Huh, really interesting stuff. Once you guys work the kinks out, its going to really scoot down the 1/4 for sure. It will be interesting to see how it performs in autox. I do like that Dave is trying to keep the manual aspect of it.

 

DB,

First of all, I want to thank you for always trying to take the evo community to new heights! Now I understand why you kept telling me to wait for a few months to get a transmission/Dogbox !

Also, could you tell me how the fun factor was affected? How different if it from a normal 5/6 speed manual when it comes to fun? Would you put this on project white if you could? I know this kit is only for the BR FF kit, but I would like to know your opinion on that since you say project white is the most fun out of an Evo that you can get.

Thanks again and good luck with this!

 

That's already understood that a complete kit is the best way to do the swap. My question was more so what parts can I sell to put towards the purchase of this kit. On another note I don't think it would really make any sense to do this swap on a car that will really only see street duty. With more power being lost through the auto, you will definitely lose some mpgs (and it will be even worse for street cars on ethanol based fuels).

 

im doing this upgrade for sure

 

You can sell your t-case. PLEASE, everyone, don't jump too fast on this. I can say that I have been waiting to release this for months, been killing me to not announce what I was up to. I honestly also thought that when I did I was going to have a thread full of links to our site to order the parts. That was my full intention and the reason you see all the parts here to show we've done and thought of all of it already.

Problem is, after the car broke I can't tell all you guys to order them up! I have two complete units here to build for guys waiting already and feel very guilty right now being so overly confident that I told them to go ahead and buy some cores and ship them to me.

So, as much as I want nothing more than to offer these packages I am going to say to hold off a bit before you start parting out your 5/6 speeds to make the swap.

 

Keep in mind my last intention is to build a drag car, I think this thing is going to absolutely ROCK in autocross too!

 

I can tell you that until you drive a high HP 4g63 with an auto in it, you have no idea how bad *** it feels. My '32 Ford with the TH400 is simply insanely fast, I mean to be honest, the car needs to be NA to be safe, it's a death trap. My RS was pulling so smooth and hard even in 3rd gear I lifted. Keep in mind I've gone 7.5's in the 1/4 mile, the car is just insanely fast and smooth. The torque converter multiplies torque, that's it's job, it was doing it's job!

Also, as far as pricing goes, sorry but as of right now I don't have a firm answer. I looked at it this way when I started, a Tilton is needed to shift these cars at WOT and 10,000 rpm, they are $5000 and last about 40 passes in a car making the power mine makes. You can have them rebuilt, a rebuild will NOT shift like a new one and can cost up to $2500. A Dogbox is $7,000. I'm watching guys like Jeff Bush make 80+ 8 second passes in a year and not bust a trans.....yep that sounds good to me.

My honest goal was to make 40 runs, pull the trans, look it over, maybe replace some frictions/steels and make another 40 runs. The biggest issue with the EVO's as we all know is making pass after pass within a tenth or two of each other. I simply want a reliable/consistent 8.90 EVO, I'm not looking to set any all time EVO records.

Let me ball park it. Once you buy the cores and misc parts needed you are going to be out about $1500 I'd guess. Then you need the shifter/base, trans built, converter, trans ECU those things will be available through us or English. Some things I am not stepping on their toes with (like a full auto shift solution/ECU) and maybe some other things that could come up. Right now the trans built/converter/shifter/base/block off plate I'm guessing will be in the $4,000 area from us, that may be a bit high even. I'm not going to sell anything until it makes some reliable fast passes in my own car though. The more parts I break in doing so is going to mean the more parts we have to make/develop and could add to the trans cost quite a bit.

My biggest hope right now is to get it to work and hold up. That may be a long way off based on yesterday.

 

very nice! wish i had the bone$ to build a car that could take advantage of this!

 

haha, yes that's why I was telling you to wait! My fun factor is 10 times with an auto as it is with a manual trans. First I am not the world's fastest shifter, second I miss a lot of gears, I also either bog a launch or spin, so NONE of that **** is fun for me. Yesterday I pulled out of the shop, shifted the car 3 times, each gear was crisp and smooth. That's fun, when I needed to down shift I pulled it back a gear, fun again.

The Project White question, HELL YES I'd put this trans in that car. My son was asking me tonight what I thought about putting a Red on my car to drop the power down and then work slowly into the trans. I told him the car would be stupid on a Red and maybe that will be something I have to do. If that happens we would probably build a header to fit the red in it's normal facing position and make it fit. I really don't want to go with less power though.

 

You could sell (not advising you do so at all) your trans, transfer case, shifter and cables. Beyond that I am not giving out the rest of the parts you can sell/delete. That much information doesn't need to make it out publically.

Also keep in mind, English Racing has a completely different solution for the trans and you do NOT need a FF kit to run their auto set up. We will NOT be offering that type of kit. We may make completely new headers but will NOT step on their toes on the stuff they have already built, don't even ask us.

The MPG will be less with the auto. My car sees more street than track. The improved gear ratio will help most EVO guys and should make cruise RPM LESS than an EVO with a 5 speed. Thinking of that the fuel mileage may not be so effected.

 

DB,

One more Q! Now that you are saying that you are having problems with too much torque and the engine reving too high, would you consider going back to a 2.0LR? Maybe it would be a more balanced setup and could take more advantage of this transmission. Then again, I'm just taking a wild guess lol!

 

I think at this point I've proven this 2.3 RPM engine will handle at least some very high RPM, it's been over 9500 rpm quite a few times now. The problem isn't the RPM, the problem is either tire spin or could possibly be slippage in the trans/converter, we will have to work more to find that out.

 

holy crap

 

I have had the opportunity to see the car throughout the swap and let me tell you it looks OEM. I was amazed at how well everything fit/looked. David you have busted your butt off working on this project and it shows!

The manual shifter is simply badass and looks great! This is going to change everything and new records will be broken soon enough.

I'm sure you guys will get everything straightened out. I wanna go drive it now

 

Great write up. Always enjoy reading your builds or rants. Wish you luck with this project so you can finally sit in the driver seat and do it yourself.