Huge thanks medium! Btw you're not from Hungary by any chance? (since you mentioned that English is not your first language)

My pleasure :-)
Na, I'm from Switzerland. As I ride motorcycle too, I'll let you know if I'm travelling nearby ;-)
or we can arrange something if needed !

Let's revisit this boys.

Is it even worth it to rebuild a CA box if you're pushing 300 whp? Why not just get a Z32 box and conversion plate? Thoughts? I've been thinking about this more and more as my 2nd gear syncro is going out. Btw, as I've moved to Los Angeles, these mountain touge have been getting crazy!

Hi Izento!

Honestly, this is hard for me to reply to your question. For me, I was really looking to keep the exact same gearbox no matter what (the car belonged to my grandmother and is almost in perfect condition, so restoration only ;-)).
But the time needed to disassemble everything to get to the 2nd synchro is huge if you don't have the specific tool, so it might worth the shot to get another box and just swap it.

Do you have any idea of the price of a z32 box in LA ? For comparison, here in Europe, the CA is worth 400-700 USD.

My answer would be, what is the car being used for? If it's a daily or just a fun weekend car, the stock box will last a long time at 300whp. If you're doing any kind of racing on the regular, then an upgraded box makes more sense. If you're doing anything competitive, then the stock box won't last long at all.

If you get a Z32 box you still need to rebuild it because it's also a 30 year old box, the adapter is 1000€+ last time i checked + the box itself if you can get one cost more than 800€ the last times I've checked. That is a lot of CA boxes that you can swap in before you're even close to what the Z32 will run you

I think time and headache has more value than you're giving it credit for. I have a friend with a 400+whp KA24. He blew his trans just passing someone on a 2 lane highway. He didn't even shift. He was in 5th gear and just put the throttle down and it just stripped the gears. He had to get it towed back home, then all the trouble to swap it out. He upgraded the box because off the hassle. If I ever blow a trans, I won't hesitate to upgrade it. Replacing broken transmissions on the regular is not only wasteful of materials and time, but it's also wasteful of parts. It's not like you can buy new ones anymore...

Yeah, you're ofc right in that regard but at 300whp like he wants, depending on how the car is set up torque wise a rebuilt box should last years unless you grenade it from every green light. I've talked to some of the most famous German CA builders (zex for example) and he said the boxes are fine for that power range, the only thing they need is an oil cooler as oil overheating is the biggest problem even if you're just going 130km/h+ for a prolonged time, ie. highway. I went through this topic several times as I've considered both Z32 and CD009 boxes as a swap but I think the cost and issues with them outweigh an outright swap unless you're really running too much torque through them or use them heavily on the track or for drifting (or if you have issues like wheel bounce). Should mine ever die after I've rebuilt it and added the cooler then I'll look into swapping something different in but even then I'd look into fitting something more reliable and easily available than a Z32 really. The CD also has it's issues btw, weight, it's much lower to the ground, you need to hammer your tunnel and it's noisy as f*** on a CA.

I think we agree, that for non-race situations, 300whp is inside the limits of that transmission. I said that a few posts above. But my point was that if you ever grenade a stock transmission and you're over 300whp or racing the car, I DON'T think that just putting another one in is a good idea.

You're also right that the common swap transmissions have other issues as well, the CD is a heavy bastard, and Z32/RB25 transmissions have gotten hard to find and expensive because everyone wants them for swaps.

650hp worth of KA24DE turbo torque. STOCK 5speed 2:50 in video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_hkMLD77YA
Shock is damaging, but hard to quantify.... so ymmv.

Got a buddy who puts Z32 5 speeds behind his 2JZs. Done right in his backyard - lol. Done a few. They work
Says its a waaaayyyy better shifting, stronger and more reliable than the toyota R154 5 speed

LOL! I've seen that video before! I started to watch it and was like, "Oh, I like this guy"... then was like, "This looks familiar".... Then went to like it and realized I already liked it!

Don't get me wrong about the Z32 trans. I think they're good, but they're expensive now and getting hard to find.

just to be clear, that 650hp ka24 retained the STOCK 4cyl gearbox behind it. Not a Z32/RB box

Yes, I know.