options, i have decided that a T5 is the wnswer to the question for my duster. im not comfortable with all the cuttting that is required for anything else (torsion bar crossmember has to be removed for all the other options, and this is a mostly oprigonal car)

so, in looking at t5 stuff, ive seen everything from a stock 5.0 will break one to use the t5z and it will never break with a short shifter.

whats the true story?
im laying down 425 ft lbs at the rear wheels, no slicks, very few dragstrip outings. mostly looking for autocross, opn track, and street as thats where my interests lie.

im ok with some aftermarket parts to make it live longer, but looking at the 3k gear sets is a little rediculous, and then you have to chaneg the case from what im reading.

my options at this point are:
92 mustang GT world class t5, 50k miles (300 bucks!)
new t5z from summit, 1200 plus the ride.

im really leaning towards the stocker, and doing some changes to make it live better.

what changes can i do?what do i need to do?

thanks
Michael

[GeoffP]

How much torque does your engine produce? T-5's aren't rated much above 300 ft-lbs even if it's a WC unit. I can attest from experience that they aren't very reliable if abused.

[rustomatic]

Dude, people are crappy drivers, and they usually never learn to read their equipment properly. If somebody says they broke something because of his or her awesome power or amazing drag racing skills, assume that he or she does not know what it means to rev match or judge gate location in a transmission. I love the T5, and always have, since the first time I slapped the shifter on one in the very early 1990s. (It's light, precise, and highly proven in gazillions of cars.) I've heard the same stuff about motorcycle (sportbike) transmissions, and seen guys break them; the guys who broke them were usually dropping their clutches on the freeway in second gear, doing about 80 miles per hour for wheelies. The same guys always wondered why their fork seals blew out all the time... Do your own math--I get the sense that you're good at it.

[kiwigt]

I've got a standard T5z behind 480 odd fwhp / 450 ft lb torque. I've run 10,000 hard miles and had no trouble at all. If you're brutal in the way you shift T5's they break. If you're sensible they don't - that's my experience. I was going down the same path as you about expensive T5 gear sets etc and decided just buy a new T5z and see what would happen....nothing happened.