PseudoK

for the money spent you could have went V160, and not have to worry about replacing it

estomax

iTrader: (2)

dude why has noone else here had to bash their tunnel in so much? mine fits, it is snug but i didnt have to bash the tunnel and i don't think anyone else did either.. something is screwy with your fitment of things..

and Ali i will keep an eye on your progress, since this is basically bolt on from the point of removing the pin in the input shaft then i could do this with the trans in the car even probably will wait for you to get yours in the car first. though at the same time mine works fine so why mess with it if it isnt broke.. hah.

Marko

Halon

iTrader: (6)

I had to hammer mine in. Have to do the same procedure with tilting the motor all the way back. I would have never been able to install it With the motor still in the car without doing something to the tunnel. What motor is yours connected to Estomax? It's not fun to remove or install it.

And agin my setup is the Collins kit, flywheel adapter setup with 350z flywheel and clutch, no milling done to bell housing. Just trying to make sure we are all comparing apples to apples.

95SC3T

iTrader: (3)

I'm running the Collins kit no milling of bellhousing and an act clutch kit on the Collins flywheel.

Trans still isn't in.

And no you couldn't do a v160 swap for this price. I bought new trans, flywheel, clutch, driveshaft, diff adapter, slave cylinder, throw out bearing and I spent about $4-4500. A used v160 is that much. And a lot of times they don't have the tripod for that much. V160 breakdown
Trans 4500
Tripod 200
Shifter 1-200
Flywheel 200
Clutch 500-3000 depend on what ya want single/twin/triple
Upper tunnel piece 1-200
Slave 50-100
Driveshaft with adapter 750

Those are all estimates. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Full v160 would easily be 7-10k.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

No where close on costs between the two if they are both done right !


You are even damn lucky if you will find a v160 trans without pending problems at the $4500 price point you mentioned.

If you want to enjoy your V160, you need a good differential with the right gearing. The USDM 6speed diff and axles , second hand , will set you another $2200 if you even will find them. You won't find the USDM 6speed diff with 220 ring gear brand new anymore since they have stopped producing them.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

yeah gerrb is spot on, it would be like double to do a v160. these are just minor things once its ironed out this swap will be a good one, the only better one could be the bmw trans swap as they are smaller and the shifter can be made the perfect length, but those transmissions are also more expensive. both will be less expensive than a v160 setup however, especially if you have to replace the trans you already have all the swap parts figured out and its a bolt on and go, really with either transmission at that point.

Gerrb most of us will be swapping in that ls/gs400 3.2 pumpkin from the 5 speed auto's to suit the 6 speed ratios, they are abundant and almost as strong as the 6 speed (i think its 220mm vs 200mm). one could drop a 10 bolt TT auto lsd unit in that, or get a trd lsd, and it would be pretty nice for a conversion since the 6 speed stuff is hard to get nowadays and still quite pricey even if you can.

sounds like its tough to get the transmission in from under the car maybe just pull the motor if you are having trouble.
I want to say Estomax told me he had the other kit where he shaved the bellhousing which could help with the tunnel clearance as the thicker part of the bellhousing is 5/8" further back in the tunnel than if you mill it.
I will be milling mine for shifter and tunnel reasons it seems like.

I also heard someone talking about getting it half way stabbed in, and using the transmission itself by bashing it against the tunnel to fit it. probably not the best idea though.

jkpgt96

iTrader: (1)

For fitting it in the tunnel I would just use the bellhousing only. Then when you are ready to worry about the shifter put the whole trans in. You have to pull it all apart to shave the bellhousing anyway..

The only thing I have heard bad about the Getrag 420 (E46 M3) is getting it serviced if you break anything in it. That said, if you get a E39 V8 Getrag, you can swap the bellhousing from your busted E46 420 to the E39 420 body and have a replacement for ~4-500 bucks..but the initial transmission will run you ~1000-1500...unless you find a bellhousing/busted E46 Getrag for a donor.

Halon

iTrader: (6)

I'm not familiar with the LS/GS diff.

I personally am running an SC430 diff. I actually have two (1 installed & 1 spare) since they are a dime a dozen. I think I paid something like $200 shipped for one of them, and $300 shipped for the other. They are 3.26 so geared great for a 6spd. They are virtually identical, physically, to the SC300 diff so it's pretty much a bolt in affair. Only thing is the 3 bolt flange the driveshaft donut bolts to is the large style flange rather than the SC300 small flange. Not a big deal to swap out the flanges which is what I did. Or you can just leave it in place if you ditched the stock donut for a billet adapter as the billets are usually drilled for both size flanges. I threw an auto LSD into one of the diffs as well, again a bolt on application just like it'd be on an SC300 diff.

