6 speed conversion kit

Still waiting on mine..................

jcboulware said:

Still waiting on mine..................

Click to expand...

Who is doing your installation?

Do you have good fuel consumption numbers for before the change over? That will be interesting to see.

But the transmission now feels really great in every day use for me. The old gap I had with my .622 5th gear is gone. The .71 5th and the .588 6th just fit like a dream, I shift as low as 2000 rpm in each gear and the engine drops to 1500 rpm in the next gear. Just like clockwork. Use a higher shift point and each gear change drops down to the same rpm. Wonderful spacing.

The true 75 mph at 2000 rpm is also great.

john.jackson9213 said:

Who is doing your installation?

Do you have good fuel consumption numbers for before the change over? That will be interesting to see.

But the transmission now feels really great in every day use for me. The old gap I had with my .622 5th gear is gone. The .71 5th and the .588 6th just fit like a dream, I shift as low as 2000 rpm in each gear and the engine drops to 1500 rpm in the next gear. Just like clockwork. Use a higher shift point and each gear change drops down to the same rpm. Wonderful spacing.

The true 75 mph at 2000 rpm is also great.

Click to expand...

Do you have any updated fuel economy numbers with the new 6th?

I am. I have a clutch coming up so I am going to do it at the same time. I have tracked fuel consumption and mpg for the past 120k miles, so I have good data to compare the new gear.

I just finished timing belt, water pump, egr & cooler delete, intake cleaning, and stage 1.5 Malone tune. I was hoping to do clutch and gearbox at the same time, but no joy.

Windex said:

Do you have any updated fuel economy numbers with the new 6th?

Click to expand...

Sorry to say no new numbers yet. Have not filled the tank since the conversion. Looks as if I may not get home till mid July.

john.jackson9213 said:

Mike,

How long did it take your shop to do the swap?

Click to expand...

Just got back a few minutes ago

It went well, we did the 'laproscopic' method of doing the upgrade without having to drop the gearbox. It was very fiddly & took a while, but I think some of that was just due to the learning curve. I was charged for 4h labour (it was actually more, but he excluded the trial-and-error time ).

The 5th gear was a 0.709 which surprised me a bit (I thought it would probably be the stock 0.75), but I think they must have decided that a 0.588 needed to be balanced with a slightly higher 5th.

I took loads of pictures & some video, so I will write it up into an installation report.

I am seeing the following in 6th ... 60mph = 1650 rpm, 70mph = 2000 rpm (compared to 60=2200rpm with my old 5th, so a drop of 550 rpm for cruising). The cruise control also still works. I can accelerate up hills in 6th (although it's happier if it is dropped down to 5th).

Mike,

What size is your engine? 1400 cc?? Do you know what the car weighs? 550 rpm drop at 60 mph is huge - a 25% drop at the same speed. You should see some fuel savings indeed.

john.jackson9213 said:

Mike,

What size is your engine? 1400 cc?? Do you know what the car weighs? 550 rpm drop at 60 mph is huge - a 25% drop at the same speed. You should see some fuel savings indeed.

Click to expand...

1400 cc, yes, remapped up to 103hp. The car weighs around 1100kg including the various options.

If I calculate the RPMs by hand then I get 1724 as the final, so I think my numbers might be a little out somewhere.

jcboulware said:

I am. I have a clutch coming up so I am going to do it at the same time. I have tracked fuel consumption and mpg for the past 120k miles, so I have good data to compare the new gear.

I just finished timing belt, water pump, egr & cooler delete, intake cleaning, and stage 1.5 Malone tune. I was hoping to do clutch and gearbox at the same time, but no joy.

Click to expand...

I will be interested to hear if you can use your cruise control in 6th gear after the conversion.

spartan said:

I will be interested to hear if you can use your cruise control in 6th gear after the conversion.

Click to expand...

Me too.

jcboulware said:

Me too.

Click to expand...

It should do, the cruise worked for both John & myself.

Here's a video of the installation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7nVOtdDzY

Has anyone considered a chain cutter instead of the angle grinder to cut the shift bar? No sparks, no dust, just two quick snips?

The Shootist said:

Has anyone considered a chain cutter instead of the angle grinder to cut the shift bar? No sparks, no dust, just two quick snips?

Click to expand...

