GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

If I were to put a Vibe GT engine in a base auto Vibe, but took out the transmission and replaced it with a paddle shifter, would that work?If not, any idea of how to get a GT engine to work in a base Vibe?

Well, my suspicion is after you drop in the engine, you need to swap out the tranny. The auto and 5 speed both will kill your power bands. Then you need to replace the rear brakes with discs to give you sufficient stopping power.In other words -- you'd be nuts. The cost of changing over a base to a GT would far exceed trading in for a GT.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Well, my suspicion is after you drop in the engine, you need to swap out the tranny. The auto and 5 speed both will kill your power bands. Then you need to replace the rear brakes with discs to give you sufficient stopping power.In other words -- you'd be nuts. The cost of changing over a base to a GT would far exceed trading in for a GT.It also depends on where you get the parts from. You can alwas find a wrecked Vibe in a junkyard and take what you need but I think it would be a lot of work.

Echo what they both said, and in addition, a paddle shifter isn't really something you can just throw into a car. You would be better off getting a GT and shifting like everyone else.

Engineering a paddle shifter type device to a Vibe would be downright murderous unless you had that type of access to other parts. The ECM's of those cars are very powerful and I'm sure that the Vibe's wouldn't be able to match shifts if you would do that.

actually all you need to do is find a sportshift celica . and swap the neccessary parts over to your car. the ecu harness is different but nothing a good mechanic or race shop cant overcome.the gearing is diffent amongst other things so you may need some tranny parts or get the whole engine tranny ecu package

You wouldn't need to swap out the brakes. The stopping power of the base is just fine. I'm running more power out of my motor than a GT, and I have no problems. Although, I still would like to have discs in the back. In time I suppose.

I do have access to almost any part I need (Although the Vibe is harder since it's newer). It sounds like a lot of work, I'll have to ask Nate and Scott if they'd be up to helping me with it. So the Celica Sportshift would be an easier way to go then?

I bet you could do it, but if you went with an auto, remember to change your flywheel. Auto flywheels are smaller and you will eat trannys up if you don't......

Thanks for the heads-up