Hi 6GC,
long time no update. I'm unfortunately less active these days, but I do have a few things to post. First and foremost, I finally went to a drag strip with the car. I've never been to a strip before so this was a lot of fun:
Got my numbers and gave the car a quick once over before the runs started. I was really interested to see the impact of the SS suspension and helical differential. Wheel hop and one wheel burnouts were issues that I always struggled with in the original builds
It rained that morning so the strip was largely empty. This picture shows the total number of cars that ran that day
I got a total of 9 runs in
Quick in-car shot of staging before a run. There was a sanctioned motorcycle drag event that took up some time, otherwise I probably could have made 15 or so runs
And finally my best time. I think a 13.6 on stock boost with an amateur driver is pretty damn amazing. For comparison the guy next to me was a 425hp beast. I bet if I let some more air out and scrubbed the tires longer I could get into the low 13's. The new helical is absolutely PHENOMENAL
It completely transforms the S54 and I had ZERO torque steer or shimmy at the strip. It just really exceeded my expectations, which makes me feel great because rebuilding that trans was a project and a half! The car was launching so hard I was concerned with breaking things, and I did eventually break an exhaust hanger
I think with 4 more pounds of boost I can get into the high 12's, so I really have to install the HKS boost controller thats been collecting dust for the last year
If only I had more free time!
It's just so satisfying to have a machine I've built from scratch over hundreds of hours perform so well under such abuse, and its on stock boost!
In other news, earlier in the summer I had the misfortune of suffering loose pressure plate bolts
. The car was giving me slightly notchy shifts and it turned out the Toyota FSM has the WRONG torque spec for pressure plate bolts. 14ft-lbs is not enough.... 22 ft-lbs is the right value
. I wish I knew that last November... This unfortunately means that the new clutch setup wore incorrectly for a few hundred miles while I diagnosed the issue. It is now slightly dragging when the pedal is pushed in all the way which makes the synchros work harder than they should. So it was time for a new clutch!
I contacted clutchmasters for another FX300 kit plus a new flywheel (slightly less weight). They proceeded to send this:
Yes, the professional clutch company placed a fresh disc onto a flywheel soaked in storage oil. Those of you who've changed their own brakes know that turned parts like rotors and flywheels are stored in oil to prevent surface rust. It's pretty standard practice, but hey mistakes happen I suppose except:
This thing looks like either a refurb, or something that's been knocking around the parts bin for too long. Rivets look poorly riveted, pins look ground with a hand grinder, the paint is scuffed, I can see heat and wear marks from a throw out bearing, and theres paint overspray on the fingers. Worst of all the pressure plate needs to be forced over the dowels on the new flywheel (it should slide on with minimal effort). What the hell is this? The QA dept in my company would be humiliated if something like this left our door.
Here are some of the scuffs and scratches on the pressure plate. I wish I took photos of the pins and rivets, they looked really bad. It looked as though they were originally too long and subsequently shortened with a dremel or grinder. Seeing things like that doesn't really inspire confidence in the overall quality of the part.
What irritates me the most is that clutchmasters responded to my emails by saying that the wear and scuffs are 'normal' from testing before shipment
They didn't even try to explain the poor flywheel fitment, pin grinding or overspray. The kits I received from them in the past didn't look anything like this, they looked new. I did get an offer to replace the oil soaked part but I'm not about to spend 15+ hours of labor installing a clutch kit that looks lazily refurbished. I'm done with clutchmasters since this was already their second chance. They've previously sent me the wrong throwout bearing (they sent one for an E153) which eventually cost me a weekend and $200 to rip out the trans. I let that slide and purchased from them again only to get this.
TL;DR: go to Clutchmasters if you like spending over a grand on parts that look refurbished
Anyway, the clutch drag is minimal and more annoying than harmful, but I'll have to correct it eventually; So does anyone have a vendor they like that isn't southbend? I'm thinking SPEC might be a good bet since they actually have SKU for a 3S S54 combo
This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 6, 2015 - 1:49 AM
