SHE RUNS!

After much bs I figured out my problem....

First off, after I settled down (I was extremely mad about the trans) and rrealized I jumped to conclusions, I realized its not the transmission making noise. When the clutch is in, the internals of the transmission do not move at all. So I didn't pull the trans. I narrowed the noise down to my started. At first I adjusted the free play of my clutch pedal thinking that the clutch was fully disengaging and was putting a strain on the starter. The factory spec for clutch pedal free play is .3"-.8", I had almost 1.5" It was like that wit hthe stock clutch too, so I adjusted mine to about .6", and I have a real clutch pedal feel now. Before you'd push it to the floor and still feel a lot of pressure plate pressure. But that did not fix it, so I pulled my starter and ran it off the trans and it made the same grinding/spinning thudding noise. Threw the gear in the vice and turned the whole starter by hand and it was siezed, took a lot of effort to get it to move. So I think I fried my starter priming the oil pump 30 seconds at a time with the plugs in.

So I grabbed my friends starter yesterday and threw it in ,sure enough noise was gone. But now I had a new problem. Primed the engine with no plugs, built oil pressure in like 10 seconds. I'd go to start the engine, it'd run for a split second and instantly die. You gave it any gas it'd die quicker. So I figured it was something ignition related, played with dizzy timing, checked for spark, threw new plugs in, nothing. So I was convinced my timing was off a tooth or something.

So today I reset my timing belt, all the markings lined up, went to start it, same thing. I checked everything from spark to fuel pressure to any source of a large vacuum leak. I then remembered I depinned my MAP sensor to reloom it, brought up the wiring diagram sure **** I had the wires all in the wrong spots. Repinned it, cranked it over, fired up instantly and had its first idle as a new engine. It runs like a champ, no abnormal noises, no major leaks, I think I have a small coolant leak from the thermal intake gasket. The piston slap isn't too loud, I let the engine warm up to operating temp, going to take it for a drive tomorrow.Put 20 miles on it then change the oil right away. When I do that the Mishimoto oil sandwich plate is going on and going to hook up my oil pressure gauge.
Also with the clutch out in neutral there wasn o bearing noise from the transmission, so this swampy trans might actually be okay!

I tell you what though, there's notihng better than hearing the engine run after knowing how much work was done. I had literally every single bolt out of it, I did all the work myself, and to hear it run flawlessly is just amazing. When I spent almost 3 days trying to figure out why it owuldn't run I kept thinking to myself doing all this was way over my head, but I proved to my self that it's really not that hard and that I can learn how to do anything I want. Now hopefully it just stays together.

Pictures anyone?

Mishimoto oil sandwich plate, thanks Pat!

Bought an intercooler off my friend, intercooler and pipng for $60. Intercooler is pretty big, super thick. 28x7.5x3.5

AEM gauges in

Here's how my bay looks in the sun light

And as she naps for the night, awaiting break in starting tomorrow!

 

Better pics of the bay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now!

Glad to hear you got the sandwich plate with no problems. Let me know if there is anything else I can help out with buddy!

For the gauges, I think you should switch to the black faces, but that is my personal preference of course.

 

I've put about 28 miles on the engine so far. Runs and drives amazingly, I haven't taken it past 4k or full on but it feels much quicker. I changed the oil this morning to get the assembly lube and shavings out. Put in my mishimoto sandwich plate too, that went in decently, filter didn't thread over the first few threads easily but after that it's fine, not worried though. The oil pressure sensor is in, just need to run the power to the gauge which I am going to be doing now. And I wish I had the black faces pat but the guy only had the white.

Also ordered another type r style lip, should be here this week.

 

Nice to hear its running good!
Im still waiting to hear back from the machine shop..
and waiting for my crank from them aswell to see what size bearings ill need. (to see if it'll need work done to it..)
Im getting a little impatient haha.

How does that comp stage 4 feel?
Im deciding wether i wanna go with a
comp stage 4, 6 puck(250% increase in torque), or a
action clutch stage 6 (200-400% increase)

Action clutch might be a little overkill for now, but im planning on hitting 300 hp at some point, so guessing around ~225torque.

Probably gonna go with comp tho.

 

Get the Competition Stage 4... now. It drives so nice, pedal isn't much stiffer, pulling away isn't bad at all, mine doesn't chatter, still super daily driveable.

Buttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt the clutch aided nii the demise of my trans I think lol.

I passed the 50 mile marker Sunday night, so I decided Monday would be my first day of WOT pulls. At 50 miles I knew the engine would hold together, so some high cylinder pressure pulls where in order. Did a bunch of 1-2-3 full throttle and engine braked all the way down, she felt really good. So I decided to take it to school today. 30 mile drive, shouldn't have been a problem since I did 25 hard miles Monday. So I'm on my way to school, I missed 4th (so I thought) a few times on my way there, which was actually popping out. I'm MAYBE a half mile from school if that, coming down a hill riding third. I go WOT, take it just to about redline, threw it in to 4th, released clutch and gave gas, rev limiter was hit... popped out of 4th. Try to go bck in, won't even stay in, try to go down to third, third gear is whining/screaming like crazy. Rolled up to a stop sign and just rode out 2nd to school a block away since 1st and 2nd were fine. Lunch time came at school, figured I'd take it around the block to see if I'd be able to get my car home. 1st and 2nd work, 3rd is sketch, screams, pops out sometimes, so I count 3rd as gone. 4th didn't work at all, and 5th ground going in and whined also. I only have basic AAA so I'd still be paying $100+ for towing, not cool. So I limped my car home 25 miles (didn't take the freeway). Had to pull away in first, take second to 4.5-5k, then go to 5th. All down a 35 mph street with stop lights every few blocks, it was death. 2nd started whining bad about half way home, at stop lights it didn't want to go in to first, 5th gear ground literally every time and there wasn't much I could do except push it in to gear faster.

Thankfully i made it home. I drained the tranny fluid from the trans and out came A LOT of metal shavings (F*CK). Today I dropped the "new" trans and put my "old" dx tranny back in, back to the long gears. I'm going to open up the tranny tomorrow and figure out what's wrong. I'm thinking either a needle bearing in a shaft or the diff bearings went. If the tranny is salveagable, which in my terms is that the gears are okay, then I wil probably build this trans. Throw new syncro sleeves in it, all new bearings, and most likely an MFactory LSD.

Engine does have like 125 miles on it now lol, and the trans only rook 100 miles of my driving.

 

Oh damn. Sorry to hear about that Scott. Hope the car comes back together quickly!

 

Put my old tranny in yesterday and opened up the broken one. My countershaft bearing in the case blew apart. The outter race came Out of the case some and the inner race with the bearings was shoved further in to the case. The outter race has spots of blue on it from getting so hot which is crazy. I'm going to pop it out tomorrow and see how bad it is. I need to really inspect the rest of the tranny. I checked and on synchrotech a rebuild kit of all bearings and carbon syncros is 350. But what worries me are my synchro sleeves, and those are 150-175 each... Ouch. Also going to try and find a used lsd if I can. I'll Los some pics tomorrow once the bearings out and stuff.

 

Dam that's pretty expensive to rebuild the tranny. Wouldn't it be better just getting another used tranny and working on that? At least not having to get new synchronized sleeves would save a bit of money.

 

BTW Scott what oil clearences did you go with?

 

On what, the oil control rings?