Ok so I have an auto transmission and it is starting to give me problems, it looks like I can get a parts car for $100 (frame rusted beyond reapir) with a manual transmission and I am thinking of swapping out with that car. What do you guys think... worth the trouble or not?

 

I'd do it! It's not that big of a deal to do the swap if you have a doner car to provide all the neccassary parts. Go for it!!!!

Rod.

 

Exactly what Rod said. If you're going to have a donor car with all the neccessary parts already on it then go for it. Having that donor car will make it a lot easier too, as opposed to trying to source all the parts individually and trying to figure out on you own how and where they are installed. Automatics are for 4 types of people:
1)people that are too lazy or with better things to do behind the wheel than drive
(2)people that can't drive stick
3)drag racers
4)people who live in SoCal and have to endure a 3 hour stop and go commute to work each way 5 days a week.

Oh and I guess I'll throw in a 5th: People who have not yet made the switch to the manual trans yet

 

ya, #1... cell phone in one hand, coffee in the other, knee on the steering wheel.
maybe that's a Seattle thing... hehe

 

I'm gonna say I fall into category 5. I really want to do a swap. I love driving stick, and if you can get a full parts car for $100, if the transmission is in decent shpe then go for it. Hell even if it's not in perfect shape at least you could use that car to get it all setup, then you could work on fixing up that tranny. If it doesn't work out, let me know where I can get that parts car

 

that's an everywhere thing

 

dreco, that is a beautiful sig pic. Is that in Vegas?

 

Yea ok I bought this car for my wife to drive for $400 and now it has turned into mine since she dosent like it (She said she wanted an automatic LOL) but has since learned to like driving a stick. I dont realy like this transmission but since I lost out on this donor car I think I may just try changing the transmission fluid for now and see how much that helps out, for now LOL.
Thanks for the conformation on the fact that this is doable tho.
-Dennis

 

Sorry Bleach, but that is the most annoying thing in the world to me!!!!

Maybe it would not annoy me so much if people did it in a Z, but they usually do it in big ol SUV's. And I all ready lost 1 car to some dumb Bitch, driving a Escalade. She was too busy to step on the brakes And she ran into my 1st gen Eclipse GSX. The Eclipse never stood a chance against that behomoth. I walked away, but the Ecpise got towed to the grave yard.

 

Well, atleast it was a first gen eclipse

 

Man I got rear ended while driving a CRX and hit by a new doge ram truck... the rex survived quite well, it seems that the hatch is a stong point. And I was hit on the corner too

 

Yeah Bleach Ive Seen Seattle Traffic, But It Happens Here To. I Just Swerve Into There Lane A Bit And They Spill Hot Coffee All Over There Lap Then I Lol

 

the swap is cool man just make sure you wire in the revers switch, we wouldn't want your z getting injured by any other drivers not knowing you were backing up do to no revers lights.

 

Those are the best ones. Smaller, lighter, no stupid chrome altezzas, can't stand when people change the rear lights on the 2nd gen. 7 bolt block, better than the latter 6 bolt. better turbo t25 compared t28, more easilly modded too

 

I don't know, just not a big fan of the eclipse altogegther really. Not really a big Mitsu fan period. Aside from the Evo's and some of their older cars from back in the day. But the Eclipse and 3000GT never really did it for me.

 

my girl likes the 3000gt, I don't know why. not a bad looking car, but she also likes corvets. her dad is a clasic car dealer, and has a crap load of fast backs and stuff he has fixed up.

 

I think the 3000GT is a good LOOKING car, but it's just over engineered, for lack of a better word. Mitsu just tried way to hard to cram as much as they could into that car and in the process just ended up over burdoning it. Its a FWD chassis, which was the first mistake they made. That chassis is also quite heavy, even in FWD form. Then throw in all the other do-dads that they did to make the VR-4, which some would argue is the only model that was worth the money, and you've got yourself a heavy weight that just wasn't much of a contendor. Who wouldve thought putting too much detail into a car would've ended up as a negative Nissan built a car with just as much technology (some would argue more, and I'd agree) and ended up with a superior machine. They started with a better chassis for one. The Supra was just a brute and the people that could afford it bought it for it's no frills go faster than anything else imported attitude. The 300ZX, well hey first of all it's a Z. Then it's designed the way a sports car should've been. The only reaching Nissan did on that car was that crappy HICAS system they threw in there. Just extra weight if you ask me. If I had to choose any one of those cars it'd be the Z32. Even over the Skyline. The only thing the Skyline has going for it over the Z is the ATESSA AWD. And thats only if you even want AWD. Which I don't particularily care for unless traction is an issue. And lets face it, how many of us would drive our Skyline in the snow anyways

 

