Dmulally's Chev C20 Discussion

[Rookie]

@dmulally

Good work dude, modern diesel swapped pickups are the best all round car ever, you are doing gods work.

What gearbox are you using and what computers are you planning to run with?

 

[dmulally]

12 minutes ago, Rookie said:

@dmulally

Good work dude, modern diesel swapped pickups are the best all round car ever, you are doing gods work.

What gearbox are you using and what computers are you planning to run with?

 

 

Using a box from an e90 330D owing to needing a 2wd. I was umming and ahhing about going back to a manual but it's a bit of a faff with adapter plates and T56 boxes arent cheap. The stock 5 speed bmw boxes are rare and 5th is 1:1. My diff isnt tall enough for that. The ZF box has a final drive of 0.69 which is tall enough for me. 

It's a solid box and I had the torque converter rebuilt for shits and gigs. Anything has to be better than the 700r4 I evicted. Back breaking to lift too. 

The ecu is stock but has been modified by ASL mods to push out 280hp and 650nm. They got rid of all the alarms and emission bullshit. 

Really looking forward to being able to drive past the local servo without having to pull in every time. 

[RXFORD]

Chuck some pics up of the offset engine mount situation before you get too involved in it. 

There will likely be a limit to how much offset the certifier will allow.

[dmulally]

Yeah I already spoke to him about that. I'm constrained by requirement to use the crossmember and chassis as the mounting point. But where I can be creative is by using that mount I can angle it a little backwards to meet it part way. 

 

[Nominal]

The pics that are gone are FB links so not permanent usually.

Best way to make them permanent is to upload them to the forum.

 

[dmulally]

@Nominal ta. My pics are usually too big to upload generally but I'll figure out a way to make em smaller. 

[dmulally]

These are the mounts I have in there now I'll be either using as a basis to copy or modify. I'll get the engine and box in place with the hoist and then convince the cert man to pop over and have a squiz. 

 

[dmulally]

This is the gearbag which should be plenty strong enough to get by. 

[Rookie]

That is the 6hp correct? If you didn't know then Baldur from BCS has written firmware so one of his ecus is a universal custom gearbox controller, I'm in the process of installing one in my truck as we speak, the results look promising. 

[dmulally]

1 hour ago, Rookie said:

That is the 6hp correct? If you didn't know then Baldur from BCS has written firmware so one of his ecus is a universal custom gearbox controller, I'm in the process of installing one in my truck as we speak, the results look promising. 

Tit is indeed the 6HP26. It is the cable shift one so I can come up with a cool shifter. 

What does the gearbox controller do that your ecu doesnt already do? 

I haven't got that far but a manual control would be handy for towing so I dont slug it up in overdrive too much. 

[Rookie]

I have separate engine and gearbox controllers, both are standalone units, I'm not sure what you plan is, or how the ecu for the m57s have been hacked these days? but for me it was a no brainer to go stand alone units so that there was no fuckery involved.

[dmulally]

On 02/06/2025 at 20:19, Rookie said:

I have separate engine and gearbox controllers, both are standalone units, I'm not sure what you plan is, or how the ecu for the m57s have been hacked these days? but for me it was a no brainer to go stand alone units so that there was no fuckery involved.

Plans are for architects. 

This is the one I'm using.

[dmulally]

Hi all. Need some help from the brains trust. 

I need to come up with a cable shifter that mounts to the dash. Only slight hitch is I'm trying to figure out the shift pattern. It's from an E60 and looking at the shifter in pics online it goes PRND. But I can feel 6 clicks on the actual shifting mechanism on the side of the box. So does that mean 7 stations? 

So ignoring that dilemma, as soon as I can figure out how many clicks I need I want to be able to make a cool shifter on the dash that suits the chev. Here are some cool ones for inspiration. 

 

[440bbm]

not the additional + -  for manual mode you can feel or is that part electronic

[dmulally]

34 minutes ago, 440bbm said:

not the additional + -  for manual mode you can feel or is that part electronic

I assume it's electronic. 

[dmulally]

Got this from the M57 swap group on FB and putting it here before I lose it:

"Shift pattern is P-R-N-D-4-3-2, to match the original 4 speed auto shifters.    The standard tiptronic shifters only use P-R-N-D, and then disconnect the cable to operate Manual and Sports.      Fully Clockwise should be park - you can check by trying to turn the output shaft"

I guess that doesnt mean I have to faff about with the tiptronic either. One less thing to worry about. 

[440bbm]

shit that makes life real easy! good score on finding that

[Rookie]

I hooked mine up to the original column shifter, the 722.6 only has PRND, so it fit well enough. I also have a computer sim shifter that I have wired up to the TCU for manual shifting when racing. If I was you I would try get it hooked up to the column and just get it to do PRND.

[dmulally]

Who here knows ZF boxes well? Struggling to get the torque converter mounted and I'm probably overthinking it because the box was from a different model to the engine. 

I'm not feeling the third click when I put in the torque converter. I am trying to line the teeth to the pump up with the notches in the TC but it doesn't seem to slot home. I mean maybe it is? I assume when it is fully seated I should be able to turn the TC and the pump teeth move with it but they are staying put with the TC spun to another angle. I have tried with the gearbox in park and neutral. 

Would a video help?

 

[dmulally]

So just an update I got sick of this being too dodgy and took it down to Hutt Automatics. They took one look at it and said it doesn't match but I have left the gearbag and TC there for them to do a proper check.