Pinto Car Club of America

Hi All,

I'm new to your forum so I'll start out by introducing myself. I live in New York in the Hudson Valley. I just acquired a kit car that is built around a 74 Pinto drivetrain and suspension. It was bought back in 1983 by a gentleman and he started to build it. The gentleman had passed away, it sat for 3 years not being touched, I got it from his son-in-law. It has a 2000 cc motor that was rebuilt with performance parts from Racer Walsh. It has a 4 speed standard tranny. I want to upgrade the tranny to a T-5. Now to my question, will a 4 cyl T-5 bolt up to the 74 bell housing or will I need another one? If I need another one, does anyone know where I can find one? Thanks for the help.

Welcome.

Sorry no, a T-5/2.3 bell is not a direct bolt to a 2.0, and you need a T-5/2.3 bell to fit the T-5 tranny. The 2.0 and the T-5 have different dowel pins sizes, stepped dowels will fix that (I sell them, PM me), but the top 2 hole in the block will not line up to the bell. The 2.3 has holes that are higher, but the also have the same ones that a 2.0 has, and again, the dowels are different.

Now the big question: Why do you want to do this? I see lots of folks do this swap to have a taller highway gear, but a basicly stock "Pinto" engine will not have the torque needed to effectivly use 5th (OD) gear. IIRC: The tallest final drive Ford ever installed in a Pinto (with a manual tranny in 1:1 forth) was 2.73 (with stock sized tires). I have driven them with that combo and staying in forth on the highway on MILD inclines is hard. With a 3.18 rear, 5th would give you like 2.5. My 2.3T has a T-5 with 3.40's and IMHO it's perfect on the highway in 5th with an overall G/R of 2.75 (200+HP).

Check out the FAQ section for more T-5 swap info; there is a bunch of stuff you need to think about before you do it.

http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,4106.0.html

BTW: Are sure it is a 2.0? They did have 2.3's in 74 as well.

Bill

Thanks for the info. I think I will keep the 4 speed for now. With the price of gas want to get as much as I can. It is a 2.0. Thanks again.