J, I agree with you most of the time, but this not liking awd thing. Wow, What makes the VR-4, is being able to launch at 5 0r 6 k, turbo's spooled, and get a little chirp and gone. Yes, it wasn't really designed for a sports car, they are usually stripped down, big power, little rockets. It was designed more to be a touring car. The weight just sucks it to the road, and the faster you go the firmer it gets. Now my 300 Z gets squirly at speeds, and middle speed turns the a$$ likes to kick out, and the more power you add just hurts the problem even more. And wider tires does not help at all. It depends on what you use the car for. I love my FWD 3000 gt for long drives, very comfotable, stable at speeds and it does great on the local roads, being FWD, the a$$ never kicks out. With that car I drive for pure speed, long sweepers, tight turns, mostly highway late at night. The 300 Z was great for playing. I would all ways steer with the rear. Tight corners, lift off the gas, touch the brakes to slow and settle the car, turn in and down shift and mash, catch it and upshift and be gone. We have alot of parking garages here, and late at night the upper levels are usually empty, they can be fun, because they go in nice tight circles, have really smooth concrete, and have a banked up wards curve. Heaven for RWD, I only hope the 280 is as much fun. I serriosly hope she turns out to be a great car.

 

If you like squirrely then the 280 is definitely for you It's not a road hugger though. It likes to kick that *** out. But I'm a fan of oversteer. I'd rather be controlling oversteer than understeer. But thats just me. A lot of people are uncomfortable with oversteer and prefer understeer. Thats why most cars have understeer designed into them, it makes people feel safe. While recovering from understeer and still making a decent turn is fairly difficult, you can still fairly easily still stop in time before you kill yourself. Oversteer on the other hand has the opposite affect. Once the car gets it rear around most people have a hard time stopping that rear from coming all the way around and it tends to incite panick in the driver. Understeer generally causes less panick in the driver cause the car is still pointing forward. Recovering from understeer generally just means letting the car mostly handle itself. Recovering from oversteer is almost always going to require a certain degree of driving skill. But that's what I love about the Z. Once you learn to control that oversteer it's a blast.

I'll give you the launch in a 3000GT. But thats not really my bag and I'm not a big fan of drag racing. Which is probably why that car never really appealed to me. It truelly is a beautiful machine though, so I'll give it that. If it was all about looks then the 3000GT would be higher on my list then the Z32 and Supra. But understeer is not my favorite thing and when you add AWD to the scenario it just tends to get worse, especially when the car was originally FWD. That's what was so great about the Skyline. IT was RWD to start, then they added AWD. So the chassis was already the way it should've been. I'd take an RWD Skyline over the AWD Skyline any day if Nissan had only put the RB26DETT in the RWD versions too. But no, they got the measily RB25DET (which is still a monster, but no RB26). Of course, I'd probably take a Supra before a Skyline, and Z32 or Z33 before that (cause their Z's, duh). Though an R32 seems very appealing And we all know that the EVO is one of the greatest cars EVER, so Mitsubishi gets it's props for that car. That motor is just unbelievable the power and abuse it can handle for only 2 liters

I didn't mean to offend you and I knew you were a fan of the 3000GT, but hey an opinion is an opinion and my opinion is almost always biased toward the Z

 

Oh and I didn't really specify: The reason I don't like AWD is because it's unneccessary. It does have its place though. Bad traction scenarios like unpaved roads, wet weather, and snow and ice. Also when launching, as mentioned above. It can grab the pavement alot easier than any two wheels can. But aside from those two scenarios it just becomes a burden. It serves NO purpose on the open road in dry conditions other than if you lose control of you car and allow a computer to step in and save your ***. AWD will not take turns any faster than a RWD would. Sure you can get on the accelerator sooner coming out of a turn, but the turn in on an AWD car is usually diminished so the entry is much slower and then a RWD car which can take a turn with a much better line. Then theres the weight it adds. And finally theres the affect it has on tires and fuel economy: Negative. You tend to go through tires faster on AWD cars and the extra drivetrain components lend themselves to lower MPG. Plus all those extra parts to worry about is just no fun. Oh and they're usually more expensive too. Now when I compare the negative performance aspects, this is in relation to a RWD car. An AWD vehicle will obviously out perform a FWD vehicle in all performance aspects. But RWD is just, IMO, the best way to go. Theres a reason you don't see many AWD drag cars. The main reason is all the extra rolling resistance AWD adds. Second it the fact that with big fat slicks, you don't need the extra traction from AWD anymore. And third, it's just more crap to break. The feel of a proper RWD sports car is just unparralleled by any other chassis format. But in its argument, AWD does promote safety and almost gaurantees a win at a stoplight race with it's supperior traction.

 

J, I will agree with you on the AWD vs RWD thing. I love RWD. That is where it is at. But AWD is just great at doing everything. I don't know if it is really true, but I heard the Skyline got banned in some motorsports compettition because of the ATTESA, being an unfair advantage. Ever see a AWD over steer. I have more than once, they do it just more controlled. And the 3000 gt was allways a AWD car, was designed that way. The FWD cars still have the axle tunnel. They could not afford the different chassis. Only the rear subframe is different. Mine is a FWD base model, w/ a 98 twin turbo motor swapped out of a wrecked VR-4, and an AWD 5 speed trans, with a welded VCU, to run FWD. No matter what I do, I don't get full traction till 3rd. My wrecked 300 Z TT allmost the same thing, no traction till the top of second, 3 gear still chirped em. My N.A. 93 and 90 both kicked the rear end out easilly and get very squirly at high speeds. No freeway is perfect cement, hit a bump at 100 plus and the *** end moves around. The few VR-4's I've been are solid rocks at speeds and both of my GSX's were rocks, no matter what we ran over. But rwd is the essence of a sports car. I still am very curios how my auto 80 ZX will handle. And I never take offence to anything you say J.

