V6 heaven... and possible auto to manual conversion?... who knows?!

P

Purrdi

Forum user
Aug 4, 2013
18
5
Ditch of Redness
Hi folks,

Gosh, I haven't been on here for ages myself - I usually follow the events through Paul's account as he's sat right next to me lol - so please bear with me, plus I think this is my first post since joining two years ago... eeek :whistle:

As most of you will already know, via Procomm (Paul), that I've had to make a really hard decision after what I consider to be dreadful news about my beautiful blurple V6 :cry: she has to go to Cougar heaven due to tin worm eating her from the inside out, which is very depressing, and if I'm honest it puts a big lump in my throat and I can't help get emotional about it (stupid I know as it's only a car, but I am emotionally attached to Purrdi nevertheless)....

Big sigh .... I would like to say a massive heartfelt "THANK YOU" to Dave (Localloon) for giving up a day on his weekend, travelling to us and trying to save her :beer: (y) :love:

I don't feel right thinking of replacing her when she's not even moved off the drive yet, but I am already thinking of getting another more solid specimen and transferring all of the mods... so after looking at some available on eBay this evening Paul came across a sound-bodied auto, and to be fair, I'm not a fan of automatic cars, they're more expensive to run and I just enjoy being in control with the stick ;) but because of my dislike for an auto box, Paul has just thrown a question in my direction which has spurred me to put the question out here...
How difficult would it be to convert an automatic v6 to a manual beast? :eek:
Can it be done? And what costs would be involved?

To be honest, it's a rare occasion indeed if there's something Paul can't help me with, even if it is a dream :LOL: so I hope there's someone out there who's in the know... anybody??
 
My initial thought was that it would be massively and prohibitively expensive, but if you're taking the manual box, pedals, ECU etc from the dead car, that's pretty much wiped out. The only cost I would factor in is a new clutch, because if we've got it all in bits then it's just common sense. This is do-able.
 
Relliott6879 said:
^^^ Fair point, well made. ^^^
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That is a dam good car for the money. Anyone in the market for a Cougar would be crazy stupidly mad not to even have a look at that car. The overall history is all over this site, and just look at it. You know you would be getting a very fine example indeed. If this was me right now it is a no brainer.

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Procomm said:
Wrong colour
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REALLY !!!

Well............. You must be crazy, one of the best looking colour / car in this club right now.
 
F7OUD said:
You would be better off buying this https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/28768-Ebony-C1 and just move on. A lot of hassle to do it and is it really worth it.
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Although an ebony would be my second choice, I love blurple too much lol and finding a decent blurple manual is proving difficult, especially as they all seem to be pre 2000 models, and yes it would be easier to get a manual but easy is no fun ��
 
Purrdi said:
Although an ebony would be my second choice, I love blurple too much lol and finding a decent blurple manual is proving difficult, especially as they all seem to be pre 2000 models, and yes it would be easier to get a manual but easy is no fun ��
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Well each to there own I guess. Good luck in finding what you want.
 
Auto to manual swap is just pure headache. You've got to swap EVERYTHING. Looms, pedal box, switches, engine mounts, driveshafts, obviously the whole transmission, gotta have all the middle out to remove every bit of the auto gubbins and then remove and refit all the manual stuff, cable guides, gear matrix, etc etc, for the age of the cars and their overall worth, it's just not worth it. It's not a weekend job either. You've 2 cars to strip a lot out of to refit all of one in to the other. For a 13/14/15 year old car it's just not worth the effort. That's not including changing the V5 if you have one that lists the car as an auto. Just keep looking for a good manual. Get wanted ads out so that if someone has one that they've maybe not thought about selling could be tempted?

I know nothing is impossible and all that jazz but is all that really worth it? Is blurple really that important? Is it worth more than the right, sound, structurally tidy car? One that could later be painted or wrapped even in any colour once you'd got it looking how you want?

There's got to be enough cars left out there to still find a good one [emoji2]
 
Throttle body and more importantly, ECU also need changing so that's key reprogramming/transponder swapping/lock barrel swapping*.

* delete as applicable.

I'm sure there's a good blurple MTX out there waiting. Just keep looking and be patient.
 
if you are doing the swap, you may find it easier to drop the complete front subframe, complete with everything on and still attached, with wheels on it would be a case of wheel complete assmembly out and other in, also whilst out you have room and access to do the gear cables etc with an empty engine bay/front end may save a bit of time and work, only a suggestion
 
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V6SINGH said:
Auto to manual swap is just pure headache. You've got to swap EVERYTHING. Looms, pedal box, switches, engine mounts, driveshafts, obviously the whole transmission, gotta have all the middle out to remove every bit of the auto gubbins and then remove and refit all the manual stuff, cable guides, gear matrix, etc etc, for the age of the cars and their overall worth, it's just not worth it. It's not a weekend job either. You've 2 cars to strip a lot out of to refit all of one in to the other. For a 13/14/15 year old car it's just not worth the effort. That's not including changing the V5 if you have one that lists the car as an auto. Just keep looking for a good manual. Get wanted ads out so that if someone has one that they've maybe not thought about selling could be tempted?

I know nothing is impossible and all that jazz but is all that really worth it? Is blurple really that important? Is it worth more than the right, sound, structurally tidy car? One that could later be painted or wrapped even in any colour once you'd got it looking how you want?

There's got to be enough cars left out there to still find a good one [emoji2]
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Agree 100%
What you are looking to do is madness. Just source a MTX one. Job done.
 
Kully said everything I was going to, and far more succinctly.

When the CVT auto went in one of my old cars I looked into doing this and, even ignoring labour (about 4 days) the economics simply didn't work out. I bought another auto box and fitted it.

My advice is to hold out for the right car.
 
Thanks everyone for your input (y) It's great to have other peoples opinions, really puts things into perspective :) Though I won't be rushing into anything, certainly not this side of Christmas, and we have lots to think about now, plus the old one needs to be stripped (to add this to an ever growing to-do list for Paul haha), so if anyone needs Paul in the next month or so he'll either be under my cat or inside it and upside down :D (I reckon he's secretly regretting the day he thought that me having my own cougar was a good idea heehee)
 
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