Maybe next time I have the trans out, I need to get a bigger hammer or something and spend more time beating the tunnel. Or maybe switch to the milled bellhousing setup. Install truly is the worst part. If you haven't gotten to that point yet, you don't know how tough it is until you've been there. Which is why I'm really curious how Estomax is saying he had no issues. Perhaps it's because he's 1jz and/or because he had the trans milled? If milling helped that much, I'm definitely going to do that next time that thing is out.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

If I am not mistaken a 2jz long block is an inch taller than a 1JZ . That may explain the reason why Estomax didn't have to bash that tunnel with his 1JZ. He had more clearance with the trans a bit lower .

As Ali said you can use the following as substitutes for the USDM 6speed diff 3.13. They have the 3.26 gears. Installing an auto TRD LSD on it will give you a very robust diff . After all the TT Torsen auto lsds are so hard to find now a days also.

98-00 Lexus GS400 (5AT auto)

02-05 Lexus SC430 (auto)

The 98-00 LS400 also would work but the diff back cover I believe needs to be replaced since it has only two bolts instead of 3.

PseudoK

ok, theyve gotten much more expensive lately..

HiPSI

iTrader: (2)

Glad I held off on the CD009 swap for now, I didn't realize the tunnel needed banging in.

Does anyone have photos of how much the tunnel needs "massaging" .

PseudoK

yea it seems like the CD009 is more for the 1UZ crowd.

95SC3T

iTrader: (3)

My buddy is running a 1j with the maverick kit and he had to mill his bellhousing on his cd009. He still had to beat his tunnel in.
Also with the maverick kit he only had like 3-4 bolts on the adapter line up with the bellhousing so he had to drill and tap the others himself.
I heard of people loosing up the front subframe bolts a little bit to lower the whole engine down to be able to get the trans in and out better.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

not the best news don't really want to loosen my subframe to get a transmission in.
so is it confirmed if we pull the motor we wont have to bash the tunnel. really sounds like I will be pulling the motor on this one if that is the case or even if it just takes less bashing.

I got the v160 shifter in.
The bad news is the lockout sleeve is to narrow to just easily fit on the 240sx shifter, and I am not sure if there is enough material to open up the bore on the sleeve itself.

The good news is that a combo of the base of the 240 shifter and the v160 welded top half should work really well and retain reverse lockout, and cause the top half is v160 that means toyota threaded shift *****!!
I dont think its worth turning down the 240sx shifter so that the reverse will fit over it but I could be wrong I will take both to my machine guy and let him tell me which way he prefers to do it.

only thing I have left to figure out that one of your guys with it installed can help with, is the height of the shifter.
how much taller than the black inspection cover should I make it when I cut and reweld it?

if anyone has a good idea let me know or my best guess is that its roughly the height of the v160 shifter or maybe a little longer. just don't want it to end up too long or short and have to redo it, and too impatient to wait till its time to install it. any info is appreciated before I just start cutting things =)

I was also thinking about the whole 30-32" thing and a possible different solution at 32' that would allow the shifter to be straight up and down.
what if we make a custom shifter surround, where the seat heater buttons are on the top and the shifter stays in the bottom portion?
even better it occured to me why not take an automatic shifter surround, where the buttons are already at the top and the shifter spand the middle to bottom, and just dremel out the opening for a manual shifter and then make a custom boot. if you took your time I bet you couldn't even tell that it was modifed and you get to keep oem seat heater buttons!
does that even sound like remotely a good idea or have I just gone bannanas on this whole shifter setup.

If the custom surround works out, that would allow me to put the shifter perfectly straight up and down, and there would be no negatives to that setup after its done except having to hack up an auto shifter plate.

EDIT* In fact the gated shifter auto plates already have the surround cut out basically, look at this, its literally perfect, but I need one with seat heaters. this one is on ebay,


from an old classifieds on club lexus to show the one with heated seats and the whole shifter, imagine that but with a manual shifter there.
will have to repurpose the ECT button but that is not difficult and pretty sure the lettering rubs off if you try hard enough.

Halon

iTrader: (6)

I'm trying to remember, but I don't think I bashed the tunnel in when I did it with the motor out, and installed it all as one big engine/trans unit. If I did, the only area I may have had to pound would have been the rear area, like back near the shifter. There's a few sensors on the trans (that really could probably be removed) that I may have had to dent a little bit. But I don't think I did, just hard to remember since it was so long ago. But to do it with the motor installed, definitely need to do some hammering. I think most of my hammering was at the top of the tunnel, right near where it opens up to the engine bay.

That might work. I did think of that on my setup, however since mine is more of a very long gooseneck, my throws are longer, and thus there wasn't enough left/right space for me to do that. WIth your shorter shifting setup it may work. I don't even have heated seats anymore, so my buttons are removed currently. I'd totally rock that first one you put a picture to. I also bought an aftermarket boot and super glued it to the surround underneath, and that works great. Could do that with that surround. The only down side I can think of, is you don't want the shifter too far back where it's awkward to shift because your elbow is so far back. But you're only talking a couple inches there so I think it'd be fine. In fact I really like that idea altogether, and would personally rock that setup without a doubt.