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

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Borrowed by brothers dragy and took the car out for my first EVER 60-130. Granny shifting for sure. Clean up the shifts and for sure it'll be like a low 6 second at least.
Screenshot_20240228-160930.png




I really want to take it to the track and see what it'll do but it might be closing. There's talks of new investors but I haven't heard anything set in stone.

We got rolling antilag / rolling launch control setup and I have it a go on the way home yesterday and 2nd gear made 30psi and as soon as I let off the button it shot to 40lbs LOL left some streaks in the road 😀
PXL_20240229_133839955.jpgPXL_20240229_133841896.jpg
 
Borrowed by brothers dragy and took the car out for my first EVER 60-130. Granny shifting for sure. Clean up the shifts and for sure it'll be like a low 6 second at least.
View attachment 723246




I really want to take it to the track and see what it'll do but it might be closing. There's talks of new investors but I haven't heard anything set in stone.

We got rolling antilag / rolling launch control setup and I have it a go on the way home yesterday and 2nd gear made 30psi and as soon as I let off the button it shot to 40lbs LOL left some streaks in the road 😀
View attachment 723248View attachment 723249



Crazy.


Ive honestly been thinking about upgrading my older dragy to a new one. If I do that I might just give someone my old one. Love my Dragy.
 
Crazy.


Ive honestly been thinking about upgrading my older dragy to a new one. If I do that I might just give someone my old one. Love my Dragy.
You let me know if you wanna do that! I'll take it haha I don't have one. It's definitely really cool to have something to compare to so many others. Or if you can't make it to the strip often
 
Well spent a few hours today and installed my JXB Carrier Bearings and pulled my shifter cables to figure out why getting over to reverse / 5th was so hard. I wasn't disappointed.

I started with the rear bearing and got the old one cut off and got the new one installed and noticed that the flange wasn't sitting right. It was angled. As it turns out, my carrier bearing stud on the car was bent backwards.. I coaxed it forwards and back straight and now it sits right again. Absolutely no clue how the hell that happened, maybe it was from the driveshaft bouncing up and down hitting the underside of the car.
PXL_20240302_181156171.jpgPXL_20240302_181714568.jpgPXL_20240302_183417597.jpgPXL_20240302_184904300.jpgPXL_20240302_190634486.jpg

Shifter cables also gave me a surprise. Inspected the cable at the trans end and found that one of the cables was bent. Surprisingly I was able to get it bent back straight and now it slides like butter again. I sprayed some lithium grease inside the boot and slid it a bunch while hanging it. Now it gets into 5th and reverse just fine now. Still grinds going into 3rd. I really can't wait for this new clutch stuff to show up.
PXL_20240302_210313303.jpgPXL_20240302_210551953.jpg
 
Did a clutch drag test today on the way home from family house and around 6k it started to move the car. Wah waahhh waahhhhhh.
 
So adjust the clutch! I’d say verify no leaks between master/slave and start over with adjustment, If it’s dragging at 6000rpms either you’ve got a leak somewhere or your pedal assembly is f%ck!d.
 
So adjust the clutch! I’d say verify no leaks between master/slave and start over with adjustment, If it’s dragging at 6000rpms either you’ve got a leak somewhere or your pedal assembly is f%ck!d.
The master is adjusted all the way out, and and same with the clutch stop.

I think like Kurt says it's a hydraulic issue with the 2900 pressure plate. It needs more fluid for more travel, hence why the wildwood master and what not.
 
Spent the day today doing some simple "creature comforts"

Since having the car the dome lights haven't worked when the doors are opened. So I went ahead and pulled the door close sensors off and the driver side was completely unplugged and corroded.
I kind of had to fish the connector from out of the body of the car but was able to get it connected. Lubed up the sensor and cleaned off the corrosion and it works now. The passenger side was connected but corroded also. Cleaning that one up fixed that side.
PXL_20240303_185249721.jpg


On to the next thing, the center console HVAC lights and what not. These also havent ever worked so that portion of the dash is completely dark when at night.
Pulled the center dash out and found the 2 lights. I tried swapping in some LEDs but they aren't rated for the power the dash puts out so it kept blowing them LOL I'll have to get some proper ones ordered up.
PXL_20240303_042214490.jpg

