Are you going with a remote resivor or just transferring your stocker over?

Those rear rotors are quality. They must use quality metals, I've had a set on the back of my car for a long time. The black coating is extremely durable and holds up really well.

They list the reservoir as no longer available so you have to transfer it over. So that's the plan.



I expected Stoptech to build one piece rotors that are up to the standards of their other performance rotors. I'm glad to hear that they live up to the expectations.

Yes, slotted, but the slots don't go all the way to the outside. Seems like that's the way to go now when doing slotted rotors. I know that's what NASCAR is doing now. Is there still much advantage to slotted rotors outside of Martinsville or Mosport (or whatever it's called now)?

If you slot rotors, do it the way stoptech does. Or, officially, use a ball end mill and do not exit the edge of the disk. The goal is to minimize stress risers (no sharp edges). So you want the slots round in profile and round on the edges to prevent cracking.

Stoptech doesn't offer non slotted rotors. So, my front brake kit has slots. And these have slots. Centric brakes is a sister company to Stoptech. That's what I had on the front of this car (what you now have), they are also excellent rotors. I figured the Stoptech rotors have a better venting system and I may as well give them a try. I've never given a crap about appearance, but these do match the front rotors in my brake kit.

Slots help clear old pad material. Or, in some cases they seem to act like a file on your pads and some cars will hum or buzz when you apply the brakes as the slots run across the pads. If you do anything to a rotor, slotting is generally what they recommend you do. But plain rotors are perfectly fine for most performance use. If I could get non slotted rotor rings, I'd buy those if mine ever need replaced.

Holley performance is having a sale. They do this about New Years every year. Last year I bought a water pump for the car. This year I bought an exhaust system.

https://www.holley.com/products/exhaust/exh.../parts/16811HKR

$393 to my door.

This is what was on my SS and I liked the sound. My bride thought it was a little loud. So, I may be looking for ways to quiet it down once it's installed. Maybe I'll add the SLP conversion for the loudmouth, or just try a bullet in the main pipe next to the driveshaft. We'll see how it goes.

My Fiesta is getting a set of slotted and drilled rotors from Hawk because that's all they offered, and with contingency the rotors pads and pads for the M3 were a grand total of $9.99. I'm just glad I put the stock steel wheels so that nobody will be able to see those stupid things under there

Now that's funny. I didn't realize Hawk made/sold rotors?

Pretty sure it's just some third party or another brand that they also happen to retail through their site.

I picked up an SLP Y pipe to go with the new exhaust. I've seen (and even tried to fix) leaks between aftermarket kits and the factory Y pipe, so this way I can test fit the two and check everything before I get the exhaust off. They fit together nearly perfectly. Just the slightest bit of "slop". Far better than some of the stock Y/aftermarket exhaust combinations I've seen.

I emailed Lingenfelter about porting the throttle body. I was going to send it to them last year and the transmission rebuild got a little "out of hand", so I decided to wait. The contact I spoke to last year (via email) no longer seems to be a valid email address. So I put in a standard information request and I'm waiting to see what they say. I could do it, but I'd rather just let them have it.

So back on page 16 it was discussed that dino dex III is best for the T56? I was under the impression synthetic is always better and have been running Redline D4. Should I drain it and fill with dino if it can still be found? Regular driving is fine but high RPM shifting takes more effort to work into gear

Racerdad916 is a member here, he also grew up in a transmission shop. He recommended dino oil due to the friction characteristics of the oil and blocker rings. He and I went through my transmission twice and he built it and I'm using what he suggested. It shifts great, so I'm going to go with it.

If you lift the rear wheels off the ground, do the rear wheels spin when you have the car in gear and the clutch depressed? I'm trying to determine if your clutch is dragging.

Kevin - what particular fluid are you running? Most dex3 replacements I find are synthetic based. I have a REM polished t56 with carbon blocker rings on the way and I’d really like to at least break it in with non-synthetic fluid.

I actually bought the Advance auto brand. It was the only Dexron III spec non synthetic fluid I could find. Sadly, I originally put Mobile 1 in it before we realized we had to tear the transmission back down so I drained it to save it. I can't return it and I hate to throw it away (it was run for 3 minutes on jack stands).

The Advance auto stuff is cheap enough that you can afford to run it a bit and recycle it.

