05 LGT 5MT Blew Up, What Are My Options?

[jasqi]

So apparently my trans has been leaking gear oil for awhile, I bought the car about a week or so ago, and 3rd gear blew up cause it was starved of oil. I had heard these trannies were a little weird so I didn't bat much of an eye of sounds and shift feel. 3rd gear ended up taking out the whole tranny (won't even push in neutral). I'm confident in doing the swap myself as I've done two clutch jobs in a 02, and 04 Impreza. My main question being, what's my best option for replacement? I have a few trans shops where I live that I believe do rebuilds, but I'm not exactly sure how much it'd be for a rebuild vs used. I see the used trannys go for like $700-1100 on market place, and double that on ebay. I also know a spec b 6 speed swap is in my options, but considering how relatively rare they are, I'd believe they go for a strong premium. I love this car and plan on keeping it for a fair amount of years and I want to choose something strong, and reliable.

[Code]

I’m sure someone here has a used 5speed trans laying around!

 

If you decide to go 6MT, you can use any year STI transmission as well. Plenty of us here have made that choice. There are pros and cons to spec b vs sti 6mt.

[Infosecdad]

Where are you located?

[Subsandwich]

The STI 6-speeds are strong and reliable, and USDM ones can be found pretty cheaply on occasion (not too sure about the current market though). However, if you choose to go that route, give the 6-speed Master Swap thread a good read-through.

 

When I did my 6-Speed swap, I ended up going with an 04-05 STI transmission as it seemed to be the cheapest available, and I didn't need to upgrade my Rear Diff and get new rear axles (which would be required if you found a Spec B tranny).

- One thing to keep in mind however, is that the 04-05 STI tranny seems to have 5th gear synchro issues. I wasn't aware of this, and ended up with a transmission that has a slight grind with aggressive driving when shifting into 5th. I've read that this was corrected from 06+, and that the 06+ synchros can drop into the 04-05 tranny. However, I've also heard that labor is quite intensive.

- If you want the Spec B ratios, you could also order 6MT Long Gear ratio sets to drop into a non Spec B 6MT, but I'm not sure of all the nuances related to this

 

If you live in the Capital Beltway area, I can recommend you to the shop that did the swap for me. Great people, great prices.

[Subsandwich]

You could also rebuild your 5th Speed transmission. Apparently Rallispec makes a "Type STI" gear set for the 5 Speed Tranny. Looks like they fabbed up a way to install 5-gears from the 6MT into the 5MT. Just found out about it now, so you'd have to do more research into the cost of it, but that also sounds like a way to beef-up the 5MT without modifying much else on the car

[shralp]

If you want to install a good lump, contact Zac at ZF Design https://thezfdesign.com/transmissions-2/Transmission-p115117888 I had him build my custom 6 speed for my ‘05 track car a few years back and it’s performed flawlessly. He offers core replacement discounts as well. I sent him my blown 5sp and got almost $500 in credit towards the build. Shipping to/from Colorado to Oregon was actually way better than I thought. Zac is a great guy and can build you whatever you need from OEM to fully built to handle big power

[jasqi]

Ok cool, I live in central oregon which I should’ve mentioned beforehand. The 5th gear synchro issue might put me off a bit as I make a highway commute everyday and I treat it like a racetrack lol. I liked the stock tran’s ratios for the most part besides the rpms being quite high in 5th going 80. I was looking for something maybe a little stronger as I plan to push the car to around 350hp 400tq doing meth injection, bigger turbo, etc. I’ll definitely read up on those threads and see what I wanna do, thank you!

[Code]

The real beauty of a 6mt/r180 swap is the front and rear LSD.

 

Expect to spend $4-6k depending on how you choose to do it. Also expect to shift a lot.