Megashift Trans Controller, Controlling Boxster/996 Tiptronic Boxes? Options

[Chris H.]

Hey All,

I'm working on a solution for a certain large, square German vehicle and wanted to bounce this off of the electronics gurus. Might also be helpful down the road for those who might want to do a tiptronic Boxster trans in their 914s.

So...the challenge for me is that there are only a couple of automatic transmissions that are pointed in the right direction to use in the Vanagon and only one that can handle more than ~150 hp for a significant period of time. That would be the 911 tiptronic. My initial thought was to use a 964/993 trans which does not have a key driven immobilizer. Looking through the wiring diagrams I THINK I can figure out a way to run it with the stock TCU.

But then I found the Megashift trans controller:

Megashift!

IF (big if) I am reading the directions right, it appears you need the shift solenoid configuration (probably more stuff too), and then it should be fairly easy to control.

So the questions are:

1. How easy/hard do you think this would be? Seems like you program the solenoid shift config for each gear, kick down, a few other settings like idle increase, etc?

2. Since the security logic for the immobilizer is not associated with the trans itself, do you think this fully bypasses the immobilizer? Seems like it but I know very little about the tiptronic box.

3. Is there another stock automatic TCU from a VW or Audi that could be adapted to run this? EDIT: The Passat TCU MIGHT WORK. Same trans model #...ZF5HP19... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

If we can make this work it could be a great thing for those wanting/needing an automatic solution. I'll give it a shot if the feedback is good.

[Andyrew]

VW/Audi/Boxster is going to have relatively the same strength 5 speed tips. The VW version in the passats is a dime a dozen and the audi's fairly common as well.

The immobilizer is typically in the ECU and the dash, I am not aware of one in the TCU but I can ask.

You might want to give someone like JH Motorsports a call and discuss it with their tech. They might be able to trick a stock TCU into doing what you want it to do, as they reprogram them for firmer and later shift points per the customers needs.