6 speed swap in to my TDI Golf 4

[dremd]

Shifter was bent . .. Straightened.
Put on all of the covers, wheels, checked torque on everything, straightened shifter, straightened up wiring and whatnot on today. The "only" thing left to do is install the drain plug and fill with fluid.

[dremd]

Built a drain plug tool, got it topped up with G52, re-atached brake booster hose (no idea how I pulled it off) and went for a drive!

Now I am down to 2 issues 1) No Speedometer 2) I still have air in the brakes.

Driving notes.
SMOOTH SMOOTH SMOOTH Much much smoother
Definitely much less NVH than before, but a good bit of that comes from all of the loose stuff that I sorted out.
75 feels like 60, boost is actually similar speed for speed compared to before.
It "wants" (very objective here) to go much faster at cruise.
Seems significantly quieter at speed, but I have not broken out decibel meeter yet.
I like the feel of the hydraulic throwout bearing much more than the typical clutch fork setup (again very objective).
"Normal" US cruising speeds are well compressed around 1800~2200 rpm.
Lower gears being a little bit higher is going to take some getting used to.

h, and the "o" n my keybard nw sucks.

[dcb]

nice Dre, I think we are well into envy territory here

[dremd]

Brakes now working properly.

Speedo still dead, along with cruise control.

Iphone "decibel meter" app says 83 DB average at 75 previous was 90 DB average.

[dremd]

Drove the golf 20 miles(interstate) tonight in very poor weather conditions.
I now realize why the didn't sell this transmission to "those dumb Americans", in short you have to shift much more and think about what gear to use where as before I could use 5 th from 30 mph up to top speed. Now 5 th isn't an option for cruise untill 35 and 6 th can be used at 55 but will not accelerate until 65.
Oh, and ASR is now on my list of features that every tdi should have come with, makes low rolling restiance tires at least as "sticky" (poor word choice) as mild performance tires.

[Arragonis]

Well done for getting it all together - with I had a second car and the skills to do it myself, I would check my clutch (SMF) for its NVH issues.

Your experience with the gears is similar to when I swapped to the Fabia with 6 speeds from all my previous cars (4 and 5). You get used to the extra cogs and one advantage is the greater choice of gears for different scenarios ranging from empty highway cruising (6th) to grinding behind slow trucks on a 2 lane A-road (4th/5th).

You will also find yourself missing out gears on the way up especially if you use the 80% throttle to get to speed asap idea. I sometimes do the journey to work in only the even gears - 2,4,6 with 1st to get moving if I come to a complete stop.

Monitor your instant MPG when using 6th though - I would be interested to know if you think staying in 6th when you begin to lose momentum (hills for example) vs a quick burst in 5th for FE - I kind of feel each pulse on the higher gear is kind of wasted in terms of effect compared with 5th.

One issue that did come up with my gearbox was the case stretches over time making the change a little more tricky. There is an insert or something which has to be pressed in that restores the internal shape and makes the changes much nicer. If you don't have the problem though don't worry about it.

[dremd]

Thanks guys!

Instant mpg doesn't work just yet (I need a speedometer to calculate mpg).
However GPH still reads the only steady state GPH readings I've noted so far are

75 mph 1.2 gph in 6th and 1.75 gph in 5th
70 mph 1.0 gph

I make no claim that the sgII is accurate though

[dcb]

sg doesn't do diesel. It's algorithm is based on airflow I think, and without a throttle plate the airflow is not as indicative of fuel use. Diesels don't spend much time at stoichiometric.

[dremd]

I'm with you 400% dcb.

It is just the only fuel consumption data that I have at this moment.

Next Modification.
I now own a euro cluster with 1/2 height MFA which shows fuel consumption (designed for Diesel) and is calibratable (sp?):-)

[dremd]

Speedometer repaired.
I've only driven it about 1000 feet with a speedo (tested cruise), but all appears well.