Be straight with me re: auto --> manual swap

[Gibson]

I tried searching this but couldn't find too much...apologies if I'm annoying anyone for asking this question.

There are a few automatic Skylines I'm interested in, but I know eventually I'd need to do a manual swap so I could really fall in love with the car.

I need to know realistically how do-able this is, and a rough price. I don't have the space, time or knowledge to do this, so I would need somebody else to do it for me but how hard would it be to get the parts and get everything into the car? How many hours?

I really want to be get back into the Skyline game (used to have a '92 four-door) and I wanna do it properly with a nice, low mileage clean example. Just wondering about the automatic.

Thanks in advance!

[Supraclean]

Save yourself the $$ and effort and buy a manual already. Lots of skylines on here or on Kijiji.

[MKIV]

Exactly what Supraclean said. If the car's market was slightly more hard to come across then I'd say go for it, but you can find tons of manual Skylines at good prices these days. The automatic's aren't worth it.

[cschepp]

Easier for his rb25 trans to line up if he's got an auto. It will bolt right up

[Skym]

Nothing wrong with the auto's, just they are modded at factory to be smooth with gear changes, etc. Add valve body upgrade, auto trans oilcooler, higher stall torque convertor, etc and they become alot more fun to drive and quicker on 1/4 mile with same amount of hp from engine.

It's alot easier to by a manual car or at least a halfcut that has all the manual parts for manual conversion.

For manual conversion -

Manual flywheel, bolts
Upgraded single plate clutch, bolts
Manual spigot bush to replace auto spigot bush (buy from Nissan dealership parts department)
Clutch pedal (reinforce it by adding weld on the joints that were tack? welded at factory)
Manual brake pedal (or cut the auto brake pedal so it's smaller)
Clutch slave cylinder, clutch master cylinder + I think hose joins them together (can buy a braided hose version from Nismo) + mounting bolts, etc
Gear stick + gear knob
Rubber boot surround for gearstick + factory leather boot surround cover
Manual dash surround (to remove the 1,2,D,R, etc selector part under speedo)
S13? Silvia / 240sx manual crossmember
RB20DET gearbox + bolts to mount gearbox
Gearbox fluid
Manual driveshaft (or at least the front half of driveshaft as the rear part on manual and auto driveshaft's is the same)

With ECU, wiring, etc -

Manual ECU (kick down tables, tune is slightly different between auto, manual ECU's)
Disable inhibitor switch next to fuse box in engine bay (stops auto starting in D,1,2, etc) by I think was bridging a few plugs with a piece of wire.
Reset base ignition timing (CAS on front of engine) to 15 degrees BTDC at 650rpm (manual ECU) vs 20 degress BTDC (auto ECU) at 650rpm.
Rewire reverse light's.
Remove autotrans ECU behind driver side kick panel (same place as where engine ECU is located, but on drivers side of car), earth wiring (consult auto electrician to do it properly) to turn off autotrans ECU communication error code on auto engine ECU.

Can install Nistune inside auto engine ECU (so ECU can be retuned via consult / diagnostic plug like most new cars) and copy the manual engine ECU kick down tables, etc to auto engine ECU.

All the holes should be marked on firewall for clutch master, slave, etc, just not drilled out.

[Daryl @ RightDrive]

I did an auto-manual swap in my Accord years ago (threw in an H22A and Prelude 5 speed with factory LSD), and while the conversion wasn't hard to do labour wise, it was tough to get all the parts together.
For that conversion I needed:
- all pedals
- shifter
- shifter linkage
- transmission
- transmisson mounts
- clutch lines
- cylinders
- manual ECU

and probably a bunch of smaller things I'm forgetting, but that was the main stuff.

[cschepp]

Ya but at this point Daryl the way that people part they're cars out he will have quite a bit to choose from.

Besides if it was me I would take that car to the track and do some drag runs with it. Those can handle some rediculous launches and could take some 7k launches

[BrianV8]

Mine was converted in japan. They left the auto ecu in it, I tried a manual ecu. I didn't find any difference what so ever.

[Gibson]

Yikes, that parts list is intimidating. No thanks! I think I knew in my head that it was a bad idea to try and do a conversion, but I needed people to tell me haha. Thanks everyone! It's getting harder to track down low mileage Skylines, but if anyone has a lead on a clean four-door R32 or R33 I'd be interested.

[BrianV8]

Its not toooo too bad, I converted a 96 accord to 5 speed, Only took a weekend to do. Just a lot of little tid bit parts. Hole project with transmission should cost you between 600-800 bucks with transmission depending what kind of prices you can get. And with all the part outs right now, everything should be easy to find.