Enders swap, Update 11/29/19 Options

[bloodMoney]

This make me seriously NOT want to do this on Lily. Especially given my current state of mind with her.... Good job though, you'll have to take me for a ride down 71 for some 'inspiration'

[enderswift]

No problem

[enderswift]

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

[navseal345]

You should have started off with the bad news. Lol

[enderswift]

You should have started off with the bad news. Lol

Its not really bad news, just annoying news

[Zake]

That's crappy dude, I'm sorry they're trying to pull one over on you. It looks good otherwise and those are some solid numbers!

[4-eyed-freek]

Not far off my times! Awesome!

[Smaay]

time to get a southbend clutch. i drag my Supra and 7th gen for years. excellent grip, perfect engagement.

[enderswift]

That's crappy dude, I'm sorry they're trying to pull one over on you. It looks good otherwise and those are some solid numbers!

Yea, well not they charged me a 20% restocking fee for returning a defective kit...

Not far off my times! Awesome!

It was a surprising result. The helical s54/SS combo really came together. I really cannot wait to install my ebc now that the car has proven it can put down the power. 17.99 psi will be a big improvement over the ~13-14 I push now O

time to get a southbend clutch. i drag my Supra and 7th gen for years. excellent grip, perfect engagement.

yea I know you really like them, and I've heard that they use exedy components for their kits. At this point its basically a coin toss between spec and sb. Although I do like that spec has had a SKU for the 3s/s54 combo for a few years now. But then again some people had issues with loose springs

Choosing a clutch company sucks

This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 8, 2015 - 11:50 PM

[bloodMoney]

Just go to Southbend Luke.

If you end up getting ****ty product, you can always just show up on their front door and show them in person.

There are a bunch of guys on ctech running southbend clutches and they have nothing but good things to say about them.

[enderswift]

Chris, ur right. I'll order a kit from them once I'm done arguing with clutchmasters. I cant believe they charge a 20% restocking fee for returning a defective item...

[enderswift]

Hi 6gc, time for an update:


Parts have been collected to fix the clutch drag issue. I decided to take the steamroller approach and replace damn near everything. I hope this is the last time I have to think about the clutch for a while.

Notice the red pressure plate; that's a Southbend clutch. I hope the good word of mouth holds true, though it was reassuring to see an exedy stamp on the disc:


In other news, I've finally gotten around to working on the water injection setup. This is a project that should have been finished in early June
So far I've started by tackling the throttlebody adapter:


First order of business was to measure the gap between the throttlebody and charge cooler to see what the space constraints would be. Unfortunately it appears that the charge cooler will need to be trimmed. I hate to do it, but the alternative is to place the nozzle directly above the butterfly, which I do not feel is very good placement. If I trim it correctly I should still retain the ability to switch back to stock if necessary. Fingers crossed


With measurements complete it was time to order a few parts. It turned out that the only available T-bolt clamps are 0.75" wide, which is way too wide for this application. I instead went with a set of ABA clamps, which look like your average worm clamp, but are much, much beefier


Next it was time to throw the adapter on a manual mill to drill a hole for the nozzle and to shorten the overall length. Still havent come up with a good way to trim the charge cooler. Gonna have to mull that over a little more.


And the end result. My friend will be powdercoating it for me tomorrow and It will be getting installed some time next week
After that I will be moving on to fabricating a mounting bracket for the pump so it sits below the stock washer fluid bottle



300+ hp is close... very close

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 7, 2015 - 7:06 PM

[Smaay]

you will love the southbend! they use exedy cores and built their clutches on them. trust me i have their clutches on my entire fleet.

[enderswift]

I sure hope so!

[enderswift]

More progress:


Quick sandblast and prebake before coating


Finished product



This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 8, 2015 - 5:17 PM

[4-eyed-freek]

That looks really nice! Awesome work, I've always been interested in meth injection!

[enderswift]

That looks really nice! Awesome work, I've always been interested in meth injection!

I think everyone should be. The benefits are enormous, though it is a total pain to install:


adapter mid-install. I still had to trim the charge cooler, which turned out to a terrible experience. Despite my best precautions I still managed to get aluminum shavings into the core. It took lots of cleaning and rinsing before I was confident i had it clean


Everything all buttoned up. I was really concerned that the nozzle would hit the hood but there is plenty of clearance


While I had the cooler off I decided to redo the old heat shielding


Also finally found a replacement oxygen sensor! I thought these were impossible to find in the states but PrimeMr2 stocks them O.o
I haven't driven the car very far but it seems to work well. Hopefully this takes care of an intermittent bucking issue I've had

Next weekend I'll be cutting and bending a custom bracket to secure the injection pump. Already have a general design roughed out

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 17, 2015 - 12:09 AM

[4-eyed-freek]

Injection system is looking great, let me know when you want to trade cars

[enderswift]

Injection system is looking great, let me know when you want to trade cars

Thanks it still has a long way to go, but at least the progress is fun. And I don't think you'd wanna give a RHD newbie the keys to a very rare rally car!

[enderswift]

This is one of my favorite water injection videos. I'm not a big fan of pre-compressor injection, but damn is this epic ( skip to 40 sec mark)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F51xymg33-w

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 18, 2015 - 9:36 PM