The beta transmission has been a topic of hot debate on the forums as of late, and I thought it only appropriate to discuss the various way to mod a stock trans to prove more reliable under boost/mods.







For those of us building engines from the ground up with decent power goals, the limitations of the stock trans can easily turn a fun weekend drive into an expensive headache. It's my firm belief that this needn't be the case though. The answer I keep seeing is to just toss in a new trans or rebuild and call it a day, but logically there must be a way to "bulletproof" the transmission just like the engine. In my search I have found a few nice write ups like the one HERE. While specific to the Sentra transmission, the facts remain valid to a good chunk for the FF automotive community.

What follows is a list of the various services and some prices I scared up. Nothing rock solid, I think before hand it's worth the discussion.



Of course to begin the basics will need to be addressed. Some of this has already been covered ad nauseum in the Faith's turbo build thread so I'll just glaze over what most of you already know:



Clutch - (see the clutch review and info threads)



Flywheel -

Aasco ~ $400

Clutch Masters ~ $400

Fidanza ~ $350

SPEC ~ $450



Differential -

Quaife ~ $1100 (p/n: QDH8B)

Road Race~ $800

 

I was always thinking about sending mine to Shepard at Sheptrans.com and see if he would build a beta trans. He is pretty cool and they can't be that far off of a DSM trans. But I have yet to get to that point in my build but food for thought.

 

Honestly for what you'd pay them you could have a well built trans with LSD and a decent clutch kit.

 

Called around a bit more today and got some more info. Got some really nice feedback from this company.

Talked to Rob from 300 below who said that they do a lot of transmission work and charge a standard rate of $3.50 per pound with a minimum order of $100. Now it would be interesting to see what the various parts of the trans when separated weigh, but truth be told this will almost certainly prove less expensive than the other guys.





I also got chatting with him about my build and he offered up numbers on engine parts too: (for a 2.0L 4 cyl, a delta build will prolly cost 50% more)

Rods - $7.50/per

Pistons - $7.50/per

Crank - $130

Block - $270

They have a full motor price in the $450-500 range if you want to go crazy and that is a big discount over their individual cost if anyone plans to go crazy. I for one am not that serious.











Also thinking a trans cooler would help things out, especially after modding them hell out of drivetrain. Will add more on that after further research

 

They make LSD for Beta trannys?

 

From what I was seeing it's like the Quaife and you have to buy the DSM version. You might want to verify before buying that it will even work because it will spin in reverse. IIRC there was some question with the Quaife whether you get 100% of the effect, but based on my research it should function.



Honestly I didn't bother to call either manufactures to verify myself because the reviews on both were absolute crap.









Update: I should have a definite answer on the OBX by the end of the day. I finally got a hold of them so I could get some solid facts

I still would not order one for many reason, but if you need convincing: http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-franc...isco-ca-315289



It turns out on the RR one that they just sell the Quaife ($1200) and Wavetrac ($800), but the Wavetrac will not work in our transmissions so that's a lost avenue.