Did Huck really do the first 5mt SVX??
 

I was working yesterday on my car when a guy approached me from behind and starting speaking to me in a very provocative way. I turned with a :mad: face and the grinder in my hand but when I looked at him I was like :D ... He was the subaru master technician at Subaru Lebanon. I know him very well, we started discussing the mods I did to my car and the fiberglass and stuff, and then we turned to engine mods...

I told him that I have a chip in my ecu made in the states and I am working on the right setup for my engine (the hardware)... He didn't even let me finish my sentence until he told me that I need for sure an STi tranny to go in there or else the engine configurations I will be going with will be useless... and If I was not going with the engine mods, a nice 5mt impreza would fit :eek: :eek: ... "euhhh, well how you know all that???"... "haha, I converted a black SVX from an auto to a manual :eek: long ago..." He told me that the tranny got messed up and would cost around $1800 just for parts in 1997, the SVX was a 93. The owner was a little :confused: about the repair quotes and decided later on in 1998 to convert it into manual. Because he was a close friend of this subaru master tech, the latter did the conversion for him using a Legacy GX manual tranny with its differential... I was like :eek: :eek: Where the F is that SVX now??? so he took my business card (phone number) and promised to give it to his friend to call me and show me that car...:rolleyes:

I never really cared if huck was the first or not. I believe it is because of huck that so many have been able to make the leap and do it though. Its cool that you have potentially found a converted svx there! What are the odds? Get some pics if you can. You could still be the first 6mt over there!

I don't really care if I am the first or the last, as long as it is done right. But the thing he mentinoned was really :eek: interesting...

i would say so.
even over here...there are a lot of mechs that just wont do a tranny conversion. you might be lucky to find somebody..
too much time and they feel it's not worth doing..
even though it is business

Well....
As for who was first, I can't say that I was for sure...what I can say is that when I did mine I scoured the internet for info (not wanting to go into it blind) but found ZERO info available.....many people had stated they WANTED their SVX to be a manual, but no one had done it (or at least had not documented it, to aide others with a swap)...
So when I did mine I knew of no other one on the planet (but that doesn't mean there wasn't one), and I had to figure it all out as I went along...Trial and error, so to speak.
I had no ideal if it was going to be feasable or not when I got started...as I had done many motor/tranny swaps in the past, but only on Muscle cars, and old hot rods where computer control wasn't an issue.

The absolute lack of info on the swap is what made me do the write up for everyone to have in the first place.

I've never asked for anything, from anybody, for any help my write up may have been for others who used it...I did it to help out fellow SVXers, who (like me) were fed up with the 4EAT and wanted a manual tranny in the SVX....like Subaru SHOULD have offered in the first place.

so anyway....that's how I see it....if I wasn't the first to do it, I was the first to make a guide to doing it available for the SVX...that ought to be worth something:)

Good day...

When did you do the swap? I wanted to swap in 1999, but was living in a very unsuportive enviroment :( wondered if I got beat :D

I did mine in 2000 or 2001....
(best I recall...my memory ain't what it used to be....:rolleyes: )

Huck you are the man!! :D

All I know is he is probably the only person to ever drop a V8 into an XT6.

all i know is that he's the only one who actually wrote a write up on how to do it. gruesome finger and all.

props to the huck! :)

I may add to the write-up with pictures during one of my next swaps. This could be a 6mt swap or a 5mt swap... dunno which is comming first

Tom

Huck is my hero! :D

Tom, if you have pics to add let me know and I'll update the writeup in the SVXipedia.

No doubt Huck is da maaaaaan, but the whole discussion I had with that guy was worth mentioning, that's all :)

That'd be great Tom.....

(I was too busy cutting my fingers off to take many pics:eek: )