 

See I didn't know the 3000GT was designed as an AWD chassis. I learn something new everyday that I make contact with the outside world The Skyline itself didn't get banned, but the ATTESA has been banned. Mechanical AWD is one thing, but the ATTESA is basically a computer driving your car. Alls you have to do is mash the accelerator and the computer does the rest. The AWD in that cars is COMPLETELY electronically controlled. It's always been the benchmark and is considered one of the most advanced AWD systems in the world. I should also point out that the EVO's with they yaw control computers also make quick duty of most of the drawbacks of that AWD system. Only problem is Mitsu refuses to put it on any state side Evos. Even the next Evo IX won't be getting it here. I don't know what their problem is with not bringing the goods over here. But as we all know, the Japanese automakers have always been that way. They keep the really good stuff to themselves. They're under the misconception that we americans like every thing simple. What they don't realize is that we're in a new generation now that appreciates all things technology. Unlike our past generations that wanted nothing to do with imports, turbo chargers, or electronically controlled gadgets on our cars. Now that obviously doesn't apply to everyone over the age of 30 but the detroit motorheads were able to get that message blatantly across to the point of being able to get the Japaneses automakers to back off. Thats why the 240sx didn't get the SR20DET, cause Nissan was under the impression we wanted big displacement naturally aspirated motors. Boy were they wrong. We just want to go fast. Of course with the Skyline, Nissan just didn't want to compromise anything about their car by bringing it over here. So they say. I kinda think they just wanted to keep a step ahead of us by keeping their super car to themselves. Most other countries that have the Skyline available to them had to have it imported by 3rd parties cause Nissan wouldn't do it themselves.

And I had to laugh when you said Mitsubishi couldn't afford to make a seperate chassis for the FWD and AWD 3000GT's. Not cause you were wrong, but because Mitsubishi couldn't even afford to build one of those chassis at the time. Chrysler had to help them out. IF it werent for Chrysler then Mitsubishi probably wouldn't have been around long enough to bring us the almighty Evo. But in all fairness, Nissan went through the same thing til Renault bailed them out with some hefty financial weight. The Z car wouldve died with the Z32 if werent for the French (shudder). And we all know about Mazda bending over for Ford. So technically speaking, Honda and Toyota, Japan's top two automakers, are also the only two still running on their own steam. In the case of the Eclipse, the GSX is a far superior machine to the FWD cars. FWD can only be improved so I'd take a GSX over a FWD version without a doubt. I'm not trying to rag on the 3000GT, it's just that having spent a lot of time around a couple of them (both VR4's, and neither of them mine) I realized they're not all they're cracked up to be. I mean that car was so hyped back in the day and I honostly didn't think it was THAT special. It's no slouch but at nearly 4000lbs its just got a lot of weight to pull around. My buddy thought he was the ish in his VR4 until he got taken by a Del Sol with a turbo'd B18C I do give him credit though, that little car was a rocket cause it weighed next to nothing. But it was killed by understeer when it tried to hang with the 3000 and Z32 through the Ortega's at night (any of you SoCaler's familiar with that stretch of mountain road will know exactly why it met it's demise).

 

WOW, you are the first person to ever say they are not worth the hype. I usually get slow, fat, pos. I do love my 3000, but it is constantly breaking something. But I'll keep wrenching on her, till the day she dies. All 3 of my Z32's got laughed at too. Even when I beat all the serious ricers around here. I still got no respect and reved on constantly by D series with an intake and muffler. Los Vegas is just terrible, they are out of hand around here. If it doesn't say VTEC, they will laugh at you.

Back on topic, I have a extra oil cooler from my 3KGT, do you think it would be a good idea to mount it and run my tranny lines to it, or should I keep em going to the radiater. And to convert to manual, down the road, do I keep my auto driveshaft, or do I need the manual one? Is there a difference in driveshaft's? After I get her running right for awhile, I was planning on swapping to manual and the 300 lsd rear end. So drive shaft is kinda important. Also is the 300's rear end, is the lsd viscous, or a locker type??

 

For maximum cooling then the oil cooler will work better. If you do a lot of hard launches and drive it hard then I would go with the oil cooler as opposed to using the radiator to cool the transmission fluid. As far as converting from auto to man. and the driveshaft are concerned, I don't know. You'll have to measure the length of the 2 trannys or driveshafts to determine that one. As far as the 300ZX rear diff goes I do believe that they were viscous. But it's a start and you can always upgrade to a mechanical type in the future.

And I'm sorry to hear all that VTEC hype. It should be you laughing at them. Maybe you should get a sticker made that says something like "I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at your Honda"

 

I'll look into having that sticker made!!