If you end up fabbing something up, please PM me. I'd like to get in on that... I definitely do not have the tools or the mechanical know how. Thanks.
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Will let you guys know if I make something. The easiest and most cost effective way would likely be modifying the provided cover and simply making it flare out around the flywheel.

I know how it should be designed, however, I was questioning the Canton design. I am thoroughly disappointed!

I would have paid extra money to have the pan extend to mount like stock.
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Got it. Misunderstood. My guess is that when Canton designed the cover, they simple had a gutted transmission/bellhousing and no flywheel/clutch mounted.

 

Hey Guys,

This is interesting....I'll get some comments from Canton and post them up. But until then...

Canton had a block, OEM pan and pickup when doing the design. After the design, Josserman brought his car to them and they mounted everything.

They did not have a tranny or bell housing. They knew they'd have to fab the flywheel cover because there wasn't really any practical cost effective way to have it work like the stock pan. The flywheel cover certainly isn't a thing of beauty, but since it isn't visible unless you are under the car, and it only cost $30, I'm OK with it. I know some guys don't even bother running it.

Thanks to Gearhead1186 for his persistence in figuring out exactly where to cut his OE windage tray. It was interesting. As discussed before, we found out that everybody was having different experiences with the windage tray clearing. We knew it needed to be trimmed to clear the new pan rail edges, but different people where having different issues with it clearing other areas. So, what we figured was that the OE windage tray had slightly different sizes on various cars that were probably manufacturing tolerances (because all MY's have the same part number) that Honda I'm sure realized, but knew it wouldn't be an issue with the non-modified car. These slightly different dimensions were most likely due to molds becoming "worn" as the stamping processes went on.

The two areas that were unusual in Gearhead1186's experience were the issue with clearing the pickup head, and the issue with the gap in the flywheel cover.

I don't know exactly how many people have installed their pan so far (I haven't..my car is having some paint work done), but we've had them now for about 2 months and a lot of people have installed them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember anyone mentioning any problems with the pan clearing the pickup head (one person mentioned having to trim the edges of the antislosh plate in the same area that Gearhead1186 did, although they trimmed just the tips near the pickup head), and I don't remember anyone mentioning their flywheel sticking out further and touching the flywheel cover.
I'll keep everyone apprised when Canton reads this and replies.

Thanks everyone for your efforts at making this product work. On the one hand, we expect the unexpected when designing a product from scratch without having a bunch of cars to try it on first (unfortunately our car isn't quite as common as a Civic), but this is unexpected!

 

I am wondering why the flywheel is an issue for gearhead. This is the first ive heard about that from anybody you installed the pan. Do you have an aftermarket flywheel?

 

Thanks Dave. I completely agree with you that there is always a slight risk in getting the first batch of newly produced piece. Hopefully the discount cost associated with committing to the first batch is enough to make the troubles worthwhile.

If you look a few posts up, redboost10 also seemed to have the issue with the flywheel cover as he made his own. It seems like the only new issue I encountered is the area around the pickup. For everybody else's sake, I hope it was just a QC issue on my pan alone.

 

Yes, red boost mentioned he fabbed his own, but didn't say what exactly his issue was. Hopefully he'll clarify that. So do you have the OEM clutch/flywheel? Have they ever been replaced?

 

As others said, it's a little disappointing the amount of trimming that's necessary to the pan itself. While a little annoying, it's certainly understandable if there are variations in different MY's. The flywheel cover not fitting however is very disappointing. Hopefully there's a reasonable explanation as to why it doesn't fit for some people. While some people may run w/o it, for a street car I'd definitely put it on, to avoid dirt and crap getting in there. Heck even for a track car, I'd at least want some kind of protection like gearhead did so in the event of an off or just to avoid debris/crap getting in. The spacing it out may not be ideal, but it's certainly much better than nothing.

Thanks gearhead for highlighting your issues. Helps those of us that haven't installed it yet to know what to look out for.

 

Fair point regarding reboost10. Assumed he had same issue I had to justify making his own cover.

I purchased my car used. Flywheel/clutch looks like stock and feels like stock. I cant say anything else with 100% certainty. Again, if its just my car, its better for everybody else. Hopefully some other people hop in.

 

The flywheel cover thing, unless I"m thinking wrong, can't be a Canton fabricating issue. It's just a piece of flat sheet metal, right? It's gotta be a difference in Gearhead1186's car. IMO, I want to run the flywheel cover, but I'm thinking more important for the track rather than the street. I'm more concerned with big pieces of dirt and rocks getting in their from an off, rather than just dust and water from the street.

 

Did a quick google image search and found the below two photos which also show that the flywheel sits more forward than the bell-housing surface. The first image is for MY05. Dont know the year depicted in the second.

 

It can be a fabrication "issue" if the piece of metal shouldn't be flat.. The one thing that seems possible is that the AP2's flywheel has more material on the "back" of the flywheel (opposite side of the clutch), and it's just enough that causes clearance problems on ap2s..? Or is it hitting the ring gear of the flywheel? I'm just guessing. The ap2 flywheel definitely has more mass to it, I'll take a look at the ap2 flywheel sitting in the garage this weekend. Have people installed this cover on their ap1 without issues? I am running a lighter flywheel on my ap2 so perhaps those running ap1/lighter flywheels won't have this issue? How tight was the clearance gearhead?

There's rocks on the street as well.. Ultimately ya it's a moot point, it's a good idea to run the flywheel cover.

Edit: To add, on other honda engines it's very common for the flywheel to protrude into the bell housing which requires a curved flywheel cover. Perhaps Canton fabbed things w/o the flywheel/clutch, but I thought they had josserman's car in there to test fit things..?