Will the 3's tranny hold up for future upgrades.

[Pete47]

Hi everyone. My question is, Will the 3's transmission hold up for all the future modifications like turbos and ecu tuning with exhaust and intake?
How much HP do yous think it can handle?
What do yous feel us 3 owners need to be concerned about when tuning the 3? What are the 3's weak spots and why?

 

[Mazda3ofKent]

Hi everyone. My question is, Will the 3's transmission hold up for all the future modifications like turbos and ecu tuning with exhaust and intake?
How much HP do yous think it can handle?
What do yous feel us 3 owners need to be concerned about when tuning the 3? What are the 3's weak spots and why?

I am more worried about the clutch than the tranny

 

[AzMz3]

Hi everyone. My question is, Will the 3's transmission hold up for all the future modifications like turbos and ecu tuning with exhaust and intake?
How much HP do yous think it can handle?
What do yous feel us 3 owners need to be concerned about when tuning the 3? What are the 3's weak spots and why?

Thats kinda of a loaded question. Depends on alot...auto or manual?
Even the driving style of the person. I have seen some boosted cars run 50000 miles on the stock clutch and I have seen the same type of car trash every aftermarket clutch made for it.

If it is an auto, no one will really know till they really try it. But I'd be willing to bet that it will not handle as much as a manual. Examples....Protege, Focus, Hondas.
The auto trannies number one killer is heat. And the added torque from any sort of FI system will generate more heat, cause more slipping due to the soft shift points.

 

[FC3s Boy]

tri point was using the 2.3l trany on their cars so i'm sure it is stronger than a Protege tranny which has held 300+hp

 

[crossbow]

FC3s,

The tripoint 6i used the general transmission that is both in the 6i and 3s...they encountered gear failures and issues almost every race. They finally solved the problem by replacing the transmission prior to every single scca world challenge event. Jeff and Shauna's car was outputing 280 bhp, or around 240ish WHP. The general gear that failed was 3rd, which is also one of the gears another fellow 3 owner with nitrous broke. I'd say the 3s/6i is good to around 200-220 whp before considerations need to be made to strengthen the G35M-R platform.

The tripoint team has abandoned the stock G35M-R for the 05 races, and will be runing a race transmission instead, due to the weaknesses constantly found within the G35M-R under excessive applications of power.

Here's the thread with commentary by Jeff on his races, and information on his transmission problems and future plans.
http://forum.mazda6tech.com/about950-0-asc-0.html

 

[FC3s Boy]

^^ yea i did'nt know they were having that many problems with them, good to know

 

[Mazda3ofKent]

Some one on here was useing Nitous with a 3 and had big tranny problems thouhg i think he was shifitng while spraying

 

[AzMz3]

Some one on here was useing Nitous with a 3 and had big tranny problems thouhg i think he was shifitng while spraying

Yeah I would not even use that one as any proof since there are so many holes in that story.

One thing I have found out over the years about trannies is they are very unperdictable. I have seen 250whp+ on the complete stock tranny with 50,000 miles. And I have seen the same type of car ,with the same type of tranny, with under 250whp toast clutches quickly.
I think we will just have to see a few more high HP Mazda3's before we write it off as having a weak tranny.
Although I have heard from the Focus world that some building a high HP Mazda3 needed a MTX-75 because they thought the Mazda3 could not handle the power output they wanted. But that was like 500whp+ and I don't even think they tested the tranny first, maybe it was because of the Focus tranny aftermarket!
But there is a cheap option if this does become a problem...MTX-75 from a Focus.

 

[Airman Jack]

is MTX-75 a class of transmission? or more like a part number? I'm pretty ignorant in this area, can you just bolt on pretty much any transmission behind the clutch as long as it fits underneath the car?
on a more drool-inducing note, is there a 6-speed transmission swap we might be able to do?

 

[AzMz3]

is MTX-75 a class of transmission? or more like a part number? I'm pretty ignorant in this area, can you just bolt on pretty much any transmission behind the clutch as long as it fits underneath the car?
on a more drool-inducing note, is there a 6-speed transmission swap we might be able to do?

The MTX-75 is the tranny in the Ford Focus. It will bolt to the block, but being simple is yet to be seen.
Why would you want a 6 speed? I know I wouldn't.

 

[Pete47]

Thanks for the replies guys...
So since we might have to consider not over HPing our trannsmissions,
where would be the sweet upgradeable HP spot for the tranny?

 

[AzMz3]

Thanks for the replies guys...
So since we might have to consider not over HPing our trannsmissions,
where would be the sweet upgradeable HP spot for the tranny?

I'm sure that is a question no one can answer, atleast on this forum. We will just have to see, just like the auto guys that think the auto is stronger than the manual. Time and money will tell.

 

[majic]

The MTX-75 is the tranny in the Ford Focus. It will bolt to the block, but being simple is yet to be seen.
Why would you want a 6 speed? I know I wouldn't.

i think b/c 120kph hwy cruising at 3K RPM sux.. it'd be nicer if it were in the 2200-2500 range..

 

[Airman Jack]

not to mention that a common complaint about our gearing ratios is that 2nd is far too tall a gear

 

[MazdaAxela]

The tranny should be able to hold a fair amount of gains, I would consider a clutch upgrade right away but the rest should be able to handle up 200Hp is what I heard..so dont quote meon that...