AR-5, r-154 Anybody actually done this

Yeah this is the fun I have been looking into. Right now we actually have an A833 OD. However its missing a bellhousing. This is a 24 hours of lemons car after all. So the car needs to be worth $500. Granted the rust does a good job of that. Ill link some pictures below. The problem is that finding a decent price bellhousing has been a problem. We have $150 in our A833 and could probably sell it for $250. Now the Ar-5 is around and good news is people are pushing loads of power with them. Some are even using them behind LS engines. The 1jz and 2jz crowsd use them with 500-600hp. So our 150hp 318 should be a piece of cake. Heck the Colorado made 175hp. Not as much torque but still seems to be a pretty strong transmission.

Just an FYI:

The MA5 was also used in the 5cyl colorados from 04-06. Which had 220hp. I've beat the hell out of mine and its held up in a heavy truck with hundreds of passes down the drag strip. They also used an upgraded version of the transmission in the 3.7 H3 Hummers.(240hp & much heavier than a truck). It'd probably hold up to a lot of abuse in your lemons car.

I had kicked around this idea for a swap awhile back, but the consensus was that the shifter would be right in the way of the cross member.(On an A-body)