hey guys, i havent posted here in a while but im starting to think about getting a different car; something factory turbo. i have an s2000 right now and i almost bought a WRX before it. ive been reading up on the STI tranny swap for the WRX and other solutions. Do the JDM 5 speed turbo trannies have the same problems with being beat on as the USDM WRX ones do? i know people say "if you respect them, they wont break", but i race my cars so im not going to baby it. so do i need to do the STI tranny swap, or would i be able to get away with a JDM 5 speed turbo swap (not sure what car its out of; its on high altitude motorsports website). i would love to get an upgraded tranny, then do the 04 JDM STi turbo/header/uppipe/3" TB. Do you guys think this is the right way of going about things, or would i just be better off with an STi? Its either a basically stock STi, or what i mentioned, which i kind of like because its different, not stock. thanks for your help, and sorry for the long-ish post.
-Chris

 

just buy an sti

 

psssst...
https://www.i-club.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=67

 

-whisper- i figured id get just as good a response here, as anywhere-whisper-
-Chris

 

how does respecting a piece of machinery come to mean babying it?

 

when you add up the cost of a transmission, enough power mods to get you to 300 horses, suspension, larger tires/wheels you'll realize that it's not worth it. Just get the STi.

 

you could get the RA gear set

they are good for around 350hp. group s has them for 2500. they are JDM yo

 

JDM would be a little stronger, if you are going to get a 5 speed from Japan, buy an STi or an R/A STi and it will be much much stronger than the USDM WRX

Also you can contact a few of the distributors here in the U.S. such as Gruppe-S, Rallispec and a few others and get the gearset, and then have them installed.

Cheers
Rush

 

well i wouldnt call 5k clutch drops 'respecting' the tranny, and thats probably what id end up doing when i race. im not gonna sit here and try to get the answer, "yeh it wont break, as long as you dont drop the clutch at high rpms." thats worthless. i need a tranny thats gonna hold up to atleast 300whp and not break on hard launches.
-Chris

 

to this post and to sigma pi's:
last time i was on this site (a while ago) people said that the weakness in the 02-05 WRX trannys was case flex? wouldnt replacing the gears not have anything to do with case flex? correct me if im wrong.
-Chris

 

dude, yes the tranny case flexes and contributes a minute amount of stress to the problem. but its not the problem you have to worry about. Turbo XS builds theire dog box and semi dog box trannies out of WRX cases ya know. the really issue is narrow teeth on the stock gear set. Miss shift here and there, make a good amount of torque, hair line cracks on a gear. these all add up to tranny failure. typically what happens is a gear developes a small crack. once that is stressed enough the tooth goes and takes the rest out with it. some people might call me crazy but I think that revving and dumping (which I do try and stay away from) is less abusive then a hard 1-2 shift. I only say that because at least when you dump it your wheels spin. Not to say this doesnt shock things a bit but at least its not absorbing all the energy of the shock. Banging second alot with bigger torque numbers means that its taking that shock and not spinning like a 2 wheel drive car so your tranny is absorbing ALL the shock, along with axels, diffs and the rest of the drivetrain. My stock tranny blew in second gear. rolling in second and floored it at 3000, it revved to about 6000 and blew. Sounded like popcorn popping under the car; or a shattered gear rattling. I did the RA gearset. Its really nice. Im only making around 235 AWHP so its holding up good. I am on my way up to the 300 mark though, so we'll see. hopefully its as good as they say. In my opinion, if you can afford it get an STI or dare I say an EVO. I have driven both cars. The evo is more fun to drive. much more nimble. Imagine your S2000 with awd. thats what I felt like. I have an S2000 also BTW. If you want 300 whp its easeier to do with an EVO or STI. it you can afford it go that way because its not cost effective to try and do it in a wrx. you can do it but its more time and money in the end. not to say you cant have an awesome car but. if you can start out with an evo or STI do it. but drive both first so you see what i mean about the streering. Sorry for the long long post by the way. hope it helped somewhat

 

don't waste money on the swap, just buy an sti.

if you use the diff from the sti you need to swap out your whole rear end, if you use the smaller diff, then you need to lego a whole bunch of other pieces together.
the 5 speed in general is from a car that is about 20 years old.
the STI will be a much better platform to use for racing.

 

if the evo t case can be shimed wrong from the factory what if a subaru trany is the same way or some are closer to spe than others because that could explain why some transmissions fail at stock and some fail at 350 whp

 

Im gonna add my 2¢ here......first of all....if you do a 5K clutch drop on an AWD car.....I doubt even an STI tranny will be able to handle that kind of abuse.....considering if you do that in a RWD car you will burnout, thus relieving the stress on the drive train....if you do that in an AWD car you WONT burnout, and chances are, something will let go....maybe not the first few times, but I wouldnt expect your tranny to live past more than a few hard launches like that. The STI/WRX was NOT a car designed for drag racing.

-Ted