Im planning on doing the 3.5 swap here in the near future and was wondering what I should do about my transmission aside from upgrading the clutch. Ive heard both "do" and "do not" in terms of cryo treating gears........ what are you guys thoughts? My tranny now has 100k on it and I also plan on going with either a quaife or phantom grip as well as a lightened flywheel as far as other upgrades. Thanks guys,
Grant

 

QUAIFE ATB forget about the phantom grip... only heard of problem with phantom grips..

 

Quaife makes it stronger?

 

A 6-speed tranny if you can do it. You'll love the gear ratios onto your 3.5.

-Peter-

 

^^ I didn't wanna be the one to say it...

 

I have an 02 Maxima 6-speed, just picked up my car today with the new 0 mile 04 Tranny (longer final drive, and HLSD) and new flywheel clutch... I like the ride a lot more then I did the last few months (then again my tranny was broken and my clutch was fried). i would go 6-speed if possible, and also get a new 6-speed (Quaife is a lot more then just buying an HLSD Tranny if I remember correctly.)

 

Konig Villians FTMFW Old school


A34 6MT.

 

No, but its just another upgrade im considering

 

haha, yea i love them on a 4th gen

 

The A34 6-speed FD is shorter.

 

Peter, if I remember right, didnt you try to attempt this and decide you didnt want to do it bc of the difficulty of the swap? Was it that bad or did you just change your mind for other reasons? thanks!

Grant

 

sorry for the multiple posts here........... Ive also heard using an altima 3rd gear would allow me to finish the 1/4 mile in 3rd instead of having to switch to 4th at the very end....... any thoughts?

 

I bought it only because after my 3.5 swap, I've had a worn wheel bearing problem. Thought my tranny gears were messed up, so I picked up a 6-speed tranny with clutch and flywheel as a set. Then after I fixed the wheel bearing problem, I decide to drop the tranny project because I have a 5-speed tranny with 01 altima gears in them, and these gears are tuff against my 3.5 abusive punch, so no need to do a 6-speed.

Regarding the altima gears, on my 3.5 in the qt, I trap tops 99.8mph, that's in 4th gear. There's not once I finished the qt without the 4th gear. So I hope you think twice about doing the altima gears. With a 3.5, you will not finish it off on third gear in the quarter for sure.

EDIT* I'm talking about the 01 5-speed altima gears, not 6-speeds, so dont' get me wrong. And in addition, the alty's 5-speed's 3rd gear is the same as the maxima's 5-speed 3rd gear, the only difference comes from a little offset in the final gear. And in the palm of my hand, I wouldn't even be bothered by this little offset, it really doesn't make much difference. The only advantage comes from the 1st and 2nd alty gears being a bit more aggressive, but catching it from 2nd to 3rd is a little lag pull on the 3.0L. With the torque of a 3.5, I was more than happy that it's almost un-noticeable.

-Peter-

 

4.13 is shorter then 3.81 (I am no tranny expert :-D), figured higher # = longer?

 

You could have your trans shot peended and cryoed. Ive also heard of having the gears filed so not just the edges are making contact, that way theres more contact area between the gears. I have yet to find a place to do this in CT, so im not that informed.

 

So Peter, is the actualy swap of a 6 spd into a 4th gen really much more complicated..... I mean im gonna be pulling my tranny out one way or another, either to put the 6spd in or to treat/replace the gears in my 5spd. I would really like to go with the 6spd if its a fairly easy swap. Thanks guys!

Grant

 

No, not anymore, I just don't have the need for it right now since I'm temporarily going back to 3.0. The 6-speed swap is simplified by some ring gear spacer set sold by some org members. Even Travis (turbos13hatch or something) has his own kit for this swap.
Here's what you'll need:
6-speed tranny
ring gear spacer
shifter assembly
shifter linkage cables
custom tranny mount (it's not that difficult to make this mount anymore)

After some explorations this swap has become much easier than I thought. I'd give it a shot if I have a need to do it, thus I'm planning on keeping my 6-speed tranny for now because after my 3.0 gets done, I'm gonna supercharge it within couple weeks.

-Peter-

 

wow, cool. thanks for your help! Im really going to look into this. Good luck with your SC!

Grant

 

Godfather: Why not just use the OEM mount and bracket?

