Worth It Or Not

[OneHotLexus]

My car was leaking oil, so a mechanic friend of mine looked at it and said that I needed a new rear main oil seal. Upon hearing this I freaked out because I knew that in order to get to this seal, the tranny would have to come out = Lexus dealer would charge me an arm and a leg to do this. But luckily I found someone who will do it for a lot cheaper.

Anyway, I was thinking that since they were going to pull my transmition anyway- I might go ahead and put the SC300 5pd tranny or the SupraTT 6spd. tranny in. The mechanic told me that it would'nt be worth it, a clutch kit alone would cost around $1000. So here's my questions:

(1) Would it be worth it to switch trannys, or is it going to be more expensive and entail more work than having a manual is worth?

(2) Would it be more difficult to put the SupraTT tranny in vs. the SC300 tranny?- Which would be better?

Any input is appreciated! Thanks!

[jzz30]

is it worth it to you? the clutch kit is a small part of it. you need clutch pedal and master cylinder and all of that. you need a manual trans computer (another 1000 if you buy from the dealer) if you go 5 speed you can go and buy the factory drive shaft (it might be the same) or if its 6speed you need a custom one. if i were going this far i would do a swap with the engine and manual trans with it.

[AWJ]

Going from auto to manual is no small feat. A w58 is going to be much cheaper than a getrag and easier. You will pay dearly for the labor alone.

[OneHotLexus]

I've found some W58 5spd. trannys on ebay (i'm going to check out other places also) for $2000. A clutch kit for $109 (which seems low). How much is everything esle going to cost? Labor charges are not a problem- I have soemone who would do it for me. Any estimates on the cost?

[AWJ]

Labor is anywhere from 60$ to 90$ an hour typically. You will need the clutch pedal - I'd recommend the smaller brake pedal that typically comes with most manual cars. I had a manual tranny conversion on a different car and the automatic brake pedal was left on - it was hard to avoid hitting the brake pedal when clutching - but that could be handy too for some applications. You will need the cylinder, the tranny cooler blocked off, the custom housing adapter (I posted a thread on where to locate that a couple weeks ago) and other adapting equipment. I would geustimate another 1000$ to 2000$ for those parts depending on where and how you get them. You will also need to get a signal to fool the ecu. I have heard of people using a sensor to read off of the second gear switch that fools the computer into thinking it is auto. But I have no idea how that works. Figure another 1,000$ for that set-up and finding someone skilled enough to do it. Could be done for maybe 4g's if labor is free and maybe less (maybe more) for a used w58 or 154 (you might want to try the 154 - I've heard it is a little stronger.)

[Calvin L]

so BASICALLY, you need to know someone, that knows someone, that knows someone, that knows someone to pull this off :D

if you suscribe to turbo magazine, they're doing a sc300 project and putting a 2jzgte/6spd getrag tranny for way less than the prize of the Supra turbo. i think they found their getrag for 1800(including the trade in price of a 5spd manual transmission)

[AWJ]

I might try to get a copy of that issue. These magazines have sick connections though, all through advertising. One would be hard pressed I think to duplicate that - but wait till you guys see what I've got up my sleeve. I don't want to spoil anything by spilling the beans too soon, but oh man......

[jzz30]

the reason why the guy said 1000 for clutch is because you also need the fly wheel and other things to go with it. you said $109 thats just the clutch. you have to remember that there are so many little things that have to be considered and it will come as a surprise. so keep you eyes open ;)