Electro-Fox

I know that there are already a bunch of F23 swap guides out there, all of which say to use a Cobalt/HHR gearbox since it bolts to both the LSJ engine along with the stock transmission mounts. However, I happen to already have an F23 from a 2003 Saturn Vue, and though the ratios of that box are considered by most to be too short, it's not terribly dissimilar from the ratios of the HHR box.

Anyway, onto the bits I couldn't quite cobble together myself, my main concerns with swapping a Vue F23 into an Ion Redline are:

The F23 in the Vue, from my understanding, uses the older style casing that the Cavalier/Sunfire use, and that won't bolt into an Ion Redline, and from what I can find there are no aftermarket mounts available that allow the older style F23 casing to fit in a factory F35 equipped vehicle. My options seem to be either find a machine shop willing to fabricate some custom mounts, or make them myself; though I am certified in both MIG and TIG welding, I have no experience with fabrication, so thats a maybe.


With a typical HHR F23 swap, you use axles from a manual Grand Am or Alero. These, from my understanding, go into the Ion Redline hubs and F23 box without modification. Will this still be the case with a Vue F23? Though I doubt the casing will make a difference as to what axles I use, I'm not 100% positive on that one.


Having dug around on the Fiero forums, there appear to be a few options for differential inserts that work with the older Cavalier/Sunfire casing If I'm not mistaken, the pinion gear for the differential is pressed into the casing, which makes the differential case specific. My question here is, does anybody know what style casing the F23 in the Opel Astra H uses? I would assume the older style casing since production of that vehicle began in 2004, but then again, Cobalts with the new style casing were produced around the same time. The reason this matters to me is if possible I'd like to use the F23 Gripper LSD, which is designed to fit in an Astra's F23 box.


Lastly, when doing an F23 swap I would assume that you should use the clutch, flywheel, and of course pressure plate and slave cylinder off of an F23 rather than an F35 clutch/flywheel. Is this correct?


If the answers to some of these questions exist elsewhere, sorry for bringing them up again, but other than maybe the clutch/flywheel, I can't seem to find answers anywhere else

blu3_v1p3r

iTrader: (6)

Honestly I wouldn’t brother with the bus trans. Just get he correct trans. They are cheap enough, and there are tons of manual cobalts in junk yards.

Electro-Fox

Currently working on LSD swapping that bus gearbox XD, I'm committed now

We'll see how it pans out. I fully expect that I'll need to make custom transmission mounts, I need to get a shifter assembly out of a base model Ion, and I have the rest of what I need. I'll try to post here when everything is done, as of now, I'm waiting on the differential to show up and after that I have to buy the clutch and flywheel. I'm currently broke, so the clutch and flywheel may be a while, but once I get that I'll swap the gearbox in and see what the mounting situation is going to look like.

blu3_v1p3r

iTrader: (6)

even more reason to swap in the delta platform f23. Super budget friendly, as the mounts are already available.

Electro-Fox

Perhaps, but I'm past choosing a gearbox at this point. I have a Gripper clutch LSD meant for an Opel Astra with the F23 box arriving in a few days (designed for the Opel box but should still fit the Vue's box) I bought axles out of an F23 2000 Olds Alero to throw in, remembered just today to buy a Vue slave cylinder (probably should have done that a tad sooner) and all that's left really is to grab a base model Ion shifter assembly, fabricate some mounts, and see what other issues I need to fix. Really, I'm curious as to how that 4.45FD is going to do; currently I'm at about 280WHP, and I plan to stay there, so it shouldn't be entirely unusable.

The reason I wanted to start this thread was to see if anyone has done this swap, and maybe see if mounts exist that work with this gearbox. It appears the answer is no to both of those questions, but hey, I have a welder, some scrap steel, and an Astra I can drive to work and back while I figure the mounting situation out.