Sv6 wagon conversion

[gospaz]

Hi guys,

I'm looking into purchasing a VE SV6 wagon, but they only come in automatic's. So I was wondering if anyone could give me an estimate on how much a conversion from auto to manual would cost, including gearbox and fitting.

Thanks everyone

Also please don't say just buy a manual, because they don't make them.

 

[Patrick13389]

I asked the other day at my mechanics about doing a manual conversion and he told me it would be upwards of 7 grand and that's using second hand parts apparently the whole firewall has to be in bolted and then a manual one bolted back in.

 

[UFO]

I reckon 7k sounds about right.

There's a lot of work besides the actual gearbox to make things work, and even then it'll never be just like a stock manual. There will be insurance hassles, engineer certification, nightmares with putting a new pedal through the firewall, and basically not worth it.

For less cash, you could get a manual in v8 wagon for under 30k... and no issues with engineer certification and insurance.

A quick look on carsales tells me an 09 V8 manual wagon can be had for $28k.... and that's asking price.

 

[Jono's detailing]

Have completed a complete conversion on my sv6 wagon about 8 months ago it cost me around $2500 with doing the work myself that's also including getting my original ecu remapped as you can't use the ecu from the donor car

 

[rtmpgt]

Have completed a complete conversion on my sv6 wagon about 8 months ago it cost me around $2500 with doing the work myself that's also including getting my original ecu remapped as you can't use the ecu from the donor car

Did you have to do anything to the Firewall to get the clutch pedal through? you'd assume that Holden would be total cheapskates and use the same bodies for Manual and Automatic cars instead of making two separate bodies for two separate transmissions. Someone's gotta do a writeup with pics for the conversion process at some point to determine how possible it actually is since nobody's actually documented it afaik.

For reference, As far as I'd know you'd more than likely just swap the box out, swap the wiring harness from Auto to Manual, Flash the ECM and install the hydraulics for the clutch pedal. Afaik the clutch and brakes share the same master cylinder reservoir in these cars? V6 and V8s share the same master cylinder part number but have different slave cylinders on the count of the gearboxes being made by different companies (V6 = Aisin, V8 = Tremec), Please correct me if I'm wrong here btw.

Also if you do end up spending the time and money doing this OP, i'd highly recommend doing a SMF conversion on your clutch. Mantic, Exedy and Xtreme do organic HD clutches for the V6. I'd personally go with the Mantic if you've got the dough.

As for insurance and Engineering woes? I'd take it that this is where you'd run into the most trouble. Insurance companies really don't like you doing mods so this is where your problems (and your money) is/are going to end up being.

 

[_R_J_K_]

apparently the whole firewall has to be in bolted and then a manual one bolted back in.

Did you have to do anything to the Firewall to get the clutch pedal through? you'd assume that Holden would be total cheapskates and use the same bodies for Manual and Automatic cars instead of making two separate bodies for two separate transmissions.

Don't think there's any company cheap enough to use a bolt in firewall, not to mention the amount of potential problems it would cause and the chassis rigidity and stiffness that would be lost. Seems to just be a plate, dunno how hard they are to remove, but if you can buy automatic ones then they probably aren't welded/glued to the firewall, sounds like there's a lot of stuff in the way though - https://www.4blok.com.au/holden-ve-wm-firewall-plate
https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/changing-brake-pedal-firewall-plate.275811/

Don't think insurance or engineering is such an issue really (highly doubt it would need to be engineered), it's all factory stuff with no cut-n-shut parts. from the same chassis family. I've had insurers ask for manual or auto for cars that only came auto.