Just wanted to share a few interesting details of my full Gen 5.5 swap. In searching this site for answers, I found alot of questions unanswered, and some wrong answers. I am almost done with my swap, and I'd like to share the direction I took my swap, which is decidely different than what Jime and Eng92 have done. I guess all 3 of us "Full Monty" swappers have approached the swap in different ways, which is a good thing!

First off, I keep seeing people suggesting to seperate the motor from trans when pulling the drivetrain. Save yourself the hassle, pull the drivetrain in one piece. Saves time and hassle, and Nissan wouldn't have it any other way.


I am doing the 5.5 Gen AT swap also, the entire car is running 5.5 Gen hardware now.


The bonus of a 5.5 Gen swap from an I35 is the dual electronic motor mounts.


YES! The NATS ign sw assembly CAN fit on the A32 column. Some minor Dremel work, and it bolts right up (I mean the entire ign sw assembly, I needed a new one anyway). In the background, I35 EL cluster.


General view of the NATS Ign SW assembly. Yup it bolts up.

 

General view of area behind stereo. You can see I have used Delphi brand GT 150 Series automotive sealed connectors for my swap. These connectors are very cheap, high quality and made in USA, no Chinese made crap here. You can get them from Mouser.com


A33B TCM. Yup, all Gen 5.5 hardware here.


A33B ECU general view.


DBW Gas Pedal assy. It bolted right up. Exact same style as A32 stuff, just uses a potentiometer instead of cable.

Overall, I am surprised at how much the A32 and A33B platforms are EXACTLY the same. As far as bolting things up, I have not needed to do much modifying. Pretty much I guess Nissan just did "cut and paste" on their CAD design of the A33 series, so most work is involved in the wiring area.

 

good info, glad to see you have the I35 cluster in there, it is much better looking than the maxima cluster. Can't wait till I eventually de-hybridize my swap, so please keeop the info coming.

I still don't fully understand why people put there motors in from the top, do it from the bottom.......Nissan wouldn't have it any other way.

 

Wait a dawg gon second............. YOU LEFT THE STOCK MANI's AND PRE-CATS ON THAT MOTOR!?!?!?!?????????????

 

No way man. I used the VQ30 mani's and a Warpspeed Y-Pipe. I'll be using SIMS for the 2 extra O2 sensors.

BTW, you are exactly right, I should have dropped the motor out the bottom, but I didn't have the equipment here to do it the "right way". Just tilt the crap out of the drivetrain and it'll pop out nicely thru the top.

 

Awesome. I hope to see more great pics of the progress.

 

considering the crazy angle you'd have to put the engine at with the tranny attached, I'd much rather just take the tranny off while it's inside the car. Automatic, though, I would definitely take them both out at once. 5spds are light and 10 times easier to remove.

 

wow, pretty nice swap you got going there

 

Why are you staying auto if you don't mind me asking?

 

Hey i am currently doing the exact same swap, but i the guy doing the electricals came across a few problems. we gettin power to the I35 cluster, but things like fuel guage and check light(service engine soon) not coming on, but we gettin battery, abs, have the pedal wired in and so on..

jus contacted him an he said it seems the nats is what messing it up(don't know if it's true) as i using the nats and key from the I35 for the initial start...

is there anything else he should check u think??


and yes to take it out take it out from on top, to out in put in from bottom.... but a real pain if u don't have the proper tools : (

 

Fuel gauge: remember, the fuel gauge wiring has 2 paths from the same sender unit. The ECM and cluster use the same wire for fuel gauge. He may have only hooked the "fuel gauge" wire to the ECM, don't forget to send it to the cluster also.

Sorry, you'd have to be more specific, I would guess that while the wiring isn't totally complete you would get some warning lights.

The NATS only has 1 wire connecting to the ECM, make sure the other 4 go to the correct places. Make sure the BAT and IGN are not swapped, and make sure the grounds are good.

 

Lookin' good.

 

how much was all the hardware, if you dont mind me asking?

 

I was just looking thru my FSM. Have your mechanic triple check all wiring. For example, if you use the EL section of the FSM, it only shows the fuel sender going to the fuel gauge in the cluster. Go to EC and check the Fuel Gauge schematic and magically the ECU coonection shares that signal. Weird, huh? How about the PRNDL switch? In EL it only shows the signals going to the cluster. In AT, it shows the SAME connections only going to the TCM only. My point, BE VERY CAREFUL! A signal may be shared by more than one item.

 

Well, I have lots going on here. I had to buy tools, I bought the leather interior from the I35, etc. But, for only the swap? About $2000 total for the AT, Engine, Main Harness, NATS Key, Cluster, all sensors, MAF, Warpspeed Y Pipe. The drivetrain only has 9800 miles on it BTW. Kinda steep overall, but I feel it's all worth it.

The leather set me back $400 and the tools set me back another $200. I wouldn't do this unless the Maxima was in anything less than minty condition.

 

You kinda ask like it is defacto that every performance/modder guy wants an MT. Oddly, yes I prefer AT. My drive to and from work is at times terrible (40 miles each way) and I also like the idea of making things fast when it is against convention (fast AT car instead of fast MT car).

Oh and when I drag race a stick I get so pumped on adrenaline that I eventually miss shifts/grind/overrev. I drive stick pretty good until I get into a race.

BTW, I swapped my 1995 Legend from AT to MT back when no one else did and everyone thought it was impossible. But now that I am older, AT for me.

 

Nice! And local! When you say it mostly plugs into place, that meant you basicly tore out the 4 gen ecu, ign,guage, engine harness and replaced them with the I35 units? There's not intersplicing of 4gen/I35 wiring?

 

There are some taps and/or interceptions that need to be made into the A32 main and engine room harnesses.

 

There is alot of splices to the A32 harness. ALOT, trust me.

 

Are you using the A34 5AT?

 

Nice work bro, I would definitely love to see this beast when it's up and running...

I do have to point out teh ironing:

 

No, I wish. This car is an A33B swap. 4AT

 

Your sig states 2004 AT.

 

04 I35 = A33

 

Ahhhh. I see what you did there.

 

in a less civilized area of the forum you may have needed a flame suit for that one.

 

keep up the good work

 

.. i dont know its just needs time... hehe.. but wow.. this is fantastic.. ive bee thinking about the ingition on my car. and this is proving to be excellent source of info.. def. added this to my bookmark list

 

And software.

 

Funny u should mention that, that doesn't work also... even though when he put it in reverse the reverse sensors go off(car came with it)

I am attemptimg to use back the I35 gated gear chift, but it has more connections than the one presently in the car so we left it out for now till the more important things get working...

thanks for the advice, will update as i get it..

 

Same here for my cefiro..... ALOT even though it's an A33(B) as u guys put it....

 

very good work....will there be a swap write up coming soon?

 

Directed to me or Jeff?

 

Very good info here. I'm very interested in the wiring harness. Key wires that need to be spliced what type of connections were used? And any challenges you faced that required a little fabrication or modification.

 

Good work.. If I had to do a 3.5 swap again this would be the route... FULL.

 

The Gen 5.5 shifter has a different shift interlock mechanism. BTW, you can use the Gen 4 shifter, the O/D switch is the same function as "3" on the Gen 5.5 assembly.

 

 

how are you going to fill in the gap around the guage cluster? congrats on the install

 

I will use the stock cluster surround. I still need to tidy up a bit of loose ends on the car, as it is it runs but I can't drive it until I get the rest of my parts.

 

now thats a unique setup