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Thread: Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

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    Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

    Greetings from the states!

    From what I can find, the Mustang Ecoboost is still a fairly expensive car over in the UK, but here in the US, they've gotten affordable. More importantly, the MT-82 transmissions from crashed Mustangs are pretty inexpensive, about $700-800 for a six-speed that bolts right up to any Duratec if you also use the rear-sump Ecoboost Mustang oil pan. It's considerably stronger than the MX-5/RX-8 transmissions, and can be made to shift quite nicely with a little TLC. The only down side is the widely-spaced gear ratios are well suited for a car weighing 3500 lb (or perhaps a small pickup truck or van), not one weighing 2400 lb or less.

    Here's why I'm bugging you UK folk about it. I've found a Ford spec sheet that shows all the same ratios for the European-spec Ecoboost Mustang, except sixth gear is a more useful 0.834:1 instead of the flyover-country-crossing 0.70:1 we get on the cars here in the US. I have read all the service material I can find for the MT-82, and the Euro sixth gear should swap right in to the US-spec box, which would make me happy. I have worked out that the counter/cluster shaft gear must be 43 teeth and the main/output shaft gear must be 26 teeth. (Long story on how I got there, but the math works.) I've seen many listings for 44/23 and 41/20 pairs which seem to be for Transits or maybe Land Rovers, but none for the Mustang.

    I have tried extensively to find any parts listings or online parts sellers that can ID the gears, and have come up dry. (I haven't managed to come up with a valid VIN that can be used to search on, either. Pretty much every US car-for-sale listing includes the VIN, but I did not find that to be the case when I went looking at UK sellers.) I found a UK-based transmission parts specialist on Ebay and corresponded with them, but they do not have the correct ratios.

    Does anyone here have a way to get those part numbers, or know where I could successfully buy the gears from across an ocean?

    Thanks for any help!

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    Re: Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

    It would be quite easy to get a VIN in Sweden but the issue here is that "nobody" buys a 4 cylinder Mustang. Since they are quite expensive people tend to go for the V8 straight away, they are almost exclusively enthusiast cars here anyway and seldom a daily driver.

    There are 2-3 EcoBoost Mustangs listed at dealers here but they are all automatics. However, my google-fu found a candidate, and I'll try sending you a personal message with the VIN.

    Gustaf

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    Re: Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

    And here in the UK even the V8's aren't particularly common - why anyone would want a pissy 4 potter in a 3550lb / 1610kg 'muscle car' would be anyones guess LOL.
    If similar gearboxes are used in Transits (with nearly correct ratio's) couldn't you use that gear cluster instead of just trying to swap sixth? Transits are plentiful over here and in Europe!

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    Re: Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

    Thanks so much to TheRealPinto for the PM.

    The input/cluster combinations for the Transits, etc. mess up the overall ratios in the box. I've been playing more with the spreadsheets now that I have my hands around what's inside the boxes, and it looks like the best set of ratios would actually be all the 1-5 GT gears plus the Euro Ecoboost sixth (which comes out to 0.771:1 with the GT's input/cluster pair, if my numbers are correct). Would require a custom input shaft due to the difference in pilot bearings, but grinding V-8 input shafts to the four-cylinder pilot size is common enough in the US. So basically, buy an Ecoboost box and rebuild it with GT guts plus the Euro gear. That gets pretty expensive, so I'm going to have to think about it more.

    why anyone would want a pissy 4 potter in a 3550lb / 1610kg 'muscle car' would be anyones guess LOL.
    Here in the US, Mustangs are far more common. The Ecoboost is just the lowest-cost version of it, and it's actually faster than Mustang GTs from not so many years ago, even without turning up the boost. But yeah, my build plan is targeting ~1200 lb lighter.
    Last edited by SolarYellow510; 25-02-2021 at 22:37.

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    Re: Mustang Ecoboost MT-82 transmission - European sixth-gear parts?

    I have family in the US and one of the first things that taught me was that the Mustang in the US is not an enthusiast car the way we see it here in Europe.

    Of course it has a big following of enthusiasts but the vast majority of Mustangs seem to be sold to people who just want "a car" and think the Mustang looks nice and hits the price point - especially historically it has been very affordable in the US. So I can very much see the reasoning behind the 4 and 6 cylinder cars.

    Here in Sweden it doesn't matter how fast or good a V6 or I4 Mustang is, people will never see anything but a V8 Mustang as a "real Mustang".

    If Ford would have re-badged the Mustang series from 2005-on to Capri though... ;-)

    Gustaf

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