Hey Everyone new to the forum and had a project I'd like to hear thoughts on. I'm interested in possibly swapping the manual transmission from and r33 manual trans into the g37 to keep it awd. I'd be using the r33 trans with a vq bellhousing grafted to it. What are your thoughts? Thanks

 

That's cool bro

 

Thanks, I'm looking fto hear issues that will come up that I might have overlooked. There would be alot of fab work required but I believe I can still get it done for cheaper than the cost of upgrading the auto to handle FI. I've seen a similar build on a 350z utilizing the same trans setup, and several g35x parts to keep the awd.

 

350z wasnt a awd trans doing auto to manual is easier than what you're trying to do which will be expensive if you get it to work.

 

I know the topics been discussed before, but I’ve been interested in this for a long time. No money, so can’t act on it, but once I have some...

My original thought was the trans from the Nissan Xterra, but IIRC the bellhousing is different. Bolt holes or something. I had then thought of throwing a piggyback transfer case on the 6MT. Ya right...

ive got ideas, sadly they probably aren’t good enough.

 

I believe the xterra trans has a different bellhousing, I was going to use the transfer case from the r33 and lengthen or shorten the driveshafts accordingly. Conveniently the r33 trans also has the same spline as the cd009 manual trans from the g37, So I just need to be right on the location for mounting the bellhousing and I can use the clutch and stuff from the manual g37. Then I figure I can swap ecu from a manual g37 and all the interior pieces and clutch pedal assembly and that would mostly cover the conversion

 

The question you must answer yourself is, just how important is that? From a logistics standpoint, you will be spending at least $10,000 with parts and labor, and thats if you're lucky. The G37 X was never meant to have a manual. There are bigger names that have done swaps in the Q60 coupes (Non v36) with lots of funding anythings possible. If I were you, I would focus on forging your automatic, much cheaper, and a lot faster than doing a manual swap. If you really have the small fortune to spend and want to make your car slower, cheers I'll drink to that!

 

I'm not too concerned about the labour as it would mostly be me and a buddy doing the work, I have access to the equipment I need. Yes the manual would be slower but I'm not building it for just drag racing, a manual awd g37 with torque split controller to go from awd to rwd and everything in between would be alot funner than auto

 

One thing I hadn’t thought of about the ECU is how will AWD continue to work? Is it a separate unit? Reason I say this is because I had a thought of taking the signal going to it from the AWD computer, and putting it on a three phase switch. Basically, if I want the transfer case open (no drive) flip switch to ground. Let the car do it’s thing, flip it to a signal wire coming from the computer. Always lock (like snow mode but no throttle response cuts) flip to 12V power. This would be a good workaround, but the full-time stuff might not work with a manual trans ECU

 

I think the awd is controlled by the ecu but won't actually engage awd until it senses a difference in the wheel speed sensors from the front to back. So you could possibly tie into a wheel speed sensor to trick it into thinking its always loosing traction and keep awd engaged. I'm hoping I can work around that by using the center diff controller. So I'd have to manually change it to awd or rwd using the controller instead of it coming on automatically. Using the manual ecu it will still sense that I'm loosing traction but wouldnt be able to tell the transfer case to activate awd.

 

That’s exactly what I’m thinking about! I haven’t had the chance to pick around much just yet, but in theory I should be able to tap/cut the wire to the transfer case to get a switch on it for manual control.

 

I wonder if anyone has manual swap an R35?