I've got a 1996 Ford Ranger with the M5R1 manual trans. I know these transmissions aren't meant to handle anything more than what's already in the truck. The 5.0 I'm getting has GT40P heads. I would like to eventually work my way up to 450-500WHP. My question is what trans do I need to use to handle a 302 V8 with 450-500WHP and what modifications would I need to do to make said trans fit properly?

 

I want to know how you're going to make that with a 302 ? And with the P heads ?

 

not to knock your motor but I have a 347 with 13:1 compression ratio and it made 508 hp on the motor dyno but it only puts 356 hp to the tires. I have dart pro 1 195 heads. I think your horsepower numbers are going to be off. I maybe wrong but I had to go to a tko transmission on the mustang I had that made more hp than stock

 

How in the world did you lose 150 hp between an engine vs chassis measurement?

 

on the chassis dyno they said the tq convertor was bad and it should have been 3500-4000 stall and it only goes to about 2500- 2700. I was always told you lose about 27 % because of the 3 speed transmission.

 

I know I'm going to lose power through the trans. I'm eventually gonna go get a pair of just GT40 heads instead of the 40P's so I can run a forced induction setup. I'm just looking for a decent transmission to work in this kind of setup.

 

Can't beat an old fashioned big in/out Toploader 4 speed. And besides, the HP numbers are meaningless here. The torque figures and traction are what breaks things in the drivetrain

 

here is some info
V-8 Swaps ? 1983-1997 Ford Rangers : The Ranger Station

 

Thank you very much. Every single question I had about doing a 5.0 swap and still have a manual transmission.