Does it resemble a power tool? No? Then that's why

Sorry, I meant Bolt Cutters.....

The Shootist said:

Has anyone considered a chain cutter instead of the angle grinder to cut the shift bar? No sparks, no dust, just two quick snips?

Click to expand...

Yes, it is also possible without sparks but you have to have a very big chain cutter, we have good experience with the size 36", length of the holder is 28 inch. When cutting, the one handle is leaned against earth, and you can then operate the other – if necessary – with the entire mass of your body. During this operation, it is necessary to make sure/check that the shift rail is not leaned against the gears and it cannot damage them while cutting, when the force developed has to be relatively high.

Anyone in the toronto area i have a 02 Beetle turbo S i am partin out, 1.8T engine needs a rebuild i also have 6 speed tranny and drive shafts
You can email me at mattleonardis97@gmail.com if interested.

Matt,
You might be better off posting in the private for sale section.

Tony

those units are geared all wrong for a TDI anyway... 3000rpm@62mph doesn't quite cut it LOL

First full tank after the 0.588 6th gearbox upgrade - 86.4(!!) mpg imperial, was averaging 77.1 mpg imperial (a 12% improvement). That's more than I had predicted, but it has to be noted that it's not a representative tank due to the 100 mile trip back from Stealth.

MikeMars said:

First full tank after the 0.588 6th gearbox upgrade - 86.4(!!) mpg imperial, was averaging 77.1 mpg imperial (a 12% improvement). That's more than I had predicted, but it has to be noted that it's not a representative tank due to the 100 mile trip back from Stealth.

Click to expand...

The nice thing is that you have a long history of fuel consumption on your fuelly. give it a few tankfuls and it will really start to show (with the same driving) the difference that the additional gear makes.

MikeMars said:

First full tank after the 0.588 6th gearbox upgrade - 86.4(!!) mpg imperial, was averaging 77.1 mpg imperial (a 12% improvement). That's more than I had predicted, but it has to be noted that it's not a representative tank due to the 100 mile trip back from Stealth.

Click to expand...

Mike,
Very nice improvement. Waiting to see what you do on a couple of regular tanks.

I am home for the weekend, back to Texas for another 2 weeks. So still no full tank numbers to report.

Trouble in paradise - suddenly having difficulty shifting into a lot of the gears this morning (particularly 3/4/5/6, 1 and 2 don't seem to be quite as bad).

I think the clutch is OK because the revs drop as normal when the clutch pedal is depressed. The difficulty seems to come and go ... for a while it is impossible to select a gear, need to match revs & if I'm lucky it goes in. The odd thing is that I might then be able to shift into all the gears without any problem shortly afterwards. But then if I try again later I have difficulties again.

Anyone have any ideas?

Shift linkage? My trans had shifting issues before Matt installed the a4 linkage. Your shop pulled the shift tower to install the shifted in the trans.

Weird ... drove 2 hours 45 min up to Stealth, including 1.5 hours in stop/go traffic (i.e., loads of gear changes)... it was all working fine!!! Not one stuck gear. So different to this morning where the last half of the trip was a constant struggle to find a gear which would let me engage it. So whatever the problem is, it's intermittent.

Have somebody hold the shift knob solid(still) and go under the hood and try to move the shift cane ends. Maybe the bushings in the shiftbox are on their way out.

Who is next for delivery off this kit? Jcboulware mrdave ,newtdi?

Looks like I will be working in Texas for the rest of July. Thinking about driving back next weekend instead of flying. 20 hours driving vs5-6 hours to fly and rental car. Would be a good drive to check mpg.

Mine has shipped. It should be here next week by my estimates.

Guys, when it is being assembled make sure the following is OK:

Radim said:

... Important is axial play on gear wheels 5 and 6. The first thing you need to check ... is play in axial direction. It must be 0.2-0.3 mm. ...

Click to expand...

Axial float = also called end-float.

As long as this float is fine then you should avoid the problem I had.

MINE WAS DELIVERED TODAY!!! Looking forward to starting the install.

Mike, "axial float" or "end float," is this also the same as "end play"; i.e the amount of movement between the gear's when pulled or pushed down the center shaft. How is this properly measured according to Radim? Feeler gauge stuck between 4th, 5th and 6th gear while gently pully outwards?