A big part of my long term project is an automatic to manual swap, and a donor candidate just appeared at a local wrecker. I plan to pay a visit this weekend to pull the necessary components. My car is an '05, and the donor is an '06.
I will be getting the gearbox, flywheel (clutch and pressure plate will be replaced), shifter, linkage, clutch pedal assembly, master cylinder and ECU. Here are my first two questions for anyone that has done this:

1.) I am assuming that the ECU swap is necessary for this conversion - will I also need part or all of the harness from the donor car?

2.) Could swapping the ECU cause problems with emissions testing later on? I realize this question might be state specific, but I'm more concerned about VIN mismatch. The majority of my experience is with older cars,
so I am not yet very familiar with electronic engine controls. My assumption is that it shouldn't be an issue since the ECU is from the same make and model and should fall under the right to repair.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

_____

 

there is some wiring differences between 05 and 06 but I can't remember what wires specifically are different. The only connector on the trans is the reverse light switch. Im scanning the manual and it looks like the auto trans has one fat plug with all the wires. hmm

I think your best bet would be to get an 05 manual computer and then run a wire for reverse. I don't know if any of the speed sensors affect anything else. Do you have the manual? I have the 06 one. It covers everything

 

Thanks for the info. I've got the '06 manual but nothing to compare it with against an '05 without pulling out the ECU from my car. From a cursory search it does appear that there were some not-insignificant changes made to the '06 wiring, so I'm just going to grab an '05 manual trans ECU elsewhere. It also appears that the VIN can be re-flashed to these, so this will be a much easier route than trying to get one from an '06 working.

 

Alright, I got the parts today! The entire pick-a-part yard extraction took from around 8:30 this morning until 1:00 this afternoon in unseasonably warm Midwest weather. The fallen soldier that gave up it's gearbox was actually in pretty decent condition (save for some rotted rocker panels) which made me a little sad. Oh, well. I can't post pics yet, but I'm sure y'all already know what greasy, oxidized parts look like. The gearbox spins freely through all the gears, so hopefully it's viable and won't require extensive part replacement aside from bearings, synchros, seals and whatnot. I won't have a chance to break it down to confirm for at least a few weeks. I also obtained the shifter, shifter linkage, clutch pedal, clutch cylinders and all hydraulic lines. The whole removal process was a great preview of what I'll be dealing with too, and I was happy to learn that it's pretty straightforward except for a couple of things that were devised by a sadistic engineer sent straight from hell. The first is the rear transmission mount which was absolutely horrendous to deal with but ultimately workable. The second and clearly most daunting issue was removing the clutch cylinder from behind the ABS unit. I ended up removing the mounts for the ABS and bending all of it's plumbing away from the firewall to get at the cylinder. I didn't put kinks in any of the lines, and the unit could probably be safely returned to position, but I'm not comfortable with going that route. I'm going to have to plan at least an additional day to remove the unit in my own car when that time comes. Anyway, apologies for the rambling post with scant useful info. I'm just excited about this and wanted to share.

 

Nice! How rusty was everything? Any bolts break lol

Are you gonna put a LSD in it? Did you see that other post about swapping gears? Maybe that was your thread too LOL. When you rebuild it you definitely need to take pics!

I wanted to take mine apart and replace everything but the lsd I ordered fell thru cause of covid so I decided to not open my transmission

 

A couple of bolts holding the radiator support snapped off, but everything else came out pretty easily. The condition of the rocker panels concerned me a bit about my own car though. They seem like the Achilles heel for rust on these cars, so I'll be taking the plastic skirts off of mine to check out how they look pretty soon.

I plan on a mild, naturally aspirated build (high comp pistons, forged rods, stock cams, intake, header and cat-back), so a stronger clutch will definitely be in the works. I've been doing a little research into limited slip diffs but don't have enough info to make a decision yet. This is going to be a daily driver, so I want it to be reasonably manageable on the road. I'd love to hear about people's experiences in this regard, because my own experience with LSDs has been only with rear wheel drive.

 

An NA build would be very cool. I remember seeing like 12:1 or 14:1 Carrillo pistons on eBay months ago for like $300 crazy cheap but they're long gone now. Those cheap "maxspeeding" rods from eBay are working good for me. I wouldn't drop the grand for the molnar(sp?) ones.

Thanks good about the rust though. I've had a bunch of stuff break on mine. My rockers are getting bad too id like to take the skirts off but I'm afraid that's something that will break too LOL

 

Well, my head gasket just bit the dust over the weekend so I went and dropped some coin on a replacement engine at the local wreckers. By a crazy stroke of luck they just happened to have a complete long block with 83K on the clock. I'm going to pick it up Saturday.

This got me thinking about just going ahead with the five speed swap while I have everything apart. I haven't torn down the gearbox, so I'm not sure if it's fully functional. It does move through all the gears smoothly when spinning it by hand. I might just take a gamble on bolting it right in, but I'm not sure yet. My questions are such:

1.) Do you have any preferred clutch? Since the eventual build will be NA, I don't see a need for anything above stage 1, but I could use some brand recommendations.

2.) Any specific engine and transmission mount recommendations, or will any of what's available through local parts stores suffice? I'm mainly concerned about longevity.

 

A grip of goodies arrived today.




The annoying thing is that all this stuff was just sitting on my front porch while I was at work. Thankfully I have a neighbor that keeps an eye on things who called to let me know it was there.
I'm really leaning toward doing the five speed swap this weekend when I pull the engine. I just need to get some miscellaneous odds and ends beforehand. I hope everyone that's active on this forum is ready,
because I will have a ton of mostly stupid questions.

I may as well add a photo of the replacement lump that I picked up last weekend. Here it is after a nice sudsy bath: