King Tut

I didn't see any hate. You bought a bunch of stuff from Evasive, so I figured they wanted to sell you a clutch as well. All I can tell you is that the ACT/OEM worked fine for me on track last season with just under 400 whp.

thechase136

Good to know, thanks for the input. I'm really torn between the ACT PP/OEM Disk and Exedy Hyper Single right now, the main thing being that I'm slightly worried about the former not holding up for as long as something like the Exedy kit. I'm feeling like I'd rather go slightly overkill from the get go than having an issue with a less grippy clutch and having to drop the trans and doing it all over again.

The whole ACT crank walk thing scared me off at first but apparently that's been resolved, if it was in fact the issue in the first place.

I feel like the guys over at Evasive aren't the type that would steer me into getting something I don't need though, I'll see what they think tomorrow.

Ricky_Flowers_

Can vouch for the ACT PP/OEM disc combo personally. I have seen them reliably hold 440 WHP on track, in South Florida, with no issues whatsoever. It also feels pretty close to the stock AP1 clutch pedal. For the sake of simplicity, that's the setup I would run because it's such a known commodity. You don't want to have to change a clutch twice.

thechase136

Yeah, having to change it twice is what I'm really trying to avoid here. I just got off the phone with Hugh, they have cars with both the ACT/OEM & Hyper Single setups there so he offered to let me drive them back to back tomorrow and see which one I like better. Seems like a pretty good solution to my back-and-forth-ness.

If the Exedy isn't too bad, I'll probably go with that just to be safe but I'm curious to see how they feel back to back.

baZurk

Liking the thread so far. While my car didn't see any time on a road course, the ACT HD PP and oem disc held 440whp and almost 300wtq perfectly fine. The disc looked hardly used when I pulled it out 20k miles later.

thechase136

Well, there's some good news and some bad news.

The good news:

The clutch install went really well, I ended up going with the Exedy Hyper Single after comparing the two side by side. Yes, it's quite a bit heavier than the stock pedal feel but I honestly don't see why people complain about this setup on the street. After about 5 starts and stops I got the hang of it and actually really enjoy how grabby and positive it feels. The flywheel also feels fantastic; throttle response is noticeably improved, heel & toeing is a lot easier because it requires less throttle input, and revs seem to fall quicker which makes for much smoother shifts. There's zero chatter and best of all, it cured the infamous clutch buzz issue. It almost feels weird having the cabin be so quiet while decelerating where all I used to hear was the clutch loudly buzzing away.

Quite a nice looking piece of kit:




It turns out the clutch that was in there was an Exedy OEM replacement unit that looked surprisingly good for how terrible it felt:



The pressure plate was badly scored/cracked and there were some strange concentric half-moon gouges that the camera didn't pick up:



The flywheel teeth also looked surprisingly good considering how often the car would grind on a cold start. The pilot bearing was as crunchy as can be though:



Same story with the starter gear:





Awwww yeaaaahhhh





Okay, here's where things go south.

The bad news:

When we dropped the driveshaft, the diff dropped a nice puddle of oil from the pinion. Shit.

Yep, that's definitely not good:



Jay went to check the nylon pinion nut and it literally fell off in his hand, not even finger tight. So now things are horribly worn where they shouldn't be, and I'm in need of a new diff. Obviously we couldn't leave it like that, so it was torqued to spec which ended up pulling out the pinion about an inch...

After a few phone calls, Rob from GP Transmissions came through with a spare AP2 diff that was laying around with 70k miles on it. I limped the car over to Commerce City trying to get used to the new clutch while the car simultaneously tried to vibrate itself apart, and picked up the replacement:



Thanks for saving my ass Rob

I'll have to drive the car for a few days until I have the time to swap in the new diff, but I'm looking forward to having everything sorted again.

Since we had to drop the exhaust again, I threw in a Berk 70mm test pipe for good measure.

Out with the old:



I was surprised that while just cruising around it sounds about the same as it did with the HFC, but my VTEC crossover is considerably louder than it was before. I haven't gone WOT yet due to the diff, but it sounds amazing so far and I noticed a slight improvement on the butt dyno. The pops and crackles during decel that were previously muffled by the HFC are pretty apparent now, you can feel the little backfires underneath your feet.

Overall, it was a pretty stressful day but the car is going to be really well sorted once the new rear end is in. Very much looking forward to getting back out on the track for a good shakedown run.

Bonus GT3 with a Recaro baby seat:

thechase136

Things have been pretty slow lately while waiting for parts to come in, but I installed a few more little things last week.

Koyo 36mm Hypercore Radiator + Spoon Thermostat & Fan Switch:



Hoping this solves the heat issues I was having at the track, looks promising so far.



I found a Forbidden J's Rep Diffuser on the classifieds that was all banged up on the bottom, but looked great from the rear:





The seller gave me brackets that were supposed to fit an AP1 bumper, but it looks like it may have been AP2 hardware instead due to the 1/4" gap between the diffuser and bumper. I'll have to make some new brackets to get things to fit right:





Also had some sweet numbers made by Spinnywhoosh to replace the blue tape at the track:



And a new polished valve cover from my buddy that awaits for the next time I pop off the stock one:






I'm excited to say that the first stage of this build is finished at this point, and now I'm moving on to Aero & Bodywork.

I have a Voltex 1600mm Type 2 GT Wing on 275mm stands currently clearing customs at the port, it should be at the shop sometime next week followed by a Voltex Street Front Bumper in FRP/Carbon in early April. Then I'll be wrapping the car in Avery Dark Grey Gloss vinyl and preparing to run my rookie season of VTEC Club in Group A2.

Bonus Voltex Canards for when the new bumper comes in:

thechase136

I had a surprise come in the mail today, I ordered a Zoom Monaco 240 months ago from Kami Speed while it was out of stock and completely forgot about it until it showed up on my doorstep.

This thing is damn pretty...





Slightly larger than stock but the little dip in the middle and wider field of view is what I really like about it, you can see the entire rear windshield in the mirror. It also has a nice slightly blue anti-glare coating that seems like it would work quite nicely, but I have yet to test it out at night.

The ball joint and bracket are extremely solid, and the mirror no longer vibrates when you rev the car which is what I was hoping to solve by ordering this. It was terrible, you couldn't see anything out of it unless the engine was off.





Overall, I'm super happy with it. Looks incredible, has great hardware, and the field of view is much improved.

jaor.s2k

Nice! I love mine

thechase136

I had a slight mishap yesterday while I was pulling into a really steep driveway, I guess this was bound to happen at some point but now it's time for some over fenders.



It's okay though because I fixed it:





The good news is that I picked up a new daily driver so I don't have to always depend on the s2k while it's being worked on. I snatched up a beautiful '09 Alpine White M3 DCT Coupe for an incredible deal, and I honestly couldn't be happier with the car.


Installed some black kidney grills the owner was kind enough to give to me: