yeah i know its a bitch to do, been searching around. the auto was good as a DD but im getting more serious with the FD with mods and i want to track it. would just like some feedback from members who have done the swap themselves or owners who have gotten the swap done. average pricing in parts (labor if you didn't do it yourself). i was quoted $2000-$2500 (labor included). is there such thing as a true 5spd swap like it came that way from the factory?

 

a really good friend of mine did it and i watched her go through the process. i've heard $2500 being quoted a lot but it ended up being quite a bit more. More like $3.5k. We're in CA, though, so I don't know if things are just more expensive out here. BTW, $3.5k was without swapping out the auto harness which I'm told adds a considerable expense. It's completely worth it, though, imho.

Make sure you change the differential too. The 4.1 manual and 3.9 auto are like night and day.

 

see i never knew about the differential, im pretty sure that's not even included in the quote i got... i knew it would be more than that, but i think the 5spd harness is included, im pretty sure i have to get a new instrument cluster as well?

 

generally the way to go. my friend had problems with the manual ecu, however, and ended up keeping her auto ecu in. if u do that, u can actually keep the same speedo. i didn't see much drawback with that setup.

definitely get the 4.1 diff tho. that's a must

 

for your quote u got a good price. if its a complete conversion with cluster and everything. its pretty easy to do by yourself, if you're really serious about tracking you shouldn't trust others to your car anyways, its your butt on the line.

again its not really that hard. just get the parts, if you searched you should already know the parts needed.

 

ok so i've decided i'm gonna go through with the swap, the parts included are transmission, drive shaft, starter, clutch flywheel, all hydralics, pedals, interior trim, five speed computor and wiring modification. what else am i missing? i know i still need a 4.1 manual differential but other than that i can't really think of anything else, guys?

 

so your friend kept the auto speedo and used the 5spd ecu and ended up switching back to the auto ecu? why did she do that? what kind of problems did she come to?

 

I've done a 3 auto -> 5spd swaps, so far here are the differences between the two i've ran across:

• Transimssion
• Driveshafts (bolt pattern and length)
• Cluster
• Computer
• Wiring (emissions harness and dash harness - clutch pedal switch - possible another harness...)
• Differential (not only ratio, length...)
• Rear Iron on engine (bolt pattern for bellhousing)
• Pedals (but use same mounting)
• Starters

you can get away with using the auto diff (have to modify driveshaft), auto ecu (there it a little black box behind the ecu in the kick panel...i would back fire when i shut off the car until i removed that...), auto wiring, auto tach, and auto rear iron, and auto diff...

the auto diff will get you lower RPMs of course, but if you are looking for tracking the car, go with the 4.1 manual diff (or JDM 4.3??). The flange the driveshaft bolts to on the manual diff is about 1'' longer than that of the auto, so the driveshaft is shorter. the bolt pattern for for the auto is larger for the driveshaft to diff.

 

wow thanks a bunch that's very useful info. yeah i won't be keeping anything auto in my car for the swap i want a complete 5spd swap, from what i know the guy who is doing it for me has a complete JDM parts car with a blown engine so we will be taking all the 5spd parts from it (my car is JDM as well), so hopefully it will be a true complete 5spd swap, i will ask him about the 4.3 diff tho he didn't mention that.

 

the 5 spd one didn't work. never figured it out but she got it online used. it might have just been broken in the first place. it might have not have been a california ecu. the auto worked fine though in the end and was great b/c she didn't know she needed a new speedo.

sounds like you're getting a great deal.

as for other parts, i've got a couple saved threads on my comp at home. i'll post links when i get off work. the most famous one is by ejmack who was one of the first to do it himself. it was a pretty complete list so try doing a search for his posts

oh and if u can't find a used 4.1 and have to buy a new diff, like lt1 said, try to get the jdm 4.3

 

This link should provide some information.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=ejmack

 

I'm not entirely sure on the 4.3 diffs, I've heard of them but do not know what they came in, or if they are just after market ratios you can get.

 

I do know you have a higher top speed with the auto tranny...

 

stock gears for the auto are 3.9 . 4.3 gears are an upgrade and the man trans cars came with 4.1 gears. if your going to go with a single turbo later on keep the stock auto gears 3.9 for more top speed.

Jeff