The 2020 370z needs a DCT
 

At least, that's what I have been thinking. Someone asked me if I planned to pick up a new Supra. I replied that it is pretty redundant if I have a twin turbo 370z, aside from the Supra having a transmission that produces RESULTS. Results that a platform needs to encourage big projects and developments.

I cant change the past, but I can bring the 370z performance up to this decade without relying on Nissan to give me an all new car.

In November, I picked up a 7-speed DCT Getrag. Its from a 2015 BMW that was totaled with 1700 miles on it.



I bought some stock 370z 7AT shifter paddles from ebay, and the steering column lower cover.



First I started with some basic 3D scans of the engine block and transmission.



Then I put the block in the CNC and triple checked some critical coordinates. I also got some 3rd party high precision CMM coordinates off the transmission.

Ive spent a lot of time in CAD, and came up with an adapter plate design that will work if I have a custom flywheel made to my design.



The adapter design is nearly done, I am just going to refine the starter area a little more casually in my free time as I wait for the first 2 custom flywheels to be produced. Today I bought the 2 pieces of billet to build a pair of adapter plates (one for Seb at SpecialtyZ, and one for me).

Once the flywheels arrive, we will put this on the back of my engine and build the transmission mount. Then of course the driveshaft will need to be sorted, along with a whole bunch of wiring and electronics. We are working with someone who is experienced building controllers for these transmissions, and we are confident that we will be able to make this work in harmony with ECUTEK.

The flywheel is *the* speed bump right now. Once they land, we are back in control of the timeline. There is currently no ETA.

Its a little premature to post about this. But its all I can do for now while I twiddle my thumbs and wait.

[QUOTE=phunk;3900922]At least, that's what I have been thinking. Someone asked me if I planned to pick up a new Supra. I replied that it is pretty redundant if I have a twin turbo 370z, aside from the Supra having a transmission that produces RESULTS. Results that a platform needs to encourage big projects and developments.

I cant change the past, but I can bring the 370z performance up to this decade without relying on Nissan to give me an all new car.

In November, I picked up a 7-speed DCT Getrag. Its from a 2015 BMW that was totaled with 1700 miles on it.

http://host.cj-motorsports.com/temphost/dct2.jpg



I bought some stock 370z 7AT shifter paddles from ebay, and the steering column lower cover.

http://host.cj-motorsports.com/temphost/dct1.jpg



First I started with some basic 3D scans of the engine block and transmission.

http://host.cj-motorsports.com/temphost/dct3.jpg



Then I put the block in the CNC and triple checked some critical coordinates. I also got some 3rd party high precision CMM coordinates off the transmission.

Ive spent a lot of time in CAD, and came up with an adapter plate design that will work if I have a custom flywheel made to my design.

http://host.cj-motorsports.com/temphost/dct4.jpg

http://host.cj-motorsports.com/temphost/dct5.jpg



The adapter design is nearly done, I am just going to refine the starter area a little more casually in my free time as I wait for the first 2 custom flywheels to be produced. Today I bought the 2 pieces of billet to build a pair of adapter plates (one for Seb at SpecialtyZ, and one for me).

Once the flywheels arrive, we will put this on the back of my engine and build the transmission mount. Then of course the driveshaft will need to be sorted, along with a whole bunch of wiring and electronics. We are working with someone who is experienced building controllers for these transmissions, and we are confident that we will be able to make this work in harmony with ECUTEK.

The flywheel is *the* speed bump right now. Once they land, we are back in control of the timeline. There is currently no ETA.

Its a little premature to post about this. But its all I can do for now while I twiddle my thumbs and

When is the timeline and cost of a swap like this

Thought you know better than to quote long posts with photos. :icon23: Its not out of the bag yet, not posted to social media. Exclusive to this group.

EDIT nevermind I fixed it for ya by breaking your links.

This will be interesting for sure. Cool project.

I always thought one of the biggest let down for the Z, G, and current Q cars is the 7at. Even with updates in gear switch programming, it’s just no match for modern AT like the ZF 8 sp, let alone the dual clutch boxes. This will be interesting

Very nice Charles for considering keeping pushing the envelope! Looks promising! Haven't had time to do research on your ideas, but some folks here are worrying about the big torque of our TT systems will kill the DCT. How about the 8spd ZF trans? (such as the most recent products for BMW, ALFA, and Chevrolet....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZF_8HP_transmission
)

These transmissions come from turbo 6 cylinders that make every bit as much torque as a VQ. The transmission in stock form should work very well for any reasonable long term stock engine power. For bigger power, the clutches can be upgraded (easy to do yourself) for about the same cost as a triple clutch for a VQ. It’s a very strong transmission, people are installing them even to twin turbo v8s. I believe we found the perfect trans for the VQ.

Anyway almost 99 percent of the owners here are running auto. I'm sure your work will attract considerable attention if it eventually comes true. ;)

I am not sure yet if we will tackle the integration to auto cars. That will require a lot of research but I predict there will be a whole lot greater challenge for that application due to greater complexity of having a TCM. We will see first how it goes in the much more simple 6MT test cars.

You know... auto is weaker for boosted Z, which means bigger market out there ;)

You could help with the r&d!!

Remove your automatic and install a manual trans and clutch pedal. Let me know if the car moves and what quirks / DTCs etc you find :)

Just did rebuild with a local builder to save my auto. Haven't had chance to install a manual but I'll try talking with my friend who's having a manual swapping Z. If I get something helpful I'll pm you :)))

This is awesome. Subbed!

