that's horrible news john.....

good luck with a very tough decision

 

And the crowd chants "motor build! Motor build!"

 

The ACT HD clutch never worked well - felt like a puck clutch rather than a disk and the pedal pressure needed was crazy high. Paul Nix (now at T&C Honda in Gladstone) couldn't even get it to turn over when in neutral with the pedal pressed the pressure was so bad. Now, did that CAUSE the thrust bearings to crap out, allowing the crank to move? Who knows? I bought the AP2 used with 36K on it, so who knows what the oil change frequency really was. I hear plenty of tales that low oil is every bit as bad as a wack clutch on the thrust bearings.

I am really torn: Jason at PSI is a good guy who feels bad about what's going on, and he recommends a built motor (and will do it for a good price). But given the low boost I am content to run, getting back to stock on the clutch and engine has its appeal, too.

The new short block and OEM clutch installed at the dealer is about $7500. I wonder what PSI could do for that?

 

thrust bearing failure leads to crank walk. wow, i didn't know about your engine will be needing to rebuilt already and i thought it's just the clutch. that's very sad and so sorry to hear about this, john. hope everything will turn out fine. have you tried to contact Forged and get their opinion it could be just the pressure plate just gave out?.... they have very reasonable price on labor and well experienced on this kind of problem on our S2000.

 

oh no - say it ain't so!

Hope it is back on the road soon.

 

John I just saw this post in the FI section and couldn't believe it was you I would recommend buying a used ap2 short block and having Jason install it, probably for half of what Honda wants. As for the clutch people will debate all day about whether or not ACT clutches are responsible for these crankwalk cases but I personally would just stay away. My exedy setup has about half the pedal pressure of similar ACT's and is more than capable of supporting my 370 whp.

I should be on the next drive on the 23rd if you want to see what my clutch feels like. For your power levels though you could probably get away with just an aftermarket street disk with oem pressure plate. Also what was the crank play measurement? As long as it is less than .014" you should be fine.

 

For what its worth, I had my SC for 5+ years making about 200ft/lb of torque at peak, and I ran OEM clutch with a upgraded pressure plate and I've never had any issues, nor experience clutch slips. So if you don't plan on lighting up your tires after you fix your car, the OEM clutch would actually work really well.

what type of warranty do each place offer once they fix/install/build your new motor?

 

The parts would be under a factory warranty if done at the dealership, but by keeping things FI, you can kiss that goodbye if you ever needed to use it. The guys at PSI are standup folk, but I bet their warranty is not a big selling point so I think that issue is a toss-up between the two. And thanks for the feedback on the OEM clutch. The GReddy will never get more than 220 ft/lbs, and I have things dialed down to 200, so I am really tempted to go with that.

 

Tough break John that really sucks, i'm sure you will be fixed up new soon.