Hello Fellow members, i am about to pull the trigger in doing an A4 to M6 conversion by myself in the next few weeks...

My car is a 1998 A4 with 3.15 gears . the donor vehicle is my friend's 2000 M6.

I will swap rear diff, transmission, PCM, BCM, plus all wire harness from car to car. I will document everything i do and learn from the swap...

plz, for people who did or know anything about the procedure to feel free to enlighten me what to watch for or better do in this process

 

Good luck with the swap
All I can tell you is that it is going to be a lot of work other than that I have no clue.

 

haha thnx bro! i've been preparing myself mentally a few months now

 

Im not sure but Im guessing you will have to relocate the brake pedal too? I know you are going to need to use his since they are different sizes.

 

Best of luck. I am anxious to see the project documentation. Friend of mine if trying to talk me into doing my own instead of having a shop do it.
I thought I had everything but a clutch and flywheel package but you're saying you have to swap the PCM? I thought it just needed a retune when going from auto to stick.

 

Sounds like a great idea for a long thread with a lot of pictures! I look forward to reading it.

 

I think it would be a lot of fun to work on too.

 

Good luck with the transmission swap. I'm about to do the exact same swap in a few weeks. Here are a few important tips that I have learned as I prepare for the swap.

In the tunnel for the torque tube there are extra metal clips for holding the A4 shift cable. You need to bend them out of the way or they will interfere with the MN6 torque tube and shifter arm

There are two electrical switches on the clutch pedal. The A4 dash wiring harness does not have the 4 wires you need for the cruise control switch and ignition start switch for the pedal.

Ignition Start wiring - When you disconnect the A4 transmission wiring you will disconnect the Transmission Range Switch Connector on the side of the transmission. You can use the Yellow Pin 1 (Circuit 269) and Purple Pin 12 (Circuit 1606) wires to run into the clutch switch on the bottom of the clutch bracket.

Cruise Wiring - The cruise wiring is a bit tougher going into the PCM. The voltage can come off of any pink Ign 1 (Circuit 339) wire for the transmission. There are several splice packs with that wire. The second wire needs to run into pin 35 (Circuit 48) on the PCM Connector 1.

Please let me know how your swap goes.

 

WOW! i appreciate the awesome info bro! great info for me and for fellow CF members . .

you've just enlightened me about the A4 trans metal clips.. i guess i have to take them out and place them in the other car. I planned to swap everything from the donor car to my car and vise versa, The pcm and bcm with their wire harness will go out one piece and be placed in mine... an i guess it makes it an easier and more successful with less errors!! hope i'm correct with this

 

There are two approaches to the dash wiring. One approach is to replace all of the in dash wiring along with the PCM/BCM as you described. It will be interesting to get your opinion as to how much work it is to swap the dash wiring. There are posts from a few that have done it and it took a lot longer than they thought. The other approach is to swap the PCM/BCM, transmission harness, and wire up the 4 clutch wires separately. This saves changing out the dash harness for only 4 wires. Either option should work just fine.

 

Hope you're ready to have fun. LOL
I'm going the other way, putting a 4L60E in my '04 ZO6. I have learned a lot in the last few weeks and have gotten a lot of help and info from forum members, even though, I haven't found too many who have done it, or want to do it themselves.. I'll be starting on mine in the next week, then will have to wait for the other parts, but I hope to have it back up and running in the next month or so and would be willing to let you know how it went. I imagine the other forum member, 02*C5, would, too. Of course, when I get the LS7 done, I get to pull the Ls6 and put it in.
If you PM me, or email me at kball789@mediacombb.net, I'll give you as much info as I can.
Thanks rehirsch8. Now I have an idea how to do the rewiring and tying in as well as any repinning in the PCM. If you have any more info on this, I'd like to get it from you and I'll give you any help I can.
Oh, Evilash, you don't have to change the PCM/BCM, etc.

 

I am looking forward to your DIY with lots of pics and insider tips! Good luck.

 

KBall789,

Thanks for the support. I've spent quite a bit of time reviewing the wiring schematics for both the A4 and M12 to figure out how to do the conversion. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further. There are going to be several more wires missing in your Z06 that are needed to control the Solenoids in the A4. You can get the A4 harness online fairly easy but it doesn't go all the way into the VCM. The harness going into the VCM in the Z06 may not have those wires. I have found the vendors on this forum to be extremely helpful.

I stopped by RPM Transmissions a few months back and they do a lot of A4/A6 swaps into Z06s. I recommend you call them and they may have the missing harness components that you need. I recently bought the torque tube bearings and coupling kit from them so that I'm starting out with a fresh set when the swap is done.

One of the more tricky projects going from M12 to A4 is to run the transmission cooler lines to the front of the car. I would ask RPM Transmission what they do for this. I'm going to leave the front half of my cooler and lines in the car.

I agree that the PCM does not need to be swapped out for the project Hamze is working on. The benefit is he won't have to use a Tech2 to re-image the cars.

I agree that there's not a lot of discussion on this type of project and I have no problem helping out where I can.

 

Hamze,

I noticed the license plates in your picture. Are both the cars setup for US or European lighting? The reason I ask is that the European rear fog light wires run through the transmission harness to the back of the car.

If the cars are configured differently for US and European lighting then the European fog lights won't work. There is just one extra wire that you could pick up in front of the transmission harness to get it to work.

I happened to figure this out because the Z06 transmission harness I bought happens to have the European wiring.

 

hello! thanks for the info! and i'm glad it worked out with you.

Both my cars are imported from the USA with US specs so i am good so far

currently i am preparing for the swap, where i am now browsing this forum and the internet for good CLUTCH packages that could hold to 500HP and dont brake the bank . I am also considering a TRANS BRACE, Hardened shafts left and right, and 4.10 gearing. I plan for like 450 to 500 hp later, so i am taking the opportunity to prepare the car from now as i am taking her apart. lots of research and time involved

 

I had the similar decisions a few months back. Here's what I ended up going with:

Clutch: LS7 clutch and flywheel. I read all the forum write ups and talked to RPM Transmission. The downside of the LS7 clutch is you need the flywheel and it is significantly heavier. This gives the crank more momentum is good on road coarse but doesn't give you the fast revs that drag racers are looking for. The RPM transmission guys said the LS7 clutch was a good one to start with. It's reasonably priced.

Rear Differential: You can upgrade the differential output shafts with C6Z shafts from GM. These can handle the power and are cheaper than 3rd party. You should also look at the clamp springs for the diff lock. If they are cracked, they should be replaced. There are great write ups for replacing the shafts and the springs.

I bought the ECS Trans brace from WCC. It gets great reviews but it's a bit spendy.

You can get all of these parts from GMPartshouse.com.

 

^^ Yup brother! i do agree with you about the rear diff upgrade, after viewing 2 threads on the Zo6 stuff, i will go this route. I will also get the hardened rear shafts.... But i will get the clamp springs and the whole clutch pack kit from DTE. If i go with the z06 clutches i will have to buy their carrier, and its pricey.

i currently dont have wheel hop in my car, i have 400'sh Hp with vararam, bolt ons and exhaust ... but i guess my sport bilsteins are what preventing it, I will get the brace from ECS anyway.

About the clutch, i will get the Mcleod rst twin, i have read good reviews, and its rated for 800 Hp! besides i can use my factory clutch, and save some $ :P

still taking a decision about the 4.10 gears, and who sells the best... and the t56 500hp upgrade, and i will be done i am not in a hurry to begin my project, its better to spend more time planning , and to do it right the first time. I live overseas, corvettes are rare around here they would count on fingers, i cant get it to a shop who knows how to fix them or to get info about how to do this or that. so i have to work by my own, God i love corvette forum (Y)