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napolian_was

cleveland T5 conversion using single rail bellhousing (step by step)

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so first off why would you do a t5 conversion? for most people its going to be fuel economy and lower RPM cruising and are not likely to be giving this thing a hard time so a t5 should do the job fine, so why convert a single rail bellhousing and not buy a rod shop bellhousing? well last i looked it was going to cost me almost $900 to my door and that's a lot of fuel money my friends. So if your looking to do this conversation you've probably already done some research but if not, you must use a 6 cylinder  t5 from an xf or whenever they started using them to an el Falcon, au and onwards will need custom tail shaft and shifter won't line up, can't used v8 bellhousing or gearbox it would be way too much trouble, 6 cylinder t5 is almost identical to the single rail.
 
This is to document my experience with converting from a single rail with a bellhousing that has only been drilled for single rail in an XC falcon with an almost stock cleveland with an EB diff running 3.27 gears currently sitting on about 2800rpm at 100kmph using about 20.5l/per 100km
 
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Ok let's get into it, after you've got your bellhousing/gearbox out first thing you'll need to do to your t5 is turn down the input bearing housing about 1.6mm so it'll fit in the hole, if you don't have access to a lathe a machine shop will make very light work of it and won't cost much at all to get done. i had an empty case to help me work out how to go about it. 
 
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Then that's done fit it back to the gearbox and after you've got straight as you can you can start working out where your going to tap your new holes, the two top t5 mounting holes can be used so do them first use a punch to mark the holes (transfer punch would make this easy) and then drill and tap, I used 12x1.75 bolts that come with my T5.
 
 
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Bolt the gearbox back onto the bellhousing and now you can workout the two bottom mounts, as you can see the bottom t5 mount's are lower then the face of the bellhousing so what I did for the right side is make a mark just above the t5 hole, drilled and tapped it then bolt the gearbox back on and center punched the case from the inside of the bellhousing and then drilled the t5 case, as for the bottom left there is no meat in the bellhousing casting inline with the t5 case so I tapped a hole just beside the case and used a clamp style mount on this side that consists of a spacer that falls just short of the thickness of the case and another plate that overlaps the case making it clamp down when tightened against it, this could also be used on the other side if you don't want to drill the case.
 
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So this should have us sorted for mounting the box to the bellhousing now we'll move onto the cross member, measuring from the face of the box there is about 43mm difference between the two so I used part of the EB cross member and welded it to the back of the cross member about 45mm back (you could use a bit of plate or that ever will pick up the mount,plenty of adjustment no need for it to be perfect just needs to be centre) thinking it would be a great idea to use the square hole but it ended up making it very hard to bolt them together it kinda got stuck between the gearbox and the exhaust headers and I couldn't get it low enough due to the exhaust to get the gearbox mount bolt in the hole. so  I think if this hole was slotted it would go much easier.
 
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So getting the gearbox in the car I bolted the bellhousing on to the engine and made a few attempts to slide the gearbox on, what I ended up doing is cutting the shifter hole in the floor all the way to the back of the hump mine had about an inch of over hang and that had to go so the shifter housing could get high enough, I also found I couldn't have the shifter Bolted to the gearbox and the hole in my shifter hump is too small to out it through the top so I hung it in the hole with a screwdriver and bolted it on the gearbox after it was in the car. And as I said I struggled with getting the cross member on, I almost dropped one of the headers but ended up getting there.
 
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So everything else goes on just like the single rail,. The internet said to fill it with a half and half mix of vmx80 and dex3 ATF and it seems to shift nice, I made a gear stick with the same bend and thread as the single rail and used the knob to make it look like nothing's been changed. 
 
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Final thoughts are, first gear is a bit short but not the end of the world gets off the line nicely, it doesn't have as positive feel when shifting but still alright, down shifts much nicer than the single rail, sits on about 2200rpm at 100 in 5th. Will have some fuel economy numbers after a few hundred k's. 
 
Hopefully this helps I've probably missed something but anyway I did my best.
 
 
 
 rotio's , i'm told the EL box is the best one to get as its a 'world class' and its a bit stronger.
EA T5
1st: 3.50:1
2nd: 2.14:1
3rd: 1.39:1
4th: 1.00:1
5th: 0.78:1
EB2-EL T5 (6 cyl)
1st: 3.25:1
2nd: 1.99:1
3rd: 1.29:1
4th: 1.00:1
5th: 0.72:1

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i did this once with the eb/xg t5 into a xe with mild 351c,i did use the rod shop bell,at the time cost $750 as i had plenty of coin to throw at it and didnt want to go down the path you did,but nice work ,i remember reading somewhere there is a t5 with 2.95 first gear,could be a eb v8 ?.

