Is anyone interested in the ZF 8HP transmissions?

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by WSSix

That's interesting, Andrew. Do you have any concerns about it holding up to the abuse the Cougar can give it?

There seem to be plenty of swaps that have been done with the 8HP70 with similar or more power than what the Cougar makes. The 70 stands for the torque rating, which in this case is 700Nm, which is 516lf/ft. By comparison GM rates the 4L80e at 440lb/ft, and we know how durable those transmissions can be even in stock form.

I have two friends that are doing this swap at the same time. The other cars are a 66 Fairlane with a LSx454 and a 2004 BMW M3 with a LT1/LT4 engine combination. All three cars are in the 600-700HP range.

I actually thought there would be more interest here. This transmission is basically becoming the LS of the transmission world. There are adapter plates available for every popular performance engine out there, new or old.

Andrew

[shinchane101]

Exploring modern transmission swaps can be quite intriguing, especially when it comes to the ZF 8HP range. It's great to see the interest in the 8HP swap grow, and kudos to Tom for securing those transmissions and working on modifications. These transmissions do have their complexities, but the potential benefits are exciting. Looking forward to hearing more Futbol libre from those interested in this swap, especially in combination with Holley EFI. Keep us posted, Andrew

[andrewb70]

Today Tom received a little care package from Sweden. We received all three kits and everything was packaged very nicely.



This is the little PCB board that needs to be soldered in place where the stock TCU lives.




I was actually shocked to see how small the PCB board is. The TurboLamik TCU is not huge, but it is quite a bit larger than the stock TCU. I suspect that ZF has a lot of very talented electronics hardware engineers working for them and that the stock TCU probably uses some ASICs, while the TurboLamik uses more readily available, larger, general purpose chip sets. I also suspect that this si why everyone that tries to get around the stock TCU limits eventually hits a wall. That is because the ASICs have built in hardware limits that just can't be exceeded with software hacking. The TurboLamik has no such limitations and thus is more flexible.

The sleeve on the left is the adapter to use an earlier transmission where the converter snouts had a smaller diameter. We won't need them, but it is nice that they it is included. All of the hardware is included and individually packaged.




Andrew

[WSSix]

I had no idea they were finally making automatics that strong. I was easily impressed with all the gears they now have. Power capacity didn't even enter my mind. This is definitely interesting.

Btw, Tom bought the Forgeline's on his M3 from me. Small world. Wish we could have chatted longer when he came by to pick them up.

Thanks, Andrew

[BigBronco]

Very interesting.

I am such a manual transmission guy, that I have not paid too much attention to most of the newer automatics outside of watching what the 10 speeds have done with the ford s550 and f-150 platforms.

Appreciate the information and look forward to seeing how this will work and what it takes to integrate it into the holley.

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by WSSix

I had no idea they were finally making automatics that strong. I was easily impressed with all the gears they now have. Power capacity didn't even enter my mind. This is definitely interesting.

Btw, Tom bought the Forgeline's on his M3 from me. Small world. Wish we could have chatted longer when he came by to pick them up.

Thanks, Andrew

Tom completely reworked those wheels with different hoops to fit his e46. They look great. That car is going to hurt a lot of GT3 owner's feeling after he does the 8HP swap...

Originally Posted by BigBronco

Very interesting.

I am such a manual transmission guy, that I have not paid too much attention to most of the newer automatics outside of watching what the 10 speeds have done with the ford s550 and f-150 platforms.

Appreciate the information and look forward to seeing how this will work and what it takes to integrate it into the holley.

I have never owned a hotrod with an automatic, so it will be a new experience for me. If you can even call these transmissions "automatic".

Andrew

[srode1]

Originally Posted by andrewb70

I have two friends that are doing this swap at the same time. The other cars are a 66 Fairlane with a LSx454 and a 2004 BMW M3 with a LT1/LT4 engine combination. All three cars are in the 600-700HP range.

I actually thought there would be more interest here. This transmission is basically becoming the LS of the transmission world. There are adapter plates available for every popular performance engine out there, new or old.

Andrew

I'm following and interested for sure, following just not commenting. Guessing the ZF8hp90 would have the same integration solutions.

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by srode1

I'm following and interested for sure, following just not commenting. Guessing the ZF8hp90 would have the same integration solutions.

Yes, the 8HP90 uses the same adapters and TCU. They are a little thicker in the middle of the case, but otherwise similar in dimensions to the 8HP70.

If the 8HP70 works well in my Cougar, I'll be doing a 8HP90 in my GTO.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

Today Tom sent me some pictures of the preparations that he is doing to the stock TCU in order to use the TurboLamik. This is the part that has to be removed from the valve body. Here it is sitting upside down and you can see the shiny plate, which is the case of the stock TCU. This top of this case must be cut off carefully by using e Dremel with a cut off disk.



Here is the stock TCU with the cover cut off. You can see how impressively small the electronics are inside the TCU.



Sadly, we can't use any of it, so all of the little wires that you to go from the circuit board to the pins have to be cut off and bent back.



Here is the Domi-works PCB board. It will get soldered in place to bridge the appropriate pins so that the TurboLamik TCU can be used externally.



Once the PCB is soldered in place, the little billet cover has to be glued in place. Tom found a local electronics repair place that will do the soldering at a very good price. We felt that this job was important enough to have a professional do it.

Andrew