Wow... been awhile since I've posted.

It is now time to retire the good ol VQ30 in favor of the ever-popular 35. I've read every post I could get via search. I was greatly surprised at how much progress you nuts have made since the last time I pulled up the org.

I have firmly decided on doing a full swap with 5.5G ECU. I'm much more of a wiring oriented person than a hybrid build person... I've fully rewired 2 RB25 swaps as well as 6 other intensive projects of my own insane compulsion, so I'm up to the hassle as long as the end result is pristine. I stripped all the excess wiring out of the Max a couple years ago anyway. It's cathartic.

My questions are thus: To my knowledge only one person has done the full swap with ECU, correct? There is also only one person (though it kinda seemed like they were blowing smoke) who has done a full swap with the 5.5G 6 speed. Is vsamoylov it? Forgive me if you were truthful.

My engine has a little over 130K and the tranny (swapped in) has about 160K. Both are showing their age. I do not want to rebuld my tranny, nor do I want to invest in another I30 tranny if the 6 speed is an option. Yes, I know there is a parasitic power loss, but I'm not worrried about my final power, as I'm not stopping with a stock 35.

Has anyone researched this or performed any test fits? Are shaft lenghts and alignment an issue? If I can get a clip and swap it, I'd very much like to know before I start shopping. I'd prefer to deal with knowledge in lieu of speculation if you guys can help me out.

 

vsamoylov has a 3.5 in his car but his brother (a mechanic I believe) did the swap for him, that's why questions to him get either weird/vague answers, or ignored entirely.

There are a few guys with the 6spd in their car and all I have heard from them is it is not worth the effort. You have to change from rod linkage to cable linkage, etc. All it really gains you is an extra gear for highway cruising and a sense of accomplishment, i.e. not very much. Shadow and Tillys99 have done that swap, but I do not believe either car had a 3.5L in it.

 

Just use a 5-speed. 6-speed are cable driven, 5-speed is rod driven (a 1-inch thick rod I might add) so when you jam it into gear, it feels much more precise and solid (especially with an STS). Not to mention, parasitic loss is probably worse than you think, the 5-speed, according to SR20DEN, has only 5 sets of constantly meshing gears, while the 6-speed has 8 (don't ask). Halfshaft lengths is a non-issue though.

Not to mention, the 5-speed has an 18 lbs flywheel, vs 26 lbs for the 6-speed. This, combined with a cable driven TB, does make low end jerky and ultra responsive, which I love, but it does sometimes make me look like a novice manual driver (which I am, anyway... this is my first manual car), and sometimes the tires chirp unintentially. Other people might find this annoying.

As for doing a FULL swap... I don't recommend it, the new Ultimate E-manage will almost certainly provide better tuning (both ignition timing and A/F) than the stock 02 ecu would, for far less wiring hassle, and at the end of the day, even when factoring in the price of the E-U, it's cheaper, and more powerfull.

It's not a very complicated swap once you get going, but I've tried the "full ECU/Wiring" way, and I gave up, and lost money. As I said, at the end of the day, there's not much of a reason to go with the 02 ECU if you get the EU, unless you're concerned about loss of VTC, which honestly, is pretty pointless when you have all that low end torque. I don't even downshift for highway passing.

I refused to listen to Tilley and others at first when they told me to just do it without the 02 ECU, and I wish I had. I hope this prevents others from doing the same.

 

If you want the 6th gear for highway cruising, you might want to get a 99 altima 5spd tranny and swap out the guts of it into the casing/bellhousing of the maxima's. It's the exact same transmission, just different ratios. The 5th gear and final drive of the 99 altima almost make it like the 6speed.