Thanks Ludedude. If that's the case then if I switch transmissions I'll probably switch back to some cryo'd 4.1 differential gears. They will be better for autocross which I am dying to get into.
As a follow-up, the problem seems to be heat related. I just started it up and there is no noise. I'll let it warm up and see what develops. I don't wan't to take it off jackstands if I'm going to have to drop the transmission.

 

it sounds like an input shaft bearing to me
I got the noise too

fperra, I am getting a set of 1-4 dog gears without synchro and 5-6 helical with synchro. The price and date of production is unknow at this stage. The place that I mentioned is terribly busy. I've been trying to find out the exact price for you but haven't had any luck. Pfitner previous quote was around 4500-5000 for the trengthened helical gear sets. You can find it out on their website
www.ppgearbox.com.au

If you are keen on the dog gears let me know and I will put in 2 orders. Hopefully this will speed up my delivery date too

 

Danh: I'm interested, but need a price. If its too much I might just send all the tranny parts out to be cryo'd.

 

fperrra, are you after a helical cut or a straight cut gears?

check their website for details
http://pppgearbox.com.au/html/information.htm

I talk to one of my friend, a local motorsport guru last, weekend and he think the 1-4 straight cut is the way to go with the amount of power and redline in our engines. Unless we shift slowly, our synchro will not survive at high rpm and high power. This is what I am getting.

Let me know soon and I will try to find out the price asap. The guy that make these gears is also very busy. He is inundated with skylines and wrx's. I still don't know when he could do my box. However if we have a big order we have strong negotiating power.

I've been so busy with so many things lately I wish I have retirement as one of my option I will get back to your pm later if you don't mind.

 

Still not sure what the knocking noise is although I'm leaning towards the throw-out bearing. It is definitely heat related though. Started the car this morning and no noise. But as it warmed up, the noise came back, getting louder as the engine heated up. It goes away when the clutch pedal is pushed in, so it is definitely clutch or transmission related. My next step will be to remove the inspection plug on the clutch housing and, with a stethoscope on the throw-out bearing, see if I can pinpoint the noise to it. One way or another, the transmission is coming down. Its either replace the transmission or replace the throw-out bearing. If it's the transmission. I'll replace it with the '04 model and rebuild the '02 with either all cryo'd parts or new gears from Australia.

 

Are there custom gear ratios available for the tranny? Or are you rebuilding it with stock gears?

 

Problem solved. Not a clutch problem, not a transmission problem. Believe it or not, the knocking sound was actually an engine knock caused by hooking up a digital inlet air temperature gauge to the wrong wire (fuel injector # 4 driver). With the clutch let out it was enough load on the engine to cause a knock in # four cylinder. Thank goodness I never drove the car after I hooked up the gauge. Everything is fine now. Maybe i had a little too much when I installed the gauge.

 

I dropped by the gearbox place and talked to the owner, simon.
www.pppgearbox.com.au

The price for a helical gearset is $5000 AUD on the price list from the above link. The straight cut gears are a little bit more expensive but he will do it for the same price. Oversea buyer will automatically get 10% duty tax free, $4500.

You can check the conversion rate here
www.xe.com

He said if we could put in 5 or more orders he will discount it by 15% and should be able to make it earlier. At the moment he is doing individual gearbox between big jobs. I am still not sure when he could do my box atm.

Fperra, we need 3 more buyers to get the discounted price and the gears sooner. Let me know if you have any more drive train breakers.

 

Danh, start a new thread in the FI forum and see how many are interseted in beefing up their transmissions. I thing there might be at least five of us out there.

 

Sorry guys, S2ki's vendor rules don't allow for non-vendor GB's.