Auto to Manual for forced induction ???

I saw a couple threads where people were talking about this, but didnt wanna jack their thread. Does anyone have experience with this swap ? What kind of cost did u end up having, what parts and any issues with dash lights after the swap ? Doing this swap, do you need to change out ecus ?

I did this swap on one of my old cars, a 96 240sx that i built a motor and turbo charged. I would imagine the swap for my 03 330ci would be a completely different animal because of the electronics side of the car. Can someone point me in the right direction please ?

Thanks in advance

it can be costly if your not doing it yourself and yes there are two different ECU's for a manual and auto. at the bare minimum around 5k for a swap.

Unless you've already invested heavily in modding your current car, you'd be better off to trade cars rather than swapping transmissions.

i have a similar question about this. Have a 05 325xi with a complete supercharger kit from active but have the steptronic tranny. am looking to possibly go manual? any ideas/advice/suggestions about how? how much? and if its even possible with the awd?

For high horsepower and high torque applications, a manual transmission (at least in BMWs) is best. Those of you planning on going with an S/C like our C30 Kit should have nothing to worry about.

ok, so how would i go about doing this swap? what would be the cost/time/difficulty?

ECu is not differnt alot of coding will need to be done, and custom wrote for this application see the post NAVin had about his car I help get the coding for that car set. SammyV on here is also versed in coding but you will need to find a shop near you that has a factory tool to get the coding right.

sell the car and buy a manual, it will be far easier and cheaper.

My steptronic Level 10 rebuild has been very successful; this alternative still exists.

Originally Posted by performancenut

My steptronic Level 10 rebuild has been very successful; this alternative still exists.

Can you go into detail on this:
1) who did the re build
2) What was all re placed upgraded or modified
3) what was the cost, please also give a break down of the cost, in other words please include whether that included labor to put in the tranny and remove it.

THANKS in advance for the first constructive info posted to this thread.

If you do a little research, you'll find Level 10 has very mixed reviews from those that have gone that route. Personally, I wouldn't gamble my money on the outcome of their work. I still stand by my original advice that you would be better to trade in for a manual rather than drop a boat load of $$ on a transmission swap, or Level 10 rebuild.

the swap itself is quite direct and with a competent re-program of the DME you will be set.

You will need the trans, clutch and flywheel, driveshaft, clutch pedal assembly with the clutch master cyl

Originally Posted by TxZHP04

If you do a little research, you'll find Level 10 has very mixed reviews from those that have gone that route. Personally, I wouldn't gamble my money on the outcome of their work. I still stand by my original advice that you would be better to trade in for a manual rather than drop a boat load of $$ on a transmission swap, or Level 10 rebuild.

I probably should have explained....I didnt mean that the information that was stated early was junk... more like not what I was looking for in a response. Im the one who has the thread on the IPT transmission build that they do... they are quoting over 650fptq is what its supposed to be able to handle. Everything is cryo'd heat treated and re worked and from what I have seen from them in respect to the work they do in other german cars and the import scene I wouldnt doubt their numbers.

I decided to make this thread thought to see what kind of cost I was looking at, I live up in south dakota and up here good BMW's are hard to come by. The last M3 that I saw go for sale up here was at my friends dealership and he was asking atleast 7.5k over what it would have gone anywhere else... and he sold it within 2 weeks.There just arent very many that roll around. My 330ci is one of only 3 that I have seen ( town of 240,000) since I bought it 3.5 months ago.


Hope I didnt come off in a bad way with the comment I made earlier.

Originally Posted by TxZHP04

If you do a little research, you'll find Level 10 has very mixed reviews from those that have gone that route. Personally, I wouldn't gamble my money on the outcome of their work. I still stand by my original advice that you would be better to trade in for a manual rather than drop a boat load of $$ on a transmission swap, or Level 10 rebuild.

nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I took a risk on this concept and had excellent success. We removed the steptronic ZF trans here in NC; crated and trucked to NJ with a short turnaround time. Must say that this is a rock solid step with all the stock behavior; in fact the wifey has driven it several times unaware of the supercharger and trans rebuild/upgrade.

All this comes down to personal choice and resources; good luck to the OP on your decision.

Originally Posted by Dhohn

Can you go into detail on this:
1) who did the re build
2) What was all re placed upgraded or modified
3) what was the cost, please also give a break down of the cost, in other words please include whether that included labor to put in the tranny and remove it.

THANKS in advance for the first constructive info posted to this thread.

http://www.levelten.com/index.html

you will find information here to call the company and get latest quotes, etc.

Originally Posted by performancenut

nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I took a risk on this concept and had excellent success. We removed the steptronic ZF trans here in NC; crated and trucked to NJ with a short turnaround time. Must say that this is a rock solid step with all the stock behavior; in fact the wifey has driven it several times unaware of the supercharger and trans rebuild/upgrade.

All this comes down to personal choice and resources; good luck to the OP on your decision.

Glad it worked out for you. Like I said though, there are plenty of folks who haven't been so lucky. Maybe Level 10 finally got things figured out, the reports of failures I saw are several years old now.

See this is what makes it hard as to who im gonna go through, i looked over levelten.com and just wasnt impressed as some of the information on their webpage doesnt make sense.

Where as IPT has had HUGE success in the import world taking transmissions that were meant for 150whp and wtq and turning them into bohemoths capable of handling over 750 while still being street able. This thought isnt an japanese import car and its not like the transmissions 500 dollars so ya..... not sure.

For me this has nothing to do with resources, I can pull the trigger right now on all of it and it doesnt affect my finiances. I am though some what anal retentive and really big into researching stuff like this when I do it, so for me its more about collecting the information, putting it infront of me and deciding how im gonna pull the trigger....

Thank you to everyone for the information this has been great !

Originally Posted by performancenut

http://www.levelten.com/index.html

you will find information here to call the company and get latest quotes, etc.

i had my firebird done by them years ago, still holding up, very happy, however, thru my research, if i was to do my 330 step, id take it to ipt they may have gotten the import bugs worked out by now,but, to me, they were damn good with domestic autos, and wanted more of the market, and just went into it too fast...............domestic-level10 import-ipt jm2c

Hey there guys. So what I want to know here is are we talking about doing a tranny upgrade with upgraded step by IPT or Levelten for the reason of purely being able to handle more horsepower and torque?? Or are we talking about doing this for that mainly but also being able to get more of that fly wheel generated HP to the actual wheels. I have a 330Xi with $15K in just the engine work alone and have long since contemplated doing this with my step, but it wouldn't be fore handling more horsepower just for putting that 340HP more to the wheels, instead of losing 100 of it to diastolic loss. I know that each time in physics when you re direct power so with an AWD another differential as well I will always lose around 15% or so, and with a slush box with a step around another 15% .

So how much more power from fly to ground can you get with a step upgrade?? That is the question. Our trans case for Xi's are from X5's and can tow, so they can handle over 2500 ft lbs of torque on the case, now the box etc. is rated tops around 340 HP, so that is a problem!! For me I am right at that level, tracking a few times a year and no issues yet. Ok let me know guys. I await anxiously.

This si something Im looking to do more for reliability and not so much as far as trying to reduce the increased loss from the auto tranny. Granted it is possible in your case that your would pick up more power, if your tranny is slipping but other than the power loss coming from that I dont know that you would see an increase. You biggest advantage from having this done would be the ability to add more boost( if your motor can handle it ) to increase power to the wheels and also the increase in reliability