Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Super drivable built auto box setup!

Every now and then someone posts saying "I'd like to upgrade my gearbox as I have an automatic Nissan Skyline". A lot of the time people say GO MANUAL and every now and then someone gets a shift kit. But every now and then someone resists the repeated insistence of people to just GO MANUAL and jumps off the deep end. I am that guy.
Now you can be that guy, at a massive, massive discount. It could almost be argued it was a decent idea.
This gearbox is a RE401B from the R34 GTT, which has been overhauled from scratch by DTM Automatics in Geelong after being dis-satisfied with the MV Kit that was previously in the car. Which died. They have made a completely custom valve body which supposedly flows amazingly, with upgraded bands and have a billet shift servo. Fancy words. This has not died, for many many years.
 
In addition to this there is a custom flex plate that has been heavily reinforced over the standard one (it's a modified version of the yellaterra flex plate for the RB30, to make sure you don't snap the stock one with your soon to be massive torque. Note: The stock one is NOT good enough for 300kw!
It has a custom Torque Converter from TCE which are one of the best in the business, according to a fair bit of googling. By "custom" I mean I went in there with the blueprints for the engine, and the dyno sheet from the most recent tune and they took that and built a stall converter purely for that purpose. It's enough to generate 5-10psi at stall near instantly which is WAY MORE than you will need to obliterate any road tyre off the line. The downside of that is such a converter creates heat, but don't worry about that, because It has twin coolers, complete with a nice digital guage to tell you the transmission temp. If you're worrying, I got it to 100C during a full session at Sandown without any kind of cooldown lap. It usually drives around town at about the 50-60 mark. This is actually under what Castrol kind of recommend for performance driving, and usually about 80C.
In otherwords, the coolers are cool.
 
But the best part about it is the PCS TCM-2000 which is a standalone ECU which will cost you about $1000 USD to buy on its own, let alone wiring it in, let alone tuning it. What this allows is for you to tune your shift maps, it allows you two different maps which is already tuned in this car, for a more pleasant "D" mode to your super hardcore triptronic/manual mode.
The best part about it all though, is that unlike other aggressive shift kits, which in order to shift hard up top, have to shift harder down low, this behaviour is reversed with the ECU. Allowing nice comfortable shifts down low, and HARD shifts when you are giving it the beans. All controllable by the TCM, and it absolutely will not shift in manual mode until you tell it, under any circumstances. If you want, you can tune the kick down/shift up parameters of the "auto" mode as well.
 
It has held 300-420KW for years. Trent @ Chequered Tuning would and has vouched for its unrelenting reliability. If it died tomorrow and I wanted I'd take it back to DTM and get them to make another one. See here ->
 
You could too, if you wanted, but if you did you'd probably be paying north of $10,000+ fitting and wiring and tuning it all.
You should buy this instead.
 
Because noone uses an auto, before this comes out of the car, I'll make a short video showing it in "action" to give an idea of how livable it is or isn't at some point. If you are local to Vic, I'm happy to take you for a spin in the car so you can drive it for yourself to see if it is something you want. I'd much rather do this for any interested buyers so let me know, all the cool kids are on paddle shifters nowadays, didn't you know?

I want $3500, which is actually about the cost of the ECU, the Torque Converter and the Flex plate. I am 100% certain you will send lowballs, dear reader.
  • Like 1
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

okay, so this is now officially out of my car and onto the floor of my garage, ready to ship to you, or something along those lines.

In short, I miss the torque this auto supplied. Really had no idea it had such a large effect. But there you go. If you REALLY want to get going in a hurry, well, I can see why people build autos.

Anyhow, here is two videos of me driving around town very briefly.

 

As you can see, it really requires next to no effort and very little revs to get going around town, and isn't a slippy nightmare that cannot be driven because hurrr durr torque converter.

At high RPM it shifts much more severely and much quicker. As evidenced by me spinning off at Winton because I changed from 2nd to 3rd at high RPM and forgot about this.

