what kind of issues/fixes to expect when installing a T5 with long tube headers.. the guy I bought it from said the bellhousing is clearanced for the trans??
If you go the cable route, clearing the cable forward of the bellhousing attachment takes a lot of care to prevent burning the cable. As far as I know, the hydraulic route doesn't have this issue. Other than that, it's a cake walk.
We went that route on my son's 71 using a 91 EFI with T-5. No modifications were necessary using the cable but as previously mentioned care is needed to carefully route and maintain clearance of the cable.
I drilled a hole just under the motor mount and made a j hook to keep it off the headers.You can see it the last pic the caseing is melted a bit that is wy i installed the j hook.I also since added header wrap to the headers in that area just for insurance
Thanks for the support!! now, about the hydraulic clutch,,, any pros/cons with using just the hydraulic throwout bearing or just go with the total hydraulic clutch w/master / slave cylinder??
The performance hydraulic throwout bearings are expensive, you can use a hydraulic master and a hydraulic external slave cylinder and use the factory T5 throwout bearing and release fork cheaper, also there is little adjustment available for the integrated throwout bearings, whereas the external slave cylinder has as much adjustment as you could want. But out of all curiosity what does the guy mean when he says "the bellhousing is clearanced for the trans??" Is it a T5/5.0 bellhousing or a bellhousing for the older transmissions? because they are different, and its not neccisarily in the clearence, what bellhousing it is even delegates what kind of clutch you can run.
If you use the 2001-2004 Cobra clutch cable (about 14" longer) you have more room to route the cable over the shock tower and past the headers. I have mine on without drilling or burning the cable.
T5 trans clearance the unit I bought, is from a '94 Cobra.. he showed me an area on the driver's side bell housing were the housing was ground down, not sure how much was taken off(near where bellhousing meets engine block)
The 94-up bell housing has the clutch cable mount in a different location than the earlier (86-93) models. I had to use the earlier housing which required changing the input shaft and front bearing retainer to get the cable in a manageable location for the 6901 hookers. Other headers may not be a problem but I'm not sure of who if anybody is using the late housing with that type header. When I mocked it up the first time on the stand, it had significant interference and at the time I wanted commonly replaced parts that could be fixed anywhere with very little modification since I knew I was planning to drive it daily and possibly on long trips. (didn't want to be stuck out of town somewhere modifying a broken header or clutch cable)