CJM at it again :tiphat:

I'd hate to even think of giving up my MT :eek:


But damn... I would for this :yum: :driving:

If you make enough TQ, the manual trans will need to be upgraded. Breaking input shafts on a MT is more common than you think. Do that a couple of times and you will have paid for this. Sequential trannies are expensive. 25K or so.

I don't have to worry about any of that :p

Interesting. Subscribed.

I did. All I have is the key sign below the low beam, and I still press the brake pedal to start the car instead of clutch. Otherwise it's just like any 6MT cars that came from factory.

Very interesting.. maybe it won’t be so much trouble as I was expecting!

I don’t think you need to spend 25k on a sequential. Just give those Supra boys or John Shepard to fix you up something. Not going to be cheap but won’t cost no 25k

LOL, I won't be getting one anytime soon.

What will final gearing look like, top speed in each gear?

Overall the gearing is very similar to the 6MT. 5th gear will remain the 1:1, and then there are 2 overdrive gears now. First gear is much lower, second gear is just a little lower, and then after that its in the same ballpark.

This is getting good! I need to pour more money down black hole.

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Sub'd! :tup:

THIS GUY PUT ONE IN A MIATA https://www.miataturbo.net/suspensio...on-swap-99647/

You can try it on my auto... It's at Seb's shop lol.

This is great for the platform... Hope you have great success.

I am lucky to have the built F.I. 7AT... It has never failed me in over 3yrs at 650+whp.

We shall see how it goes. I am really really hoping that we can have these in our cars this March or worst case April for testing. So far things are looking positive. Material has arrived here for the adapters, and I have acquired some tooling that I needed specific for the job. I am working on the work-holding strategy right now and then I can start machining.

oh wow this is pretty rad. I suspect the a/t guys are going to be real interested in making this work.

So much want!!!! So now I gotta start working on an explanation for why I'm about to have a BMW transmission under a carpet in the corner of the garage behind the gun safe.

These flywheels can’t get here soon enough. Every evening I’m holding myself back from sending off a nagging ETA email

I've already been lookin. Transmissions going for between 1500 and 2k on ebay. I can probably get one a little cheaper at a breaker. Once Charles is finished I give it 3 months before the price jumps.

I need to talk to Seb because timing might be right for my build. LMAO!!!

We are small peanuts in this scene. Whats going to effect the pricing on them is the fact that there are already adapter kits available for 2JZ, LS, Coyote, Miata, K series, I think F series is being worked on, and I saw some guys working on rotaries. Once these swaps become more "discovered" in the US, I predict that its going to be a bread and butter surgery across many platforms. I think that a conversion like this is going to become essential to keep the tuner car performance relevant for another decade, if it hasnt already. For those of you who have not already experienced what this type of transmission does for a car, I am excited for you. It is unimaginable how much fun it is, and how much consistently quicker the car becomes. This is huge performance being left on the table that no amount of HP gain can collect. I believe that with this transmission conversion, we will be able to see a 370z run a 9 second 1/4 mile with less than 700whp, and maybe even on 18" wheels.

So my Tunerexic translator tool reads this as : We better get to steppin because the price is gonna go up most expeditiously.
This would explain why I found some trans variants at under 1k.
Which one exactly should I be looking for? The ones I saw were BMW F80 F82 F83 M3 M4 S55 DCT 7-SPEED DUAL CLUTCH TRANSMISSION. Am I on the right track?

And Phunk I'm gonna need you to talk to my son about the benefits of community college over 6MT.

The adapter plate I am making is specifically for the DCT transmission variant from the inline 6 turbo engines. F80 M4 and alike. If it came from an inline 6, and its a DCT, all information that I have says that it is compatible with this project. This is not for any of the V8 versions. In the future, I may decide to add the V8 versions to the adapter. But I will have little reason to, and probably wont unless it becomes necessary for availability.

Nobody should buy a trans yet until we have our test cars running and driving. That is unless you are willing to risk having to just flip it on ebay again if we are unable to perfect the conversion. There is a piece of me that wonders if they are worth buying as an investment, just to sell them when the value goes up later. I wouldnt be surprised if the street price goes up to 4000 for a clean example in the next year or two. For reference I paid $1750 (picked up local) for mine with under 2000 miles on it.

Considering the MK4 Getrag is ranging in the 5 to 9k range and this is an alternate, I'd say the DCT's will be approaching that within the next few years if they go free range. Already these same guys are driving up the prices of our own CD009s because they're an option in 2JZ land. I feel like I'm gonna hold off on a triple disc till you guys get this sorted to save a few bucks. I'm rooting for you hard to get this done.

They are in popular demand here in Europe too. Friends of mine are using them on boosted Honda S2000's

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Progress on my end.

Still waiting for the flywheels. :(

But I’m going to start getting on their case this week about them. I need to get the trans up in the car so I can work on the trans mount and driveshaft, and I didn’t really want to do it without the flywheel since that means doing it twice. But it may come to that if the flywheels aren't on their way in the next 10 days.

Midwest 7AT Z here interested. I have a backup track car and a big want to get this done on my car.
If this works, I want to be one of the first in line.

Sequentials are too expensive for me to justify and I feel like the 7at is going to be the first point of failure for me at track days.