Last week I was in a local race shop bs'ing with the owner..
The shop is Pineapple Racing, in Portland, Oregon.
The owner, Rob Golden, suggested an option for a stronger tranny.

Ok, it is a bit out there, but not really.. involves a bit of crossbreeding.. so, bear with me.
The general idea is to take a toyota MR2 tranny and put it in a ser, providing, that the distance between the crankshaft axis and the differential axis on our transmission is similar or at least very close to the distance on the MR2 tranny.
IF that can be made to work, then it is just the matter of making a adapter plate that bolts to the block and then to the new tranny (come on, don't tell me it is too weak, I've seen some rock crawling pick'em ups that have wayyy too much torque being put through some major major reduction that can run a similar adapter plate so I believe this could work)
then, after that, you have the mounting of the transmission to the 'frame' then the custom axles and the clutch (the mr2 clutch is like 5/8 or 7/8 larger in diameter than ours I believe) and so on..

It seems very doable, would not be a weekend swap thing.. but I am considering doing it.. the mr2 trannys are beefy as can be from factory from what I understand.. and he has already done this to a few FWD cars so I have faith in him.

Anyways, I cannot recall this sort of a swap being discussed before and I would appreciate some educated responses or direction.
thanks
David Lau

The Mr2 trans is damn strong but has a problem with the 3rd gear syncros. I would want either an updated trans (1993+) or a rebuilt 1991-1992 trans. They also have a lsd equipped trans and a non lsd equipped trans. TRD offeres a helical limited slip for the turbo and non-turbo trans. IF you wanted lower gear ratios go with a non-turbo trans. That transmission is strong too, some turbo'd 5S's (na motor) run into the 11's without running into problems. Just a couple different options.

Another option I was thinking about was just going for a tranny that is common and that already has lots of aftermarket support.. and in theory (I would hope) if there were more of them out there the aftermarket parts would be cheaper...
need to check out the quaife catalog :)
david lau

"you one craaaaazy foo david" :) IF it works lemme know, that would be tight :)

The idea of saving up $10000 or so to pick up a GTi-R drive train, and a Classic w/ no motor and jimmy-rigging that bad-boy together has also got me thinking about taking another couple years off of school :-D Hehe. AWD DET classic=yummy :)

Jake

Ever driven an MR2, that is definitely not the tranny you want, even after driving one that Rob himself rebuilt, it still feels like sh*t compared to most modern smooth trannies.

The MR2 trans has all the aftermarket support you could want. PDX 2000 did you drive either a 1991 or 1992 trans? The 1993-1995 trans is alot smoother and better shifting. The funny thing about ALL Toyota trans's is that they're a little rougher, but you will probably never, never blow one up. They'll have their synchro problems but won't ever fail you. My Corolla trans never shifted as smoothly as my 1987 Accord trans and my Corolla has 100K less miles, but it's what comes with the territory.

I've driven both... got 5 different friends with MR2's, a couple have had both 91 and 93+ trannies in their cars, they are very strong, but shift like a$$, and the synchros seem to always have problems in every car. I don't know how you'd fit one in a sentra anyways, it has to be around 140lbs and twice the size of ours. =)

Fock Brian..
For someone who has already blown one tranny (with how many.. what, 500 miles on your turbo kit? :-D )
I thought you would be more excited about this!

Then again trannys don't help much when your car is parked all the time :P

david lau