Irace86.2.0's KPower Turbo K24 Swap

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

But you didn’t give them both shafts, right?

Correct. The Kpower one was still installed in my car so the measurement was based in situ.

[RedReplicant]

If you just take the stock DS in and tell them you want 5.5" taken off the front section you will get what captain_awesome and I are running.

There would be a slight difference in length between a single piece and a two piece due to the angle change at the CSB, but I am guessing that having the two piece shortened to the length of the KPower single piece would also be okay.

The way I mentioned above is apparently the "proper way" to measure for the DS front section length.

[Irace86.2.0]

I found this hose at the local O’Reileys. These preformed hoses are pretty pricey, but I’m thinking it’ll work for the water neck to thermostat.

[Irace86.2.0]

I started working on the car today. I pulled the transmission, exhaust, driveshaft and intake manifold. I wanted to get the harness out of the way to get good access to the coolant housing, so I unbolted the starter, and the housing just disintegrated on me, and the copper flange broke off. I knew it was sketchy from the initial install. Ugh. Mo money. Maybe there are rebuilt kits or something cheap that is remanufactured. I got the starter used at the Pick-N-Pull for like $25, so I can't complain too much.

The nipple on the intake manifold going to the brake booster also broke when trying to remove it, but it was a crappy cast piece. It came out fine, and I replaced it with a brass fitting. I drilled and tapped three 1/8 NPT fittings in the manifold. I could have teed off of one line like before, but I wanted to have some future flexibility if I ever need a dedicated line. The one on the side is for the BOV. Two are for the FPR and FPD. One is to the boost sensor, which of course also broke after a light tug. I don't know why they make these nipples so small and out of plastic that gets brittle with heat and time. Ugh. Mo money. Maybe it can be drilled and tapped or glued. I'll have to see what I can do.

I drilled and tapped the side of the coolant housing for the 5/8 barb to 