I had the REM polished synchros the first time and that's the one that was tight and giving me issues. Put a shifter on it and make sure it feels ok going into each gear before you install it. However, Tick performance (if that's who built it) says they sand blast tight synchros to fix them for installation. So you should be ok.

I’m pretty sure this one still has tremec synchros in it. It’s an f-body case stuffed with C5 z06 guts for the triple/double synchros. All of the gears, rails, and bearings were sent to Liberty for micro polishing. I’m hoping it’s smooth as silk. The builder has a great reputation but I’ll be sure to check it before it goes in.

I’ll try the advance brand atf for break in. I’ll probably switch to Mobil one after a couple hundred miles. I get concerned about non-synthetic atf reaching high temps after 20-30 minutes on track. I’m hoping the micro polishing helps keep temps down a little bit.

I considered doing the Corvette upgrade, but I already had my parts piled in the garage and since this isn't a dedicated track car...

Keep me posted on how you like the conversion, if mine ever comes back apart, I might consider changing it over.

You might also check with your builder about fluid choices and install a temp sensor in the drain plug for the transmission and hook it to a 300 degree autometer electronic gauge. I was doing that in my 1992 Z28 project. I had a sensor in the rear diff cover and in the transmission drain plug. Then I had a switch in the dash under the gauge so I could switch between rear end temps and trans temps.

It's amazing how many oil vendors are jumping onto the 'synthetic' bandwagon. It's getting harder and harder to find oils that don't indicate they are synthetic. I'm still running 'dino' oil in our 68 Cadillac, and the last oil change had me buying the house-brand 30 wt from our local parts house. I'm thinking that the next change will be a switch. Hoping I don't clean things out too much on that old engine.

I really wonder how many are truly synthetic, since the feed stock for just about any carbon-based product is oil, or oil byproducts. Once any oil gets out of the refinery, I suspect that all of it could be labeled 'synthetic'. Kind of surprised they don't label the oil as 'organic'.

Note also that some of those synthetic oils can be too 'slick', preventing the synchros from spinning up properly to get a good gear mesh without noise. When we started running Redline in our SVO, we got an annoying grind when quickly shifting from 1st to 2nd. We also have to depress the clutch, put the transmission in any gear before selecting reverse in order to back the car up without grinding the gears going into reverse. Because the Redline synthetic gear oil is so 'slick', things continue to spin for a while before it's turning slow enough to put the shifter into reverse.

So unless the builder specifies something different, the regular old dino oil may be the better choice for your transmission.

While I'm making my winter "to do" list, I have added a few things. New Taylor spark plug wires (I want to change plugs and verify I don't see signs of coolant on them, it lost a slight amount of coolant over last summer), a Diablosport Intune I3 Platnum tuner (it has a little bit of a ping on the top end. It's either lean or needs timing retarded a degree or two and I'm adding an exhaust and I was going to swap on a ported throttle body....both likely to make things worse) and I'll add fresh spark plugs to the list for the winter.

I also have a hooker cross brace that's designed for better exhaust clearance. I purchased it when I was considering the blackheart exhaust kit. I suspect it will clear the SLP Y pipe better than the stock bracket, but we'll see after the exhaust goes on.

Now I have to look into a UMI torque arm and Watts link.

I can't make up my mind on the watts links or panhard. That's all I have left, for now to decide on. I almost bought it during the sale. I used the Advance brand ATF when I rebuilt mine as well. I was planning on putting it back in after I put a few more miles on it.

I have a UMI Rotojoint PHB and I love it. For a street or track car, it's basically perfect. Not that quality heim joints make much noise in a PHB application. But I'd like to play with roll centers and rear spring rates since I have coil overs on it.

I ran quality PHB's for years. I figure this is a good chance to mess around with a watts link...just because. lol.

So it is easier to just take a video, I can hear the clutch disc but I'm not sure if that is normal, never tried this test before.

https://youtu.be/xKfzDukRGQ0

I bought organic white lithium grease for use when greasing the laser rails of video game systems at work. The store was out of regular white lithium grease and only had the organic. Organic in this context meaning made from plant matter rather than minerals. It was cheap too -- I guess since it had no real lithium.

It might need the clutch bled or it could be the beginning of hydraulic issues, though those usually happen pretty quickly and things go south in a hurry.

