OC_

Hi guys,

New to the forum and new to Porsche's, but not new to doing huge projects with cars.

A buddy of mine has a heavily modded 996 turbo and we have discussed converting his automatic trans to stick. I did a search of this board and found a few other people that have done this, but I have some questions about the electronics.

Strangely, it seemed that one of the most popular replies to people asking about swapping an auto to a manual is "just sell the car and buy a stick one". Well, my buddy has invested a lot of money into his car which he would lose if he did that, so he doesn't like that idea.

Anyway, all the mechanical aspects of the swap seem pretty straight forward and simple. What worries me is the electronics.

During my search, people were saying that you don't need to replace the ECM (DME) to a manual one, and it can just be flashed with the manual program? Is this all you have to do?

Also, someone said you have to replace the gauge cluster to the manual version. Is this true? I don't see what this has to do with anything other than not having the gear selection lights.

Is there anything else that i should know before doing this swap?

Thanks

omnipresent

Why would anyone want to change from Tiptronic to 6 speed?

tooloud10

You might get more traffic in the 996 Turbo forum...

OC_

I put this question in this forum because there is less turbo cars out there and really, this shouldn't be a turbo specific question... unless there's something i don't know!

LVDell

Have you read THIS LINKor THIS LINK???

maci911

WOW i got goose bumps from reading the 2nd link............

LVDell

The second link was in the first link. And yes, goose bumps can be had from reading that

Marc Gelefsky

Well, that just seems like a bad idea!

medtech

+1

Let us know how the conversion goes!

htny

I think the OP had the correct instinct, all the work aside, getting the DME sorted will be a nightmare.

Look into a more robust torque converter, especially if he's primarily interested in running major power and clocking low ETs. I know EVO made one that TT people were running to very great effect, search on TT forum and 6speed. You'll likely wind up with more consistent times, and from what I remember the revaned evo unit was good past 800 ft-lbs and under $2k

JReid

Regardless of whether or not he went about it the right way (new car or transmission swap), that guy's experience is hard to read - wouldn't wish it on anyone. Sounds like an unbelievable hassle.

OC_

I read over the link about that guys experience. I really don't see how that applies to me since i would be the one doing the swap, i wouldn't have rely on anyone. And i wouldn't be getting my parts from Dubai. It seems that most of this guys problems were caused by huge communication deficiencies. I also will not start this project if i have any doubt. Right now, I'm still in the research phase.

I know this has to have been done with success in the past, I just need to find that guy!

BTW, this car will never see a drag strip, at most, it may run a few autoX or open track events. So getting a torque converter with a huge stall is not an option. Plus, have you driven a car with a really high rpm stall TC on the street? That gets old pretty fast!

Tippy

I am going to follow this thread like a hawk.

I have been down this path without success.

The hardware swapping is the easy part, it is the computer/software/electrical side that is the unknown part.

As a 99firehawk stated, no one knows how the instrument cluster will respond. It is almost a guarantee you have to swap out the tip cluster to a manual cluster.

That is when I threw in the towel.....

htny

Sorry for the assumption, just when I heard heavily modded 996tt + switch to stick I automatically thought he was a MAX POWER guy.

BTW I agree the UK story is nonsense, that guy was doomed the moment he considered a G50 (which are amazing transmissions don't get me wrong, just not for a 996tt).

Your best bet is to speak with people who reprogram DMEs for a living, real race shops with excellent reputations who do lots and lots of cars. I don't know if he's ever done a auto to manual swap, but you might want to speak with Rick DeMan at Deman Motorsports re: DME / gauge cluster stuff. They may or may not do the DMEs in house, but they handle a lot of street to full race conversions, which at least would require DME reprogramming for immobilisers and airbags and psm and all that. I can say they are great guys, do impressive work on and off the track, are all Porsche, and just might be able to help you understand some of the issues involved. He's on this site, you should be able to PM him, or if you can't PM me and I'll give you his number. Good luck!

Hans

rcc55125

OC_, from what friends have gone thru doing a transmission swap it's faster and less costly to buy a manual car and swap the go fast parts.