Beef up or swap trans in a 93 4.0?

[TARZAN]

My 93 has the stock trans in it right now, and I've heard the horror stories. I'm gonn have fun with this truck, so I need a trans that will hold up. Are there any stock pull-out trans I should look into, can I beef this one up, or is there any way a T5 will bolt up? I do not know f it shares the bell housing pattern with a 5.0. I'm familiar with mustangs (had one or two), so if a T5 or better Mustang trans will bolt in I could do that.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

-Will

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Take a look at the Project Frankentranny sticky thread on the top of the transmission section.

 

[TARZAN]

Thanks, but mine is a manual trans. I'm guessing its got a different bolt pattern than a standard SBF? Are there any swaps or upgrades? From what I'm reading there doesn't seem to be much...

-Will

 

[MrShorty]

Yes, the 4.0 has a different bolt pattern than the V8's.

In general, the M5OD is considered the best transmission that Ford put into Ranger based vehicles (RBV's). We don't hear very many complaints about it (which is why Brooklynbay assumed you were talking about the A4LD, which we do hear a lot about). Maybe that's because there are fewer manual transmissions out there, I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if the bad rep the M5 gets is from its use in heavier trucks. You might review these "horror stories" and see how many are in heavier trucks, and how many are in RBV's.

One issue I've heard of is related to oiling. I guess there's a plug or something on top of the transmission that rots out and causes a loss of oiling -- especially in the top of the transmission.

One upgrade that I've heard of people doing is to rebuild their M5 with the guts from an M5 out of a 4 cylinder. It seems that Ford used a lower 1st gear ratio in the 4 cylinder versions.

 

[TARZAN]

Thanks for the response, so what is the "name" of the trans in my Explorer? I'm assuming M5 just means manual 5-speed? I was told its some Mazda transmission?

Does anybody make a bellhousing adapter for others?

-Will

 

[BrooklynBay]

It's an M5OD as Mr. Shorty previously stated. Check # 47 in my list of useful threads for more information.

 

[TARZAN]

Thanks for the links....I've been in a 5-speed trans more than once, kinda hard on em in my mustangs. Sucks that there are no real performance options out there.

-Will