The next thing was the hatch/luggage area light which also has never worked since owning the car. Tested the connections and got no voltage. Pulled the whole light socket out and fished around for the wires to it and I found them but they didn't move. Like they were pinched somewhere. So I pulled the panels back there which took FOREVER. So many "gotta do this before this, and this one before that". Anyways got it done and found the connector just dangling there.. not caught on anything. Plugged it in and light works.. put everything back together.
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Last thing on the list was some LED conversions. Swapped out the reverse lights for some nice bright LEDs and swapped all 4 dome lights as well.
Those shitty Facebook "tips and tricks" videos actually helped me today getting the driver side reverse light housing out using duct tape!
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Before (left) - After (right)
PXL_20240303_211036584.jpg
 
Got started today on pulling the trans and turbo kit.
Needs a new TOB and I'm swapping in a solid hub 6 puck disk after recommendations on it.
I'm torn on pulling the midcase in the trans to check out 3rd and everything else to see if something is glaringly wrong while it's out. It's not a lot of work, but it's annoying work. Mostly just dealing with the RTV and roll pins. I think I'll probably do it since it's already out and just to be sure one of the end nuts didn't somehow come off or something silly.
PXL_20240306_232323626.jpg

Turbo is getting a .84ar housing instead of the 1.01 in preference of faster spool and boost recovery between gears. After all, it IS A street car. I doubt I'll see any significant Drops in boost pressure up top but I guess we'll see.

Car will be down until those are all done and until I get the new clutch master installed. Hopefully it's not too long! I can't wait to actually be able to hit some multi-gear pulls and try to get into them mid 5s 60-130 🤞
PXL_20240306_235420445.jpg

Oh and the magazine came out the car is featured in!
PXL_20240306_031818795.jpgPXL_20240306_031808063.jpg
 
Whats up fella's, back again.
Got the trans pulled, New master clutch master cylinder, New turbine housing, Billet shifter mount brackets, New solid hub puck.

PXL_20240313_003731836.jpgPXL_20240312_233743952.jpgPXL_20240310_174614780.jpgPXL_20240314_003426730.jpgPXL_20240313_012733348.jpgPXL_20240313_014058503.jpg
I picked up a little red LED to get installed as a shift light. 9k comes up so fast that i just cant keep an eye on tach just yet. New clutch switch pigtail too so we can get No lift shift and launch control setup.

I DID end up tearing apart the trans and thankfully I did. I replaced the TOB cause it was squeaking and then pulled the clutch disk to find this:

PXL_20240309_223653256.jpgPXL_20240309_223707606.jpgPXL_20240309_224738649.jpg
i guess its a good thing i pulled this to swap with the solid hub huh.
When tearing down the trans, Right away i found that the reverse synchro wave spring was gone. I found a bunch of small metal chunks throughout transmission. I pulled the gearsets and got them all cleaned up what not not and checked the bearings and ordered a new wave spring too. I flipped by 3/4 slider since last time i assembled the gearset i accidentally flipped it. I read a couple places that it shouldnt have affected anything anyways but correct it anyways. Maybe its placebo effect but it does seem to shift better. I did also replace the roll pins with double roll pins again also.
PXL_20240309_232117991.jpgPXL_20240309_232121734.jpgPXL_20240309_232455955.jpgPXL_20240309_232930848.jpgPXL_20240310_003453994.jpgPXL_20240309_235740476.jpg

Got the transmission put back together and back in the car, as well as the T case, clutch master installed but not setup yet yesterday. As it sits right now the car just needs trans fluid, oil change and the clutch master setup / tested. Hopefully going to get that done today after work.
PXL_20240310_214631800.jpgPXL_20240314_021642835.NIGHT.jpg
 
Was able to get the car back together really nothing has changed.
i'm still having issues with getting the Clutch to fully disengage. After following up with a my tuner he gave me some more info about setting up the Master Cylinder rod correctly.

Basically, extend the rod until it blocks off the bleed port/self adjusting port on the master then back it off just until you unblock that port and you can push the slave back in. Right now mine is NOT like that. Its basically got a half turn of "preload" or extension on it from where the upper pedal stop is. So ill give that adjustment a go and see if that fixes it. Ive also swapped back to the factory hardline from the master to coupler on the frame, and then a braided steel line from there to the slave to try and eliminate any bulging in the longer braided line.

In other news we were able to get No lift shifting setup and its extremely fun and definitely keeps the car in boost. Without it, the car would drop back into vacuum, and with it it kept boost at 30 psi between shifts.

Some not so great news is im pretty sure that this Factory OEM composite Head gasket is failing. Twice now after going out and ripping on the car there has been coolant in the overflow and both times that its happened the car does weird things when trying to do a pull (i obviously let out). Working on getting an Athena gasket ordered up From John Royer, and then ive ordered some ARP head stud washer inserts for the head as well since im using L19's and torquing to like 110ft/lbs, dont want the stud bores to be getting goofed up.
PXL_20240409_220141786.jpg

umm i snagged up Richard Montalvo's Quaife LSD Front diff so that will end up going in next time the trans is apart, as probably sending off my Center diff to be fitted for my TMZ Chromoly cross shaft and 4 spider setup AND torrington bearing.

One of the big issues with this Link ECU setup is the lack of speed sensor. The oem ECU must have had some soft of filtering for the speed sensor off the Dash, but this Link ecu must not because its incredibly erratic. I found a neat little sensor that couples right onto the trans and the speedo cable to the dash that sends an electric signal into an input on the ecu, pretty much like a 2 sensor but waayyyyy smaller. - SEE HERE -
NOW we have some really good wheel speed data for the car. Simple 3 wires, power, ground and signal into the ecu and it output 4 pulses/rev so its identical to the what the ecu expects.
PXL_20240320_221212050.jpg

Small Beans stuff, ordered up a Radium 1.1 bar radiator cap too as i thought maybe the cap wasnt up to snuff with the coolant pressure the waterpump was putting out at 9200 rpm but it still pushed coolant intot he overflow with that cap on, which still leads me to believe the gasket is to blame, or lifting the head.
PXL_20240409_002928603.jpg

I lost one of my Wastegate bolts and my dump tube fell out the bottom of the car and banged around when I went for a drive one day. Ended up ordering a NEW style of v-band clamps that no longer have a nut, just a single bolt. And so much easier to install. If you haven't seen these or ordered them yet, do yourself a favor.
PXL_20240321_220546074.jpgPXL_20240321_220547514.jpgPXL_20240321_222202779.jpg

Plan as of right now is to just get the gasket swapped out, fix the engagement issues and have fun with the car for awhile. Ive been so stressing about the clutch releasing lately that its been hard to just enjoy driving it.
 
Was able to get the car back together really nothing has changed.
i'm still having issues with getting the Clutch to fully disengage. After following up with a my tuner he gave me some more info about setting up the Master Cylinder rod correctly.

Basically, extend the rod until it blocks off the bleed port/self adjusting port on the master then back it off just until you unblock that port and you can push the slave back in. Right now mine is NOT like that. Its basically got a half turn of "preload" or extension on it from where the upper pedal stop is. So ill give that adjustment a go and see if that fixes it. Ive also swapped back to the factory hardline from the master to coupler on the frame, and then a braided steel line from there to the slave to try and eliminate any bulging in the longer braided line.

In other news we were able to get No lift shifting setup and its extremely fun and definitely keeps the car in boost. Without it, the car would drop back into vacuum, and with it it kept boost at 30 psi between shifts.

Some not so great news is im pretty sure that this Factory OEM composite Head gasket is failing. Twice now after going out and ripping on the car there has been coolant in the overflow and both times that its happened the car does weird things when trying to do a pull (i obviously let out). Working on getting an Athena gasket ordered up From John Royer, and then ive ordered some ARP head stud washer inserts for the head as well since im using L19's and torquing to like 110ft/lbs, dont want the stud bores to be getting goofed up.
View attachment 728237

umm i snagged up Richard Montalvo's Quaife LSD Front diff so that will end up going in next time the trans is apart, as probably sending off my Center diff to be fitted for my TMZ Chromoly cross shaft and 4 spider setup AND torrington bearing.

One of the big issues with this Link ECU setup is the lack of speed sensor. The oem ECU must have had some soft of filtering for the speed sensor off the Dash, but this Link ecu must not because its incredibly erratic. I found a neat little sensor that couples right onto the trans and the speedo cable to the dash that sends an electric signal into an input on the ecu, pretty much like a 2 sensor but waayyyyy smaller. - SEE HERE -
NOW we have some really good wheel speed data for the car. Simple 3 wires, power, ground and signal into the ecu and it output 4 pulses/rev so its identical to the what the ecu expects.
View attachment 728238

Small Beans stuff, ordered up a Radium 1.1 bar radiator cap too as i thought maybe the cap wasnt up to snuff with the coolant pressure the waterpump was putting out at 9200 rpm but it still pushed coolant intot he overflow with that cap on, which still leads me to believe the gasket is to blame, or lifting the head.
View attachment 728236

I lost one of my Wastegate bolts and my dump tube fell out the bottom of the car and banged around when I went for a drive one day. Ended up ordering a NEW style of v-band clamps that no longer have a nut, just a single bolt. And so much easier to install. If you haven't seen these or ordered them yet, do yourself a favor.
View attachment 728233View attachment 728234View attachment 728235

Plan as of right now is to just get the gasket swapped out, fix the engagement issues and have fun with the car for awhile. Ive been so stressing about the clutch releasing lately that its been hard to just enjoy driving it.

I’m with you on the clutch disengagement issues brother. Hope yours is fixed asap!

I need to buy a new OEM master.
 
I thought coolant expansion to the overflow was normal? I’ve experienced that on every set up I’ve ever had, and the SCE Vulcan cut ring is the exact same as the $300 Athena and much cheaper :thumb:

I hope you get that new master cylinder sorted out, that was my next go to LOL, but so far with your experience I still might say screw it and just go twin disc. I know the twin can be hard on parts but so is clutch drag so it’s 6 in one and half dozen in other. At least with a twin you don’t have to completely re-engineer the entire hydraulic system of the car LOL
 
I like my twin. Stock (original) master and slave and the slave fell apart during the last motor change. It was NASTY inside. I cleaned it out, poured fluid into it and reassembled rather quickly so I am surprised it still works, but it does (or did, getting time for the new engine soon).
 
I like my twin. Stock (original) master and slave and the slave fell apart during the last motor change. It was NASTY inside. I cleaned it out, poured fluid into it and reassembled rather quickly so I am surprised it still works, but it does (or did, getting time for the new engine soon).
You run an 8 leg don't you? I think I remember reading that in another post

I’m with you on the clutch disengagement issues brother. Hope yours is fixed asap!

I need to buy a new OEM master.
It really is such a bi*** man. I wish we could re-engineer the clutch system and either somehow get rid of the whole remote arm thing and move the clutch master directly over the clutch or something. Or just completely remake the shaft so it doesnt twist.

I thought coolant expansion to the overflow was normal? I’ve experienced that on every set up I’ve ever had, and the SCE Vulcan cut ring is the exact same as the $300 Athena and much cheaper :thumb:

I hope you get that new master cylinder sorted out, that was my next go to LOL, but so far with your experience I still might say screw it and just go twin disc. I know the twin can be hard on parts but so is clutch drag so it’s 6 in one and half dozen in other. At least with a twin you don’t have to completely re-engineer the entire hydraulic system of the car LOL
I know some coolant makes sense but i filled coolant up, and then burped it and it was good, and the night i took a buddy for a ride it COMPLETELY filled the overflow and then some because it was spewing out of the overflow tube on the overflow LOL
Going through Royer the SCE is $180. I said Athena but meant SCE.

Im really about to bite the bullet and buy a rebuilt kit for the stock input spline since the twin i have now is for the evo spline and throw it on there. Surely it cant drive worse than a 2900 and a puck. I literally couldnt agree more.
If this whole master Cylinder thing doesnt work out, im gonna Hit up Kurt and see if theres anything else he recommends or what he thinks of shimming the ball again to move the clutch fork closer to the Pressure plate and get more TOB travel. (i KNOW this is really a bandaid, but what else can i do)
 
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You would think the old extended slave rod would help, but the issue then is over extending or pre loading? However if the extended rod gives the added travel of the tob you could add a pedal stop, like twin disc users to keep the fingers on the pressure plate happy, I don’t know, I’m just thinking and like you I just want what I have to work. My SouthBend set up holds torque, engages smooth, just needs more tob travel, I rebuilt my pedal assembly last winter, I have immediate master rod engagement as soon as I depress the pedal who knows LOL I still don’t want an auto..
 
Well the solid hub disk didn't last long. I adjusted the master the other day and took the car out for a cruise Friday night to see if it fixed it (it didn't) and tried a nice NLTS 2-3 anddddd the clutch got all funny.

Pulled the trans and this how I found the disk 🫠
Once again the pressure plate and flywheel look damn near perfect.
PXL_20240413_011115399.jpgPXL_20240413_011125959.jpgPXL_20240413_212829883.jpgPXL_20240413_212836835.jpgPXL_20240413_212843533.jpgPXL_20240413_212850373.jpg

Looks like I'm biting the bullet and moving to a twin.
 
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