Finally found the time to finish this project! Spent Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday with a friend working on the car. Everything came apart nicely, and having a skilled pair of hands (he's a mechanic) help definitely cut the time down. And tools, had to ensure we had the right tools! If anyone is contemplating a transmission swap/clutch job/starter job, make sure you have at least a 24" extension for your ratchet. The upper starter bolt is almost impossible to reach otherwise. And then a 36" extension was also quite useful to reach the three upper transmission to engine bolts. Oh, and the clutch and flywheel bolts use 10mm and 17mm 12-point fasteners. These don't grow on trees, Cambodian Tire doesn't have them, I found some at Princess. But I had to grind down the side of the 10mm socket as it wasn't fitting around the curves of the pressure plate. Finally, we raised the car up off the ground about 24" as well, so heavy duty jackstands were required, and jack that lifted the car high enough. I think in total we had about 12 hours into it. Could have been done in a day if we pushed, but better to relax a bit.

Anyway, still breaking in the clutch, going to give it some more mileage before getting on it, but already the aluminum flywheel is making its presence felt. Engine feels much livelier, and revs much more freely. And at highway speeds, the taller 5th and 6th gears have dropped the RPMs down a tad.

Now to start saving for that supercharger kit....

 

nice, thanks for sharing! I've been contemplating the lighter flywheel and better clutch upgrade... would like to hear some more feedback when it's broken in!

 

looking forward to checking out your car one of these days....


i think this is the winter for my new clutch/fly since it is on the original with 144,000 km

 

Update on this...now have about 450km on the new setup. At first, shifting smoothly at low speed was difficult, but now I've gotten used to the lighter flywheel and the difference in how the revs rise and fall. Haven't started uphill yet, that will be a stiffer test.

I've revved it past VTEC a few times, not too hard but hard enough to notice the differences. Revs fall quickly, but obviously rise quickly too, so when shifting gears, the entire engine just feels livelier.

Everyday driving is easier too. Because of the shorter gearing - both in the final drive and on the AP2 transmission's gearing - the car feels torquier. Not AMG torquey, but just easier to putz about in. And then 5th and 6th feel nice too, revs down a tad at freeway cruising speed.

 

^good to hear...

now how about you bring that thing to the track?

 

So did you upgrade the clutch as well or just the oem clutch? I did the clutch on mine last fall and took about 10-12 hours also. biggest piss off was putting the tranny back up and realizing my buddy accidentally put the clutch fork in backwards and having to pull it back off again... also that starter bolt was rediculous.

 

I put in an Exedy OEM replacement clutch. The pressure plate in the same pink plastic bag that Honda OE parts come in, and it had 'Honda' stamped on it too, so I figured it was basically OE parts as Exedy makes them for Honda. The disc was an Exedy piece though. The kit came with a new, OE release bearing as well.

I agree on the starter bolt. But once I found it (which actually took a good 10 minutes), I got it with a swivel socket and a 24" extension. Wasn't too bad actually.

The fork I left it in the bellhousing, and if I remember right, I could actually take it in and out of the opening in the bell housing. But that was with the tranny off the car already, with no bearing to interfere with.

More update - I have maybe 1500km on the set up now. LOVE it. This is how the gearing should have been from the factory. The AP2 gearing combined with the 4.44s is just excellent. And the aluminum flywheel makes the shifts feel really snappy, the revs rise again very quickly. Would highly recommend to anyone with an AP1. I always felt the 4.57s were a bit too much (and so I never tried 4.77s) and the 4.44s, while a decent compromise, didn't give you much in the seat of the pants acceleration feel. But now everything is just right. Very happy!

 

Thats good to hear that the ap2 tranny is worth the money, i may do this swap if i have to do the clutch again.

when i did the clutch i changed mine for an F1 stage 3 clutch, for the money it is awesome, no complaints really, other than stop and go traffic with a stage 3 is no good lol.

Now that i have turbo'd my car i can definitely say that it was worth it, and i would definitely suggest others get the stage 3 pressure plate if they are doing their clutch and may want to boost there car in the future.