as long as you hit the gears you will be okay. I have missed 3rd a few times. Granted it isn't very good to shift one the way I do, but it gets the job done. I have seen the rev limiter a few times when I have missed a shift, but that's what it is there for, to keep you from overreving and tearing something up. BUT, if you run spray or a blower/turbo, hitting the rev limiter is def. not a good thing, it could get expensive quickly. I have been running a 88 4cyl T-5 behind my 5.0 for a year now and I am hard on that trans, we gave it a couple months to live according to what we had heard, but it is still doing good, since I put the new engine in though, and have had it running about 2 months now, I can not speed shift 3rd, it will not go in, no if's, and's, or but's about it, it won't go. I have to ease off the throttle some for it to go in. I do a better job of shifting under WOT than I do just driving around town.