Well since you are bringing up swapping to a manual trans. i have been giving this alot of thought myself. there are many different trannys that will work. the conflict that i have found was that i want it to be a 5 or 6 speed (i have seen them!) and for it to be a much more HD trans(IE, came out of a f250 or 350, no f150 trans). like i will be putting it behind my new 351. now in your case it could be much easier due to the M5OD trans. it was ment to be behind the I6's and 302's, i herd that they are decent. but dont work well under heavy load. what i am shopping around for is a ZF 5 or six speed trans with 4x4 adaptor, wich i might add, is quite rare