Is it feasible to change an automatic transmission to a manual s40?

 

Well would help with what year. Tranny changes are never worth it for Volvo's. Personally i have a 2001 s40 and would love a manual, but only know one person who did it. It was about a 6 month job and he had a buddy in Sweden who sent him over the things, Customs made a huge fit over it. You have to have someone over sees to do it for below 4.5's. it was about 1500 if i recall, but he did all the work himself. Which means you have to rip apart interior, reprogram ECU, move pedals (Sounds small, but is a huge huge pain to do) and of course the whole engine removal and transmission drop, then trying to fit the EU type transmission into your interior shifter space. And if it's above a 4.5, just sell the car and go buy a manual one.

 

I have to agree that it's a bit of a job, but "never worth it in a Volvo" I very much disagree, it can be VERY much worth doing the swap. If you're pretty mechanical and/or have a friend who is, once you have all the parts it can be done over the weekend. Me and a friend did a manual swap on my 850R. Now it's a whole other car and so much more fun to drive. IIRC it was about a 16 hour job. Some guys have the 850 swap down to 6-8 hours.

Like ShowTek said getting the transmission and all the extra bits will be the hardest task because North America never got the 1st Gen S40 in a manual. In this case, I'd have to agree with ShowTek again. Not worth the time and money to do a manual swap unless you can get an M56 (the euro 1st Gen S40 also uses an M56) from one of the 850's, S70's or 2nd Gen S40's to mate up to your engine. Other wise, get your self a 04.5 S40 T5 with an M66 in it.

Might also want to ask over at s40concepts.net to see if any of those guys have done a swap.

 

I've got the 2nd generation s40. I guess this would mean that the parts would be easier to come by for the tranny swap. Also, I am in the midst some major engine work. I have a 2005 s40 with only 85k miles and the alternator belt split wrapping a strip of itself around the drive pulley. The car died and the engine was left with no compression. I am now 10 bolts away from removing the head and hope that a valve job fixes the problem. I am kind of worried because my jack lowered without my knowing and left the passenger side of the engine suspended by only whatever holds the engine on the drivers side. It was only suspended for a moment and I didn't hear anything break. What should I be concerned about?

 

Well, should check out the engine mount's general area, see if anything has compressed or bent. But relating to Matt, yes an 850R i would say is worth the swap since it's a highly sought after car, and a manual one is a dream car of mine. But 2nd gen manual s40's are not horrible hard to find. i would think you would have harder time finding a good manual in a junkyard that isn't scrap.

 

Off topic Matt, what makes an 850 and "854", i've seen that around, what does it mean?

 

854 refers to a sedan
855 refers to a wagon