Transmission upgrade
 

I'm in the market to upgrade my junk factory MT transmission and ready the car for a built motor at the same time. I've found a company that sells custom bellhousings to pair block to trans but sadly no one talks nor offers a swap that isn't an old v160 that is overpriced even used. Where are our options? This car has been out for far to long.

There are a couple gearsets available already, and more coming. I have a tremec but it's a custom fabbed bellhousing. Maybe this winter I'll pull it out now that I know it works and have it copied into cast units. I have an fa20 to v160 adapter plate for sale if anyone wants to make the mounts and stuff themselves

Spencer Fab is working on a transmission swap for the fa20. They've yet to release any solid details but its definitely in-progress. As for gear set swaps, Velox and PAR Engineering are the only two real options, but neither set fixes the crappy synchros. Best waiting for a new swap to come out that isn't a v160, as they are so expensive it just isn't worth it.

I was just about to say, spencer fabrication on Facebook has been posting pics they are working on a built trans swap for the FR-S, however I'm pretty sure that's going to be a sequential dogbox type of sort of setup.

Mark at Spencer fab and I talk about everyday and the swap is coming along nicely... Just a few more details to work out and it will be a done deal. The trans will be a normal trans with options to be face plated. I'm not sure how much he wants to release about it but the trans will be rated at "EDIT" UP TOO 575 wtq. and a direct bolt in. I feel comfortable saying it should be in the testing phase in less than 30 days, if not on the market for sale. When it comes out I will have 4 original trans for sale lol as that bad boy is going in my car!!!!!!

575tq... No guesses what it is off the top of my head, but it does sound promising. Plenty for any FA20 build. Almost makes me want to not continue my swap, but I'll wait for others to test it out before I know for sure.

Hopefully the ratios are similar to ours, or at the least slightly longer. Shorter ratios in the trans versus a stock trans would suck.

Ratios are a lot longer I'm super excited about that. The trans has been around for over 30 years so it's tried and true I ran them back in the late 80s and 90s with a V8 beating on them flat foot shifting down shifting you name it I did to this trans......I think first gear is around a 2.80 to 2.90 ratio and can go to a 3.95 if you desire, I do know you will have options on gearing. Also I should mention the tq rating is also a option from 330 up to 575 my bad for not being more clear on it in a earlier post....

Synchro's naturally won't like high rpm, any trans. There is an inherent "wait" for synchro's to do there job. The higher the rpm the more work "synchronizing" speeds the synchro needs to do. This wears them out.

Everyone thinks HP/TQ is what kills everything but RPM's can be BRUTAL.

My motor is stock right now but I'd like to upgrade the teams eventually as well to prepare for a higher HP motor setup..

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I know everyone hates synchros, or the az6 synchros more in general but here is a good read on synchros from jack's transmissions. I have only heard good things on how these guys can get synchros to work better than they did from the factory, the way they should work. It's good info, and I will see if it works since they will be working on my trans in June.


http://www.jackstransmissions.com/pa...o-blueprinting

I have no proof but I'm willing to say a lot of peoples problems with synchros are probably from ham fist shifts and not a fault of the hardware. Look at YouTube comments these days, if your not pulling the shift knob off your not shifting hard enough. I think we all have that one friend who shifts like the trans owes him money.

Take care of your trans and most trans will take care of you.

You can always sell a kidney and get a hollinger

Ooo, this is great stuff. I'll be working on mine at around the same time. Let's share notes.

Really good news there, appreciate the info.

I understand, but meh. I had my trans replaced under warranty because the synchros started grinding from 3rd > 4th shifts after about 2k miles, but I bought it pre-owned with 26k. This was before the turbo went on. Who knows what the last owner did to it. I definitely don't shift "hard" or "fast", so I'm convinced the failure wasn't my doing. I intentionally babied it, and it did not grind when I bought it. Not to mention I short shifted at 7k 99% of the time. Good vid of how slow I shifted this car here

My 3rd -> 4th shifts I do with my middle finger lol. Not hard to shift this trans, but I do agree a lot of the faults are likely caused by the owners... Still, Subaru will warranty failed synchros so they're aware there is at least some kind of issue. I've owned so many cars, and this is the only car I've ever dealt with a failed synchro on.