Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

[Anfurnyy]

After getting them shifter cables situated i took the car out to the gas station to fill up with E85. Took a buddy for a ride and he recorded a pull on the way home.


Since going for my first drive in the car i noticed that the tach drops out while giving it really any sort of acceleration or turning the blinkers on. its still the 90 cluster.
After doing some research i decided to swap in the 91+ cluster and that fixed the issue. Figured it wouldnt have mattered since i have the 91+ harness but apparently it still does.

During that pull mentioned above the tach wasnt working at all and i had no clue what RPM i was at so i short shifted into 3rd and 4th. Definitely had some RPM left after re-watching the video.

Took the car to a meet also for its first official outing. Didnt get any pictures but had some fun and ate some food truck food. Car drove there perfectly fine. There is some squeaking coming from under the car. I think the exhaust heat shield is rubbing on the exhaust since i didnt trim it to fit like the blue car had.

Over the weekend i spent a few hours getting the dash out and swapping the VIN tags on the dash so they actually match the cars they are going in. Riveted the plates back on and painted the rivets black and it looks pretty OEM.
That same day after getting the interior back together i decided to try and fix up my Pillar covers a bit and see if i could get them to actually stay on the pillars. I ended up using some sticky velcro and adhesive promoter or Fuser. The driver side held up great but the passenger side didnt have any clips left on the trim so the velcro actually separated from the adhesive on the backside on the passenger side and fell down again.


Last night i decided it was time to try and tackle some cooling woes with the radiator. I have that ebay radiator shroud sitting around and got around to making that fit. Big issue with these shrouds is that they just sit on top of the radiator and not on the inside, so they end up adding a few inches overall. I did a bunch of test fits and ended up trimming mine down quite a bit and it sits inside the radiator and seals off the sides quite nice. Only one of my fans fits as the other is way too big being a 13". Ive ordered up another 12" fan to get installed to replace the bigger guy.
pretty please with how this turned out. Id wager that by having the shroud you gain about 20% of cooling when the fans come on that you lost by mounting the fans right to the rad with all the area between and around the fans.
Before:



After:



I think ill probably take care of the exhaust heat shield next, and then i think ill focus on making some ducting for the intercooler/radiator.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Well the fan shroud seems to work pretty well. it seems to knock the temps down really quick when the fans come on so ill take that as a win. Going to try and make some ducting for the FMIC/Radiator next i think.


Unfortunately my 3m velcro setup for the Pillar trims failed but not in the areas that i thought they would have. The double sided tape actually peeled off the back of the velcro sheets Everywhere that i sprayed adhesive promoter its still super solid.

I dont remember if i mentioned it but i swapped down to a 15 psi base wastegate spring also from a 25?

Installing the fan shroud made me have to move my EBCS to the middle of the radiator, so i had to run some new lines. When I was re-doing the barb fittings on the boost controller i noticed that the little pigtail coming out of the boost controller was broken, one of the wires was completely separated and only held together by the insulation of the wire. I pulled the little connector our and depinned it and then pulled both wires off the terminals, stripped and soldered the end of the wires to the terminals, and stuck it back in. It SEEMS to have worked... either that or the car is on FULL SEND keeping the wastegate closed. This is a temp fix as i try to find a new little pigtail for them.


I went out for a drive and the car saw 49 PSI again which is absolutely rowdy if you havent experienced that. 10/10 would recommend. Probably a bit high for that turbo. Zach and i are thinking of turning on closed loop to keep it around that 45 psi range.


i did another 60-130 pull and just at the end of the pull the car lost MPI power and shut off and i ended up coasting to a stop on the side of the road. Turns the fuses inside the fancy aftermarket fuse box thing i have rattled loose which includes the ignition and MPI relay fuses. Got those shoved back in and car fired up and i drove it home.
I tried to do a little 1-2 shift and GUESS WHAT.
clutch disk Yeeted again... Now the disk FULLY grabs about 1" off the floor and it shutters the car so hard just like the last disk did pedal feel is all sorts of goofy again too.

