Originally Posted by Arnold K.

I don't care about what a 1 inch picture looks like. You're not thinking logically about this whole situation at all. If oil pans and oil coolers are the same, that means internally and dimensionally the transmission has remained largely untouched with the exception of a ratio change, which involves a different set of cogs, and perhaps some internal component strengthening. Though nowhere in that press release did Nissan mention anything about strengthening the transmission, but they went through great lengths to talk about the changes made to the VQ37.

What you fail to understand is that the 5AT and 7AT bolt right up to the VQ35HR without any issues at all. That alone shows how similar the transmissions are that Nissan was able to just swap one out for the other 1 or 2 years later, and then continue using the 7AT on the VQ37s, as well.