 

 

Whoops. There's another video or two of me track "Driving" like a n00b if really concerned as to how well it shifts or doesn't under abuse. Mind you, this is at super low boost (12psi) which I guesttimate at about 250kw. Useful if you're like "wow that thing really sucks power" or something.


Here's photos of all of it out of the car.

 

IMG_20171003_171543 (1).jpg

IMG_20171003_171543.jpg

IMG_20171003_171553.jpg

IMG_20171003_171609.jpg

IMG_20171003_172055.jpg

IMG_20171003_172125.jpg

IMG_20171003_172131.jpg

IMG_20171003_172204.jpg

IMG_20171003_172212.jpg

IMG_20171003_172226.jpg

FlexPlate.jpg

  • Like 1

NOTE: the photo above, is what will happen to your own flex plate if you run any serious power through it. So if you're randomly reading this, have an auto, and don't want to buy this, at least consider getting a custom flex plate made!!

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
  • 4 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Latest Posts

    • For these last 7 years of ownership, I've always had to use a small scissor jack under one of the front tow hooks to raise the front just enough so my low-profile jack fits under to reach my subframe jack point. I'm beginning to get annoyed of always having to do this. Are there any lower low-profile jacks that fit under the gtr lip on a dropped car?
    • Seat of the pants assessment of the new intake: The car is way less "doughy" when hitting the loud pedal, especially off idle when stopped or in traffic, I did use a cheapo lazer thermal thingo to measure the temp around where the pod filter got its air, it was between 55 - 60°C, in saying this the car was shut off and not moving, so the OEM intake pipe was not supplying any fresh air to where the pod was when the car was at least moving A weird bonus was induction noise on the throttle in the cabin increased a bit,  I was worried that I was actually going to lose some of that induction noise I love so much, outside though, when I got the daughter to do a WOT drive by pass for me, the induction noise has increased alot when on the throttle, not quite ITB doort, but well up there I'm extremely happy with the results and have been exploring the country roads in the region  As for house mods: 1.New front fence is up and is awesome, it really upgraded how the joint looks from the street, and the added security is nice 2. Electricians have replace some interior lights, and with more lighting in the garage, a few new motion detecting lights out the front above the garage, front room, and at the front door, which I have already found heaps helpful coming and going, also now has fancy pants CCTV all round the house The only hold point for power though is the solar and batteries due to supply issues, although this will happen over the next few weeks 3. I have done a heap of landscaping out the front and I'm almost ready to do a new small retaining wall with some nice blocks to replace the brick and cemented in rocks around the raised garden beds cemented in river stone "was the fashion at the time" the house was built. I currently have a pallet of retaining wall blocks and 2 bulka bags of 20mm blue metal to replace the wood chip that is in the raised garden beds around the house 4. I now have 3 big raised garden beds for out the back to grow some vegetables, about 70cm high, 200cm long and 100cm wide 5. My 2 compost bins are already pretty full with brown, green and kitchen waste from the landscaping I'vedone so far, but they will probably take a few months to break down, so anything else that gets chopped, trimmed, and kitchen waste will just start filling the base of the raised garden beds to about 30cm before I start throwing 40cm of good compost, and stuff, for the vegetables to grow in, I'll need a few ton of compost and soil, but the local supplier can sent me bulka bags of the stuff Basically the logs, wood chips and a few strategically placed rocks for drainage, will give the beds some good organic materials down low to break down over time, and they will hold moisture during the warmer months to save the water in my big arse water tank if we don't get alot of rain So, all in all, the car and house mods are going well, and I'm really enjoying being retired, I sleep in too 0700 and slowly plod around inside until I feel like actually doing anything, and only work in the yard for as long as want, which has actually been alot over the last few weeks,  although when you look at it, it seems that not a huge amount of work has been done,  until I look at the before I started the work pics Happy days and good times indeed 
    • hahaha yeah. Plan is to get side skirts and probably just rear pods. But going to do them one-by-one. I've got a set that I really like from RHDJapen, but that one isn't shipped to AU. So need to find someone who can get it for me
    • Here's an idea, answer the questions I asked you as they are trying to work out WHY the LSD will be binding up in a straight line.
×
×
  • Create New...