SMG to 6MT Conversion

[pawelgawel]

Im just looking around for the parts to use my own BH, and here is a kit on ebay:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/BMW-M3-e46-M...torefresh=true

has 2 bushings that are not shown on RealOEM, do we need those or is this something extra? also where can I get the large gear spring and the bearing?
Ill try to call this seller and see if he would ship it to Canada, otherwise I need to scavage

[sapote]

Do you know 5th gear is the most quiet gear as it is connecting the output to the input shaft without any driving/driven gears. So 5th gear causes minimum stress on the bearings.

[sapote]

so this issue was with original MT BH with SMG box.. the BH i have was original SMG so technically it should be fine i think. Also there are many shops that prep donor BH and just swap it with a core. I haven't heard of others complaining about this issue. You still got me thinking now... technically these are same dimensions and shouldn't pose any problems normally.
Considering Ill have both BH side by side, I could measure the lengths and make sure its equal. If there is a difference I can always swap out the items into My original BH after I get it machined.
I was hoping to use this one to save myself the time and not tie up the hoist for longer than couple days

It's only safe to use the original BH came with tranny and not from any other boxes regardless MT or SMG. If everything has the same dimension for all of the boxes then the factory shouldn't use any shims to shim the bearings. The fact is they are not and including the bearings, therefore the bearing needs to be shimmed for each box. They needs critical preload using shims and this is very critical to have long lasting and quiet bearing. In this case the input bearing is sitting between the BH and the box, and so if the bearing is compressed due to incorrect dimension then it will be noisy and damaged soon.

[pawelgawel]

you can stuff that hole with some paper towel as the tap doesn't go past a certain point, then just pull it out... also flushing the trany once its up is no big deal either.

[ATB88]

Id like to make it as OE as possible, it its only $100-$200 difference, I think its worth it.

The cost wouldn't be my concern rather than the need to carefully tap threads into your gearbox without messing up and without allowing metal shavings into your gears. I did it and looking back I wish I would have saved myself the headache.

[George Hill]

Id like to make it as OE as possible, it its only $100-$200 difference, I think its worth it.

My thoughts exactly.

[pawelgawel]

The GPS will tell the DME if the transmission is in neutral. I always add them in my conversions, but if you want to address some coding differences and don't plan to pull it into neutral with the cruise on you'll be fine.

Id like to make it as OE as possible, it its only $100-$200 difference, I think its worth it.

[pawelgawel]

Don’t use a donor bell housing - see my post about the damage it can cause. Convert your BH to match.

so this issue was with original MT BH with SMG box.. the BH i have was original SMG so technically it should be fine i think. Also there are many shops that prep donor BH and just swap it with a core. I haven't heard of others complaining about this issue. You still got me thinking now... technically these are same dimensions and shouldn't pose any problems normally.
Considering Ill have both BH side by side, I could measure the lengths and make sure its equal. If there is a difference I can always swap out the items into My original BH after I get it machined.
I was hoping to use this one to save myself the time and not tie up the hoist for longer than couple days

[George Hill]

whats the gain in doing it? if I opt out, is there something that needs to be done while reflashing ecu?

The GPS will tell the DME if the transmission is in neutral. I always add them in my conversions, but if you want to address some coding differences and don't plan to pull it into neutral with the cruise on you'll be fine.

[sapote]

Don’t use a donor bell housing - see my post about the damage it can cause. Convert your BH to match.

[pawelgawel]

anyone have an idea where I can get one of the bearings within the housing? Ill post a photo with the one missing. I purchased the converted housing without it, I suspect I can reuse my current one in my car once its out, but in case I'd like to make sure there is another option.. its held on a retainer from what I see..

[sapote]

I think the GPS is related to the cruise control and this can be sealed with coding.

[pawelgawel]

whats the gain in doing it? if I opt out, is there something that needs to be done while reflashing ecu?

[sapote]

just want to make sure everything is done properly.. its a little expensive so if I could avoid doing it I would. should I just replace the spring with another SMG one and call it a day?

Many people skip this conversion and just replace the stock SMG spring with new one. Do the conversion could lead to oil leak for not much gain.

[pawelgawel]

Why do you want to get all the trouble of adding the GPS sensor to the 6mt?

just want to make sure everything is done properly.. its a little expensive so if I could avoid doing it I would. should I just replace the spring with another SMG one and call it a day?