I just bled it recently and the fluid was pretty clean. The master is a Luk, slave the latest AC Delco version and both are only a couple years old.

Should that noise not be there when the wheels turn?

That noise may just be a brake rotor rubbing a bit (nothing is ever perfectly flat for long on these cars). Lift the back, put it in park or 1st gear and spin the rear wheel by hand. I suspect you'll hear the same noise.

However, and I may be incorrect, I thought these cars had enough clutch disengagement that the rear wheels would stay stationary with the motor running and the clutch pedal depressed. I know it can drag a little due to tight clearances, but I don't remember how much drag I've seen from other cars. If I get the front end of mine back off the ramps (I still have to put the power steering lines and pump on it, if it ever gets warm in the garage) I can lift it and do the same test for you.

I know that my noise is coming from the clutch, easier to tell in person than the video I guess. I'm curious to see how you're does. Mine does seem to engage quick when letting out the pedal. Just to put it out there, I had to use two thick shims on the slave to get the right measurements going by ticks guidance. And it's a stock ls7 clutch with RAM (*edit not spec) billet steel flywheel.

Hmm. I threw in a Fidanza with a Centerforce Dual Friction and Ram adjustable master (adjusted to stock) and a Ram slave (looks like a stock slave for too much money to me, but they couldn't point fingers at another vendor if I still had issues so I bought both). No shims. Mine acted a bit like yours until I bled it, but that didn't take much on my car.

I forgot to mention that I found a spare ABS module out of a wrecked 2002 Z28 convertible with 8700 miles on it. Paid $53 (paypal total) "shipped". I figure I'll keep it on the shelf, that should guarantee that I never need one.

Don't ever throw it out, or......

LOL I just threw my old ABS pump in the garbage.

I’ll keep you updated on the vette conversion. I’m going to be running a super light 7.25 clutch and Tilton flywheel so I anticipate some really nice shifting. Even when my old T56 was in good shape I thought it was extremely notchy compared to more modern transmissions.

So I just did the adjustable stock master cylinder and it works so much better. I haven't had a chance to redo the wheels in the air test but I bet it's not dragging anymore.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-transmiss...er-writeup.html

That's good news. And I think it will go a long way towards solving your issues. Keep us posted.

Who does an adjustable stock master? (Besides RAM, that's basically what I got from RAM).

I did the same thing to my stock master. So far so good with mine.

Hawk's/Tilton has one now: http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/98-02-cama...r-cylinder-kit/

Looks like an exact copy of the Tick Performance piece. Guess that’s why everyone was freaking out a few years back.

They say that moves 3 times the fluid. That sounds like 3 times the pedal effort. Typically hydraulics work on a ratio and moving more fluid on the pump end makes the effort higher.

So I with my adjustable stock master adjusted to what feels right and did the wheels in the air test again. I still hear the disc slide against PP or FW but much less and this may be as good as it gets. It really only rubs maybe 10-15 degrees of rotation. Either way driving around feels much better, no high RPM shifts yet, just hard to do on a traffic commute, need to find a desolate country road or something, or just wait a month until next track event.

That could just be a little run out in the flywheel/crank flange. It wouldn't take much to cause it to rub.

When I installed my adjustable master, I lined it up with the stock one and sent the pushrod to the stock length. Tossed it in and it runs perfectly. So I'm assuming that's all I needed. I'm running the Fidanza/Centerforce Dual Friction combo with a Ram master and slave.

I am about an hour north of you. Plenty up here. York county has some decent ones too

My understanding is that the larger the MC bore (7/8" in the Hawk version above), the less you need to move the pedal for it to disengage, and thus the smaller the friction engagement window becomes. In turn, it subjectively makes the vehicle less friendly to drive. Tick offers multiple bore sizes, and there are people on Tech which used the normal Tick bore (7/8") and switched to slightly smaller bore (5/8" or 11/16") to get some of the OEM drivability back.

I agree with that part as well.

The reason you can lift a car with a hydraulic jack is you are moving a small amount of fluid with the long stroke of the jack handle. All of those "pumps" combined make enough fluid volume to lift the car. If the jack had a 1 to 1 hydraulic ratio between the jack and the ram that lifts the vehicle, your only increased leverage would be from the handle. Increasing the diameter will make the engagement window smaller, it will also increase pedal force due to the piston area of the master and slave being closer in size. You lose mechanical advantage.

