bbsciontc

Hey all. I've had my tC since new, back in October 2005. I keep my cars for a long time, lol. After 9 great years and over 100k miles, I have to say that I still love this thing (with the coilovers, it's more fun in corners than the Z). I've been through a few mods through the years, including some from vendors that no longer exist (Draxas, Alphawerks, Creative Compacts), and figured hell, why not give it some boost!

I just picked up a used Dezod S1 from a member on the forums. Going to do the install next spring. For now, I am getting ready on a few upgrades (just lugged home an e351 trans). Next will be a Quaife LSD, clutch upgrade (something that hopefully won't kill my master/slave cylinder) and upgraded engine mounts (probably just the front).

Anyways, I'll make updates to this thread as I progress. Since I will be working on the trans/LSD over the winter, if anyone has questions about the LSD install, the E351 itself or anything else feel free to post up and I'll try my best to help you out.

Cheers

That_Kid_Ju

I'm a fan of the ACT heavy duty clutch (the one that holds 400 ft-lbs torque). All the other ones that can hold decent torque end up blowing the master cylinder cuz of too much on the pressure plate.

XPRTc

iTrader: (5)

Just curious, why you are planning on just replacing the front motor mount?

bbsciontc

It's still my daily driver, and I don't want to rattle out fillings, lol. I had one on before (just the front) and it was noticeably rougher at idle and especially with the A/C on. And it was a relative low durometer too, Shore 70A.

It did help lots with wheel hop though, and something I will probably need when boosted. In the meantime, I've commenced the e351 Quaife LSD install. All this together should give me solid traction off the line and while turning.

bbsciontc

I was under the impression that the ACT would be too stiff as well, especially at that much torque capacity. Was that one a 6-puck? What were your thoughts as far as daily driving with it? Is it livable in stop and go traffic?

That_Kid_Ju

6-puck sprung hub wasn't too harsh. The Xtreme one is much heavier tho. I dailyed mine till the motor went boom.

bbsciontc

Ouch. The built motor or a stock one before it?

That_Kid_Ju

Built block. Threw a rod bearing and motor went boom. Amazingly the cylinders and pistons were all okay. Crank was trashed and 2 of 4 rods saw some heat. Clutch was toast due to the increased heat being generated and all the friction of trying to limp on 2 (maybe 3) cylinders.

burgandybomber

iTrader: (1)

I drove my tc boosted with the ES motor mount insert kit and CC stage 4 six puck for a year till I got my beater and put her to sleep. I think doing all three mounts is one of the best mods you can do. I put at least 10k on the turbo kit and she is about 130k mi now. Took it to a hand full of drag events over the summer and got me back home every time. It hardly shakes at all for me. Not enough to notice.

Also, I have been running the stock master that came with her from the factory on the 6 puck. Other than the throw out that came with the clutch is bad, no CM problems yet. The Stage 4 is like stepping on a brick if you are coming from a stock clutch. Honestly once it was broken in though, its not bad. Besides, it builds character. Its good for you to have a heavy clutch pedal :p

bbsciontc

I don't mine the heavy pedal. I had and old 5.0 mustang with a very heavy clutch that I got used to, and then a spec stage 3 on a previous boosted car. I just don't want to become an expert at swapping master cylinders, lol! So are these the CC clutches that have addressed previous issues? I was leaning more towards the Exedy Cerametallic stage 2 for driveability reasons.

None of this is going in until spring anyway. Too damn cold right now. On a good note, I'm nearly done with the LSD install in the E351. Just received the thicker shims I needed to preload the diff. Will install, remeasure preload and if all is well, I should be done! Can't wait to see what the Quaife and taller gearing will do for traction.

So the motor mounts didn't annoy you? Mine wasn't terrible, but shaked at idle, especially when the A/C comp kicked on. That was just the front so I didn't even want to think about doing the other mounts. This car is my daily driver/beater, so I've got to be able to live with it.

burgandybomber

iTrader: (1)

I haven't had any clutch issues daily driving. Over 10k miles 40/60 mix of city and highway miles respectively. I had the front done by itself first and that shook more than after I installed all three. Best thing you can do in my opinion. Much more responsive and almost completely eliminates wheel hop.

bbsciontc

Haven't updated this thread is so long, lol! Anyways, as of today, I have officially completed the LSD install in the E351. The toughest part was the 5th gear clutch hub assembly. It falls apart so easily, but I feel like I'm an expert in putting it back together now. Contrary to what other tutorials may have said, do not try to install the clutch hub with a socket and a mallet. It can be very difficult to get it on, let alone hold the delicate assembly together during the install. Go to an auto parts store and loan out a harmonic balancer installer tool. You'll need two large adjustable wrenches to get it on and a lot of elbow grease, but this is the preferred way (in the factory service manual too). Banging it with a mallet also runs a risk of trashing bearings.

Anyway, now that that's done, next step is the tranny swap, ACT Street Performance clutch, Competition clutch lightweight flywheel and Energy suspensions motor mounts. I'm going to have a local shop take care of this install since I need to have my car back up and running asap. The turbo I'll install myself after breaking in the clutch.

More to come!

bbsciontc

Just picked up my car from the mechanic. Had the LSD e351, the ACT street clutch, CC lightweight flywheel and energy suspension engine mounts installed. Definitely more vibrations with the mounts, but not too bad once you are cruising. Gotta break in the clutch before I beat on it, but I'm hoping to see how the lsd responds soon. Maybe I'll get lucky and get some light rain. One thing I can tell for sure, the highway cruising rpms are so much lower. It's glorious! I imagine my mpg will have gotten significantly better. I'll calculate it on a future fill-up. I'm sure it'll be gone once I get the turbo in though!

bbsciontc

AEM FIC installed and vacuum lines run!. Right now everything is zeroed out since I'm N/A, but I wanted to do this in baby steps to make troubleshooting easier. So far it's working ok, but I am having some high rpm stuttering at WOT, around 4-5k. I think it's probably the crank and or cam sensors.

I'm running a boomslang that the previous owner had done the resistor mod on. I verified and they are indeed the proper 2.2k Ohm resistors and across the correct wires. I'm thinking about removing them and trying it without the resistors. I'll probably check resistance between the wires in the harness to see if maybe there already was a set preinstalled, as I heard some BS harness already had them. Other than that, I'm not sure how else to proceed. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

That_Kid_Ju

Boomslangs come with resistor mod already, so if the previous owner did it again, that may cause some issues. Also check the firmware. You may have to reload the hex file. That typically solved my starting/sputtering Issues.

If you have an online one reader, like a scan gauge, you can start checking out what your fuel trims are and taking notes for when you have the turbo put in. Just a hint, don't change any values for the o2 skew under 15 psi. The ecu should control the o2 while not in boost.

bbsciontc

Thanks. That's exactly what I am doing in my O2 map. Maybe just transitioning to slightly richer than 14.7AFR just before 15 psia, complemented with a slight bump in injector duty cycle. Good point on the firmware. I assumed it was already running the correct firmware since it came from another user on here, but we all know what happens when we assume!

So I should be running z104.hex for the slave firmware, right. What about the PC interface firmware? Should I use x300.hex or just leave it alone since I have no PC communication issues?

I'll probably cut out the crank sensor resistor if it turns out i have two resistors in parallel, then take it for a test drive. If the cam one doesn't act up, I'll just leave it alone. i hope it's one of these easy fixes, and I don't have to go resistor hunting using the trial and error method

That_Kid_Ju

Z104.hex is what typically works.

bbsciontc

I checked and I'm definitely running z104. I reflashed it again anyway just to confirm. Only thing left is resistors, so I'm crossing my fingers that's all it is.

bbsciontc

Interesting discovery with the harness. I checked the crank pos. sensor input leads with a DMM, and they were reading as an open circuit. I checked again directly across the resistor and same thing. Next I checked the cam position sensor.....and it read 1,078 Ohms, indicating that there were two 2.2k Ohm resistors in parallel. I found this very strange. This means there was a resistor already in place on the harness for the cam sensor only, not the crank.

For now, I clipped off the dead resistor across the CKP sensor, and am going to try running without it for a day or two. I already picked up some new resistors from radio shack if it still acts up. I'm thinking I'll leave the cam position sensor ones alone for now, as I have no reason to believe that they are the culprit.....yet.

Anyways, I'm hoping to have this resolved soon.

bbsciontc

Ok, so with only 2.2k resistors on each input, I'm still getting high rpm stutter. Not sure exactly how to proceed. Thinking about parallel-ing another 2.2k on the crank to further drop the resistance. Intuitively this would shunt some of the current over to the opposite side of the coil, and lower signal and noise amplitude. Is my thinking correct or would I go with a larger resistor?

Other option is to clip out resistors altogether. I don't see how this would work, but I saw in worked for ScionFred on his xB.