250 /wt5 and cable clutch

[sixpony]

Hopefully my ol 200 has a few more miles left in it (runs well, uses no oil) but the stock 3 speed just doesn't cut it,my dd is a 5 speed jeep(I4 by the way) and I constantly find myself reaching for gears that aren't there. I've read that the 250 has the sbf bolt pattern so what I'm thinking is can I build a 250/t5 using a 5.0 bell thus avoiding the use of an adapter and already being compatible with the cable setup. Does anyone know what flywheel/clutch/pressure plate would work with this setup, I'm hoping the 5.0 clutch and pressure plate would work with a stock 250 flywheel (but I imagine this would be too good to be true)

 

[jahearne]

157 tooth flywheel fits the 250/T5 combo. I purchased an aftermarket flywheel that had removable wieghts because our engines require zero balance flywheel. Make sure you get the right clutch to fit the flywheel's bolt pattern. There are two - standard and metric, if I'm not mistaken. The 5.0 clutch/flywheel will work, but the flywheel has to have the weights removed to make it a zero balance instead of 50 oz. 289's have a 28 oz. if I remember correctly off the top of my head. Search the forum; this conversion has been done many times. I also use cable clutch kit from Ron Morris. http://www.ronmorrisperformance.com/03clutch/index.html

Have fun,

 

[sixpony]

Thanks a lot for the info, I was fairly certain this had been done before, I just hadn't run across the topic, so the 250 crank has the same bolt pattern as the small block, just have to deal with balance issues? :thanks:

 

[jahearne]

Yup, that pretty much it. But you will have other issues with the 250 such as motor mounts, radiator fan and hood clearance. All those too have been addressed somewhere in this forum.

 

[powerband]

Hopefully my ol 200 has a few more miles left in it (runs well, uses no oil) but the stock 3 speed just doesn't cut it,my dd is a 5 speed jeep(I4 by the way) and I constantly find myself reaching for gears that aren't there. I've read that the 250 has the sbf bolt pattern so what I'm thinking is can I build a 250/t5 using a 5.0 bell thus avoiding the use of an adapter and already being compatible with the cable setup. Does anyone know what flywheel/clutch/pressure plate would work with this setup, I'm hoping the 5.0 clutch and pressure plate would work with a stock 250 flywheel (but I imagine this would be too good to be true)

As mentioned the Flywheel for the 250 is unique because of it's zero balance but other than that it's strictly 60's/70's SBF V8 compatible parts for Clutch, etc. Using SBF "Toploader" pattern Bell house allows for inexpensive adapter and stock Clutch linkage OR Mustang - T5 Bell and Cable Clutch linkage . EIther way the available T5 OD trannys will allow Interstate speeds with reasonable rear end gears for fun of driving with gears ... that are there...



" Toploader" SBF bell with T5 adapter , stock clutch linkage:

Have Fun

 

[Rustang Racer]

You can also use a stock 157 tooth 5.0 liter flywheel and have a machine shop machine the weight off to make it neutral balanced. Its a lot cheaper than a new flywheel and mine hasn't had any issues in about 5 years.

Also, keeping mechanical clutch linkage with the 250 requires quite a bit of modification. I did it and it worked well enough for a couple years but I finally changed to cable clutch (modern driveline I think, from national parts depot) and got it to work much better than the mechanical linkage ever did. I used the 5.0 bellhousing before and after the cable clutch was installed.

Like everyone else said, the 5.0 clutch, pressure plate, and starter will work.

 

[rbohm]

8) you can also use the flywheel from a 240/300 big six as well. as for the clutch linkage, my advice would be to use a hydraulic clutch system instead of a cable. www.dazecars.com sells the bracket and the firewall reinforcement needed to install a hydraulic clutch linkage, and he also gives you the part numbers, and the place to buy the master and slave cylinders needed to make the system work. in my opinion the hydraulic clutch is smoother to opwerate than the cable system.

 

[jahearne]

You can't use a 240/300 because they have a 164 tooth ring gear. It's not 60's/70's SBF. It's 1983 thru 1994 SBF; you won't have any compatiblity issues or need an adaptor if you get everything from a 5.0 - starter, flywheel (157t zero balance), clutch, bellhousing, etc. A four cylinder T5 is plenty strong for our sixes, but the throw-out bearing is an odd size. I recommend going wih a V8 T5 starting in 1985 when the World Class T5's came out. You know the differnce because the WC uses ATF and the non-WC uses gear oil. There are kits for Z-bar clutch linkage or cable linkage; the direction of the pull is the opposite on a T5. Hydraulic isn't cheap. There are crossmember kits available too.