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2 hours ago, napolian_was said:

This is to document my experience with converting from a single rail with a bellhousing that has only been drilled for single rail in an XC falcon with an almost stock cleveland with an EB diff running 3.27 gears currently sitting on about 2800rpm at 100kmph using about 20.5l/per 100km

great write up!

i've pinned this so people can refer to it easier than searching for all the other bits and pieces

 

into XE and XF you can use the XF T5 cross member (also EA has this but they are probably more extinct) pretty sure CRS make one also. but extending the single rail/auto one also works as you've done with the XA,XB,XC cross member.

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Nice write-up... It's uncanny how similar your swap is to mine, with the following differences:

* My engine's a mild 302C

* I used a Toploader bellhousing and made up a slave cylinder mounting bracket (it was for an F-truck mechanical clutch with no slave).

* I filled the old bolt holes with cut off bolts and silver soldered them in, and the top T5 mount bolts are M12 wheel studs soldered into the bellhousing. Bottom ones are just drilled and tapped. The mount face on a toploader bell extends far enough down for the standard T5 lower bolts to meet, hence the reason for choosing the toploader one.

* I originally had 3.27 gears (from an XG ute) but went over to 3.08s when I redid my diff. It sits on about 2000 doing 90. The T5 is from my old EA so 5th is 0.78 and 1st is 3.50. like you said, it's a bit short but on the plus side, doesn't need too much clutch slip to get going.

* I used an EL wagon alloy tailshaft as it's the right length and was 30 bucks.

* I eventually went to a 3/4" trailer-type master cylinder and a Jaguar 7/8” slave, the master previously swapped because I'd already chewed out 3 of the standard 5/8” ones and got sick of being stranded. You can pick up a trailer master cylinder at any parts store, so I'm covered there. The Jag slave was to get the bore ratios back closer to standard (clutch was very heavy with the 1:1 ratio).

* I'd previously made my shifter into a short-shift by spacing up the pivot plate and extending the ball pivot by the same amount. I also made a new stick out of some water pipe, put some bends in it to point it more toward the driver and solid-mounted it to the lower part, eliminating the slop in the rubber bushes they come with.

* My mileage didn't really change much from the single rail, maybe by 1L/100 km but the biggest change came from doing up a 650 spreadbore pumper for economy. It's an outstanding street carby, it's the 4th one I've had on it and is the best. I'm now getting 15L/100 fairly consistently, with lovely low speed smoothness yet no need for a choke in winter.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the T5, it's nowhere near as nice to shift as a tight single rail, and the 2-3 shift under power is always baulky and leaves you fumbling.

I have a write-up on my install somewhere on here, starting from about 8 years ago.

Anyway nice work mate, hope it makes a difference for you.

Sent from my CPH2197 using Tapatalk

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i wouldnt have done this write up with out you gerg, i read your write up a couple of years ago and that got me interested in the swap.

 

yes that 2-3 shift is a tricky one 1-3 gates are very close and i find im trying to push it between 3 and 5 but something im getting use to. i feel like you've got to push straight forward for the 2-3 shift and the single rail you follow the H and come toward your self.  

 

i'm liking the short 1st more as well, car parks and my drive way are now easier to navigate coming from a 2.82 1st. as well as when doing a full throttle run from a stand still it easy to get off the line but you've still got enough time to grab 2nd before red line.

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i wouldnt have done this write up with out you gerg, i read your write up a couple of years ago and that got me interested in the swap.
 
yes that 2-3 shift is a tricky one 1-3 gates are very close and i find im trying to push it between 3 and 5 but something im getting use to. i feel like you've got to push straight forward for the 2-3 shift and the single rail you follow the H and come toward your self.  
 
i'm liking the short 1st more as well, car parks and my drive way are now easier to navigate coming from a 2.82 1st. as well as when doing a full throttle run from a stand still it easy to get off the line but you've still got enough time to grab 2nd before red line.
Oh glad it was of use to you mate. Just seeing others do what you set out to do makes you see that it's doable, so you're more able to overcome whatever hurdles.

Sent from my CPH2197 using Tapatalk

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Hi all, been a while since I’ve been in here.

What clutch release/throw out bearing is everyone using with the T5 conversion?

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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On 4/16/2023 at 11:55 AM, NZXD said:

Hi all, been a while since I’ve been in here.

What clutch release/throw out bearing is everyone using with the T5 conversion?

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exact same as the single rail, clutch, throw out and fork are all the same. I can unbolt the t5 slide it off the bellhousing and slide the single rail buck in. Can still use the cross member as well.

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