The madness: Swapped my 4EAT this weekend

[kyledooley]

First of all, this was a complete pain in the effen ass. But... I won't complain, it's done and it works.

Does anyone have any idea how to get the TC bolts off without pulling the oil pan? You can't use the upper port because the turbo and all its related jazz is in the way. The bottom way is impossible to get a socket in there.

We had to use an engine hoist to lift up the motor and get the oil pan off. PITA.

Anyhow, it took us the better part of two days in my friend's garage. Luckily, we have compatible personalities because I'm sure we would have killed each other... maybe he wanted to kill me but who knows. I way overstayed my welcome with this project though.

Long story short, got it in, broke a few intake parts and broke the coolant reservoir. (I spring a coolant line leak to the turbo, and when I went to replace the line, the reservor basically crumbled in my hand.) POS.

On the good side, the new rear diff went on sweetly. I had to change the rear to 4.44 to match my JDM trans so I upgraded to a 4.44 LSD from a legacy GT Auto and WRX half shafts.

And most of all, I drove it around the block and it worked sweetly.

There are a couple of people out there who were a great help, either through their past posts or directly and I wanted to thank you all. Ciper especially. Thanks bud.

I've been a regular on NASIOC from near the beginning, but this board is an undiscovered treasure. We're a great crew over here.

Kyle

[ciper]

I thouught the TC bolts on the NA was hard, I feel your pain!

How much time did it take to bet the pins ligned up and everything slid into place? Did you have a hard time getting the flexe plate to enter the TC and the holes aligned?

Did you make sure the transmission mount in the rear wasnt ripped on either side? Did you remove the turbo back or?

[rao]

I thouught the TC bolts on the NA was hard, I feel your pain!

How much time did it take to bet the pins ligned up and everything slid into place? Did you have a hard time getting the flexe plate to enter the TC and the holes aligned?

Did you make sure the transmission mount in the rear wasnt ripped on either side? Did you remove the turbo back or?

I don't know that was any diffeernt from a NA car, there was just no way to get at the bolts without pulling the oil pan.

It took almost no time to line everything up

We swapped the stock mount from the old tranny.

We pulled the turbo back as one piece, which was easier and only took a few minutes.

Except for the flex plate bolts it was easy. The reear diff swap was a no-brainer, oonce we figgured out that the half-shafts are not both the same length

Kyle, If I wanted to kill you the tranny would have "accidentally" dropped on your head

It just took a long time and we both had limited time.

I had more physical labor to do after you left.

It is just too bad that that line broke


The question is what were we missing on those flex plate bolts?

[kyledooley]

I thouught the TC bolts on the NA was hard, I feel your pain!

How much time did it take to bet the pins ligned up and everything slid into place? Did you have a hard time getting the flexe plate to enter the TC and the holes aligned?

Did you make sure the transmission mount in the rear wasnt ripped on either side? Did you remove the turbo back or?

Yeah, I didn't have any trouble whatsoever that you describe with getting the torque converter on. Just make sure the center shaft is on ALL the way, fill the TC with fluid and make sure the splines have at least some lube to them, slide the TC on and spin it by hand.... click click click. Takes less than 2 turns and we did it like 4 or 5 times in a row to make sure. I was very nervous about this part because of what you had posted previously, but every Auto tranny website I had read said just spin it on and feel the clicks as it settles in. Presto. That was all we did.

Getting it back in was a pain because the tranny jack was oily and the trans was slipping around. The jack didn't have many degrees of freedom so we used the engine hoist to angle the motor. Got the tranny onto the bottom studs and then used a floor jack to ange the trans correctly.

We cinched the trans up with the bolts and nuts (being mindful of ANY resistance) and it just slid right up there. The key is getting the angle right. I think greasing the little nub on the TC helps it slide nicely into the pilot bearing hole on the flex plate too.

Once it was on, I held the TC with a screw driver and rao spun the motor with a socket until the holes lined up. I started one of the bolts and then we spun it around to the other 3. Piece of cake.

Getting the oil pan off and back on was the ordeal. But once we realized that was what you had to do, it was just a matter of time. And like rao said, we took the exhaust off and the trans mounts on my car were just fine. We transferred the crossmember over as one piece, mounts and all.

And for the record, tranny fluid is nasty.

Next stop is a new cooler. I'm going to bypass the stock one and just plug the inlet holes in the radiator.

Luckily for the coolant reservoir problem one of my friends used to have a turbo wagon and he still had one in his garage.

Kyle

[ciper]

I also used a lift to adjust the angle of the engine, I was surprised how much play the stock engine mounts had.

I dont think you should bypass the stock unit, it acts as a transmission pre warmer. If you bypass it your transmission will be cold for longer when you first start driving.

[rao]

The engine mounts barely hold the morot in place

I am suprised about the tranny cooler. I assumed that it had some sort of internal thermostat mechanism, otherwise it will be sending coolant out to the radiator in cold temps and the coolant won't regulate the fluid until the engine is up to temp. Also, that means that the tranny fluid only needs cooling to around 190 or so and with a larger external cooler the temsp will go lower than that.

[kyledooley]

I dont think you should bypass the stock unit, it acts as a transmission pre warmer. If you bypass it your transmission will be cold for longer when you first start driving.

That's interesting. I'd like to read some of the theory on that. Most of what I read said bypass the stock cooler altogether.

Personally, I don't really see any downside to taking a little longer for the fluid to warm up. I don't really lean on my car when its cold and I'd much rather gain the longevity by having lower operating temps. Of course, if all I drove were short jaunts, my attitude might be different.

I'm also not sure that on a cold day, the radiator is going to do squat for "warming" the fluid. By the time the thermostat on the motor opens up and sends warm water to the radiator, the tranny fluid is going to be plenty warm already.

The ball and spring on the tanny inlet line also is not going to allow huge amounts of flow in the circuit until the fluid coming from the cooler is sufficiently warmed, so I don't think there is a huge risk there.

Maybe I'm not seeing something here. Help me out.

As an aside, do you know of anyone who has used the transGO shift kit for the 4EAT? I wanted to get one of those installed to help with longevity on this box also.

Kyle

[rao]

I had it wrong - the tranny does not have any sort of thermostat.

http://www.haydenauto.com/faq.html

I am sticking with manual transmissions