Brendan's STi 6MT Swap

Finished the adjuster for the shifter. I made it with two locations to move the shifter rearwards. Easy to adjust with the assembly in the car as well. Hopefully it works out.

I also received my control arms and stuff today.

Sub'd as I'll be doing some of these mods eventually

I don't want to ask a stupid question but did the spec B use the same motor with turbo and intercooler location as the 5th gen? Since that used the STi trans would referencing that car be helpful???

 

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No unfortunately it did not. The fifth gens are the only cars that use the engine mounts like we have.

5th gens = redheadded stepchild.

it'll be interesting to see what the 2015+ WRX crowd does for trans upgrades

it'll be interesting to see what the 2015+ WRX crowd does for trans upgrades

 

Best to ask Jenner

it'll be interesting to see what the 2015+ WRX crowd does for trans upgrades

Fredrick did an STi 6 speed swap

 

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it'll be interesting to see what the 2015+ WRX crowd does for trans upgrades

 

Fredrick did an STi 6 speed swap

 

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And I have driven it. Sublime transmission BTW and the shorter gearing really brightens up the car around town.

 

The STi 6MT is direct bolt in from what I understand. The tranny, rear diff and driveshaft are all that is necessary, and then the shifter and DCCD bits. No futzing with bellhousing motor mounts like we have to do.

The wrx swap is just like it's always been. Parts and wiring, nothing much like on the 5th gen.

 

 

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I got the Cobb shifter installed last night. Took a while, but hopefully it will work out good.

thats sorta how I wake up in the morning...

So I had hoped to get the transmission all the way in today, but due to my children driving me freaking batty I was unable to accomplish this. Currently the transmission is mated up to the engine but I still have about another .5" to go before all is settled. I currently have the motor and engine both on floor jacks waiting until tomorrow. I eventually just got too tired to deal with it. I got the new clutch installed, axle and tailshaft seals installed, new trans mount installed, and the transmission almost in, so not a bad day. There is a pic below of our clutch disc(an act one) and the STI disc(also act). The STI disc is a bit bigger, but overall is built much more strong. You can see that the springs on the STI unit are much more robust than the others are.

Edited March 5, 2017 by BBPeik

So I took another stab at it today. Proof positive that sometimes you need to just walk away. Literally in five minutes I had it all lined up perfect and the trans and engine just fell right into place. So both are connected, I am hoping permanently. I also installed the new slave cylinder. Our stock hose for the slave will, with a little bending, fit right on the STI slave. There is a picture of it hooked up below. I still need to bleed it though. Starter and the new mounts are all installed. The trans mount assembly is all on as well. I am still not sure if the shift assembly will work or not. I may need to go to a machine shop and have them do a little modding to the cobb unit so that it will all work with our console. I must say though that the shifts are really tight and short( insert sex joke here)and I am real excited to see how it feels actually driving it. That is all for this weekend as I wisely decided to call it a day before I screwed something up. Stay tuned for more.

That's awesome! It's incredible to see everything lined up and ready to go. Almost stock looking.

With the help of my oldest daughter I just finished bleeding the clutch. All seems to function well. Definitely has a different feel than our clutch. Seems quite a bit shorter, not too much more stiff though. I checked to ensure that the slave is fully extending and it is, so the clutch push must just be shorter than I had before. I will bleed it again in a few days in case some air works its way around in there. Overall though another successful STI part that will work for us, so with that I am pleased.

Fred's clutch was pretty short in the engagement, I almost stalled it a few times but got better after about 30 shifts. You could definitely feel the grab and release better than out stock clutch.

Nice. That is what I was suspecting, but it is real nice to hear actual real world experience.

Thanks a bunch

Only thing about this clutch is when you start moving from a stop, it gets easy to burn it. Gotta watch the revs so you don't slip it. It is not as forgiving as the factory clutch.

 

Organic clutch is great...just watch your starts. Otherwise, it grabs with a "kung fu grip"

I was running an Act before and it was the same way. Hopefully this one will feel the same. Shorter but hopefully similar. Thanks for the heads up.

SO I just spent a while messing with the shifter. Before it was not centered and over to the left way too much. So I tweaked all the linkage and have it centered now. You may recall that it was too far forward as well and I mad it adjustable to fix that issue. So if I put the shift adjustment where it needs to be so that it is far enough back, the ball for the shifter is at too steep an angle to reach the rear gears. So it looks like I will need to modify the ball angle this weekend to get it all centered correctly. I do love modding cars, but funky things like this tend to drive me batty.

Wouldn't it just be as simple as lengthening or shortening both arms of the linkage the same amount?

Sort of, but not quite. The shift mech sits at a different angle in our cars. SO not only do I need to add a remove some metal I need to change the pivot angles as well. The biggest problem is that given the pivot ball is like 5" below the console the amount I have to move things is really small. From the measurements I took last night I need it to move rear 1/4" and twist just a bit as well.

Well I spent a couple hours on the shift mech tonight. I added about 3/4 of an inch in length to the main arm. I am going to have a machine shop make the adjustable arm I created in that exact length and configuration as well. It is all dialed in now though. Centered perfect.

Big day today. My wife took the kids out for the day so I could have a whole day to work on my car. First I pulled the shift assy out to weld everything together. Wouldn't you know, after I welded it and reinstalled it it had magically moved. So I pulled it out, cut the welds etc.. I ended up doing this about 5 times. It was frustrating as hell. Literally a 1/16th" makes a huge difference in where it sits. So finally I gave up. It is not perfect, but I can get in all the gears with the console installed. I may mess with it later, but for now I am freakin done with it.

Next I moved on to the front end stuff. I managed to get both new control arms, sway bar end links, and the axles installed. Nothing too hard there, but it was a bit of a pain getting the axles aligned correctly. So the front of the car is now officially done, at least in theory. I posted a pic of my old control arm bushings for reference for anyone wondering what happens to our bushings. I also hooked up the battery today to check the starter. It worked perfectly with the STI setup. Thanks fahr_side for telling me to try it before buying an STI starter.

Edited March 19, 2017 by BBPeik