Its really the last thing i kind of wanna do but im moving to the QM 8 Leg twin. I Placed my order for some OEM 7/8" splined replacement disks and those will be going in when they come in. In addition to the twin going in, the Quaife LSD front diff and one of TMZ chromoly cross shafts with a 4 spider and Torrington bearing Center diff is going in as well. Will have to send the center diff out to TRE to me machined for that stuff but might as well while i have it apart. Going to inspect 3rd AGAIN since it still is a bit clunky when going into gear. I don't know if it has anything to do with the clutch release or what but no other gears do that.


Even with a hurt clutch i still managed to drive the car a little ways on the interstate to a cars and coffee and back with pretty much no issues other than weird clutch engagement when leaving from a stop.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Well, confirmed.
The latest 6 puck disk has exited stage right.


Got the trans out last night and pulled apart, center diff, cross shaft, Torrington bearing, and spider gears being sent to TRE today after work.




Quaife front diff test fitted with my ring gear, new bearings for that should be here today also.

 

[MindBlowin03]

Those puck clutch disks are terrible as far as longevity goes. I used both the unsprung 4 puck and unsprung 6 puck and both were falling apart within 1000 miles. They will hold a ton of power, just not for too long .

I switched to a solid street disk and so far I'm in love. The driveability is great and I know the friction surface will actually last. And since I'm steering away from the drag race scene I care much less about the high end shifts than I have before.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Those puck clutch disks are terrible as far as longevity goes. I used both the unsprung 4 puck and unsprung 6 puck and both were falling apart within 1000 miles. They will hold a ton of power, just not for too long .

I switched to a solid street disk and so far I'm in love. The driveability is great and I know the friction surface will actually last. And since I'm steering away from the drag race scene I care much less about the high end shifts than I have before.

I've never had this many problems with disks however I've also never had a car that makes this much power also.

I have absolutely no clue how much tq this thing is making but either I'm making quite a bit more than it's rated for,.or the disks are just shit.. I'm going with the Latter

 

[MindBlowin03]

I've never had this many problems with disks however I've also never had a car that makes this much power also.

I have absolutely no clue how much tq this thing is making but either I'm making quite a bit more than it's rated for,.or the disks are just shit.. I'm going with the Latter

My 6 puck had less than 400 miles on it, one summer of street driving. I literally did less than 10 pulls(35-40 psi) and not a single launch. When I pulled it, some pucks were missing chunks and just falling apart. It blew my mind because I never really put the power to it.

 

[DreamChaser7]

Those puck clutch disks are terrible as far as longevity goes. I used both the unsprung 4 puck and unsprung 6 puck and both were falling apart within 1000 miles. They will hold a ton of power, just not for too long .

I switched to a solid street disk and so far I'm in love. The driveability is great and I know the friction surface will actually last. And since I'm steering away from the drag race scene I care much less about the high end shifts than I have before.

Which disk are you running now?

 

[MindBlowin03]

Which disk are you running now?

ACT solid street disk. 2900 pressure plate. Holds 600+whp and 500+wtq without any issues and driveability is very nice.

 

[DreamChaser7]

I need to figure out what clutch to buy eventually for what I’m expecting to be about the same power levels. Want decent road manners. And then of course need to figure out what will work well with the Neat gear set. I’m sure Tim can point me in the right direction when the time comes..

 

[1cleangsx]

He’s already said he can custom order the B series ceramic disk with a 1” spline, that disk with the SSX pressure plate is rated at 650 ft/lbs, and the same combo I’m running now, I love the clutch, I just haven’t been able to get it to fully release all the way at high rpm’s but others have apparently

Sorry i didn’t mention im referring to the Southbend clutch SSX/B series combo

 

[MindBlowin03]

He’s already said he can custom order the B series ceramic disk with a 1” spline, that disk with the SSX pressure plate is rated at 650 ft/lbs, and the same combo I’m running now, I love the clutch, I just haven’t been able to get it to fully release all the way at high rpm’s but others have apparently

I ran that clutch and wasn't very happy with it. I gave it one season and switched back to ACT. I was hoping for better disengagement and torque capacity.