Hawk's should talk more about that in their ad copy. People are going to buy it because it is made well but without thinking of the feel implications.

Yea i could find some here, just out of the way for my daily commute! Do you ever run with TSCC or Apex track/AX events?

I did a few years back with TSCC. Life happened but I am almost back to where I can come play again. All I need is a trailer and either a panhard bar or watts link and I will be back. I do not know who will be better for me to autox with now. It is almost a dead split for me to go with TSCC or with the guys at VMSC.

I think that you'll like the new auto-x site TSCC has at Suffolk Executive Airport. Worth making the trip down there. I think their first event will be February 18th (if we don't have any more snow).

I'm excited to check out the new Suffolk site. Personally I like the VMSC group, maybe cause I've ran with them longer but they seem less transitory, but that is the nature of the beast with the military in Hampton roads. They also have an active forum and even tho RIR is small, it's not as beat up as pungo!

I saw that about the airport. That should be fun. ACU-4 was fun. I was not a fan of Pungo but still had fun. Blackwater / Academi or what ever it is called was a blast. I went to NCCAR with NASA that was fun. I'm sure I will be back with the TSCC group. Everyone was friendly. I am weighing all the traffic crap along with how many runs we get. When NASA was going to Langley I could get up to 10 runs! oh those were the days lol. If I didn't have over 220,000 miles on the car I would Iron Man it and wait on the trailer.

Nonsense! I took my original engine to 285k commuting and to/from events and it was in great shape when pulled. don't get me wrong nothing against TSCC, just seems like a much smaller group than ~8 years ago and I tend to just show up, run and go home, only chatting with the people I'm station with and that's about it anyways.

I pretty much did the same thing lol. I may get out there sometime this year to one of the 3 groups. If work keeps giving me the OT like they have been I am going to get there sooner than I hoped.

I finally did the turn one installation today and made up hoses. Some random bits of information that might be useful.

Instead of pulling the radiator hose and cooler out of the way to remove the pulley from the stock pump....it's plastic. Cut through it carefully with a small battery powered sawzall (or whatever you have handy) and hit it with a 3 lb hammer. The pulley will shatter and once you bash enough of it out of the way, you can remove the stock pump. It's barbaric and a little savage, but I wasn't planning to save that pulley or reuse the pump (though I'm sure the pump is fine).

To remove the stock reservoir, pry the retaining clips "up" and slide a flat blade screwdriver in from the rear to hold the clip up. Then drive the clips off with a hammer and punch.

I used one hose with two 90 degree ends. The need indexed about 90 degrees apart...this is harder than it sounds once you start to tighten the hose down. I used one hose with two straight fittings and one with a straight and a 90.

PS pressure hose from pump to rack - 90/90 approximately 19.5" from the flat of the connector (where the 90 degree bend attaches to the base of the fitting)
PS rack to oil cooler - 90/straight approximately 26.75" from the end of the straight fitting to the flat (where the 90 degree bend attaches to the base of the fitting)
PS cooler to reservoir - straight/straight approximately 21.5" from end to end (total overall length).

Those are what I used, your results may vary.

Also, I found the likely source of my P/S leak. It's the new PS cooler. I installed an oil to water heat exchanger in the upper radiator hose. Tonight I made up all the braided lines and started to do the final installation and I noticed that I couldn't get the fittings tight on the cooler. The AN fittings are too short and the "nut" on the fitting is bottoming out and I saw shiny spots on the body from the nuts. I'm guessing it would barely tighten enough to hook up the barbed fittings I was using, and they would hold for a while. I'm sure this is what caused my leak. Now I have all new braided lines and I am absolutely unable to install them such that they will work. I put a message through to the tech guys at C&R to see if they can help.

I put a tech ticket in to the C&R website last night. I received a call this morning. They checked the coolers in stock and found that some of the fittings hit the weld before they were tight. They are redesigning the spec on the cooler and building me a new one to exchange for my existing one while they make a running production change. They thanked me for bringing this to their attention and helping them correct it and gave me an RMA number for my existing cooler to be returned to them. Impressive customer service. Thus far, I can highly recommend C&R Racing Radiators if you need anything they make.