Gday i have been looking around for a complete conversion for my car from auto manual but i don't need the ECU, what are the main things to look for with a worn out T5? I have looked around a few topics and have found the pedalbox comes through the firewall or somthing? whats the deal with that? are they expensive to replace
Yeah im sick of my 90k first gear and i want be able to use the power properly in my car with out having to wait for the auto to kick down when i want it to. also do you gain power rwkw from putting a manual in?

Cheers

i can answer a few questions for ya but not the one about checking out 2nd hand t5 boxes, have to leave that for someone else.

1, the e series pedal boxes are prone to cracking around where the clutch pedal mounts to the pedal box. can be fixed by welding the crack and strengthening where the pedal mounts to the pedal box
or in your case id keep the auto pedal box and get a malwood clutch pin kit. this kit lets you add a clutch pedal to your auto pedal box and is meant to be stronger than the original manual pedal boxes.

2, the firewall is also prone to cracking where the clutch cable runs through it into the engine bay.
this is caused by old dry cables that cause the pedal to be hard to push in and then put lots more pressure on the firewall and it ends up cracking.
this can also be strengend (doco in the tech section i think) but if you keep your clutch cable routed correctly and replace it when it gets dry you shouldnt have a problem.

3, you will gain a small amount of RWKW just because the manual drivetrain looses less power than the auto. auto drivetrain generaly looses about 30% power from the flywheel to the rear wheels where the manual generaly looses about 25%.

hope that helps you a bit mate.

I got stung with a worn gearbox when I did my manual conversion. I paid $330 to have the box pulled down, inspected and input/output shaft bearings for them replaced (because there was too much freeplay). See if the shift pattern is sloppy too. You could be unlucky and get a box with worn synchros or damaged gears.

With the manual pedal box, I had it braced to stop the sides flexing. There's plenty of posts on here about how to modify them & strengthen the firewall. It seems a flexing pedal box leads to clutch pedal shafts bending = more pressure being put on the firewall which in turn cracks it.

I spoke with some dynotuners on the weekend and from their tests, they say there's 20-23% loss of power through a manual gearbox and about a 25-30% loss through an auto. So, you will pick up some more rwkw going to a manual.