 

I was waiting for FSM Mike to bring this up. LOL. I heard of OEM mount and bracket can be fitted somehow, but I really wasn't sure. But Nick down here can do this buy making a custom bracket, he's got all the tools needed, and by speaking with him, he said that's what he'd do to my swap whenever I'm up for it. But for now, Nick is backed up by 5 motors per day average, he's not going to have a gap for my car. Besides, he's getting tired of my constant motor swaps, I'm doing a motor swap every 4 months average, eversince I started to mess with the engine internals. This is my 5th motor I"m putting on the car now, and it's bone stock, hence supercharging without setting foot again for internal mods to quest for N/A power.

-Peter-

 

So you use all gears from the 01 Altima into the Maxima bell housing, right!?
As far as the lag you get from the Altima's third gear, if you would swap out the third gear from the Altima and add the Maxima 3rd gear(not sure if its possible) would that eliminate the lag?? Or is the lag due to the aggresiveness(<-- if thats a word) of 2nd gear??

 

There's no difference changing out alty's 3rd from maxima's 3rd because they are the same ratio's at 0.94 IIRC. The final drive is slightly different that makes the difference between the alty and maxima gears, but in my case, this final drive offset doesn't matter that much.

The lag I'm referring to comes from the transition from 2nd gear to 3rd gear:
The altima gears have larger 1st and 2nd gear ratios, thus their drive span is shorter, thus "more" aggressive compared to the 1st and 2nd of the maxima gears. But 3rd gear is the same ratio from both alty and max. So, from an alty, the shorter drive span means it would run out to high rpms quicker compared to the maxima gears, then transitioning to the same 3rd gear ratio, the maxima gears would sit on the 3rd find, but the alty gears would sit on the 3rd feeling a little bit lagged, it's not much but it's there. With a 3.5L it's not really noticeable because there's enough torque to overcome this "lag feel".

It's kinda hard to explain this, but I would use the multi speed bike as an analogy:

If you ride your bike with only this gear, call it 3rd gear, and it's hard to initially pedal and move because the gear is just too small at 10 teeth, so it takes a lot of your leg power to try to get it to move. But once you move it, it would cruise fine at pretty high speeds with comfortable amount of leg power supplied. This problem can be fixed by inserting two gears before you use this 3rd gear.

For a gear set called maxi, you're using 30 teeth for 1st and 20 teeth for second, and you found this to be very comfortable because you can easily pedal from at rest with this 30 teeth 1st gear, and transition to the 20 teeth second gear, and it would go on fine to 3rd gear with reasonable amount of ease. This is probably the best set for your legs.

Then you came back with the Alti set of 1st and 2nd gears, and they are 50 teeth for first and 30 teeth for second, and you noticed by running these gears, it's so easy to move from resting with this alti set's 1st gear because the teeth are so many and so advantageous to pick up from stop, the transitioning to 2nd gear does also feel easier than the maxi's 2nd gear because the 30 teeth combo is more advangeous than the 20 teeth. But you may find it a slight bit hard to transition to 3rd gear with this alti set because it's the same 3rd gear, and unless you have more leg power, you'll feel a heavier inertia to overcome to get the 3rd gear moving smoothly.

That's what I was talking about. Sorry, but I like to use dummy analogies to explain things, that's the way I learn.

-Peter-

 

NCSU_Max, in case you're wondering, Fred Allen Burge sells these spacers. His are throw-out bearing spacers, that as you can tell by the picture will attach to the throw-out bearing to allow you to use the 6-speed with the 3.0 flywheel. He sold some to me and a few others for $125, you might want to talk to him about them.






There was another member on Engine Swap Tech that made some ring gears that simulate 3.0 ring gears, and you can get them welded onto the 3.5 flywheel. Search around that forum (link in my sig).


here's the ring gear thread:
http://www.engineswaptech.com/forums/thread/1945.aspx

 

Supposedly it bolts onto an JWT/Fidanza 3.5 flywheel if one wanted to go that route.

 

Wow, thank you for your help sir! I actually have a 3.0 Aasco flywheel that Id like to use.

Grant

 

Oh, okay... I get it. Thanks Godfather.

I couldnt imagine having a more aggresive 1st and 2nd gear... my 1st and second fly like crazy!

 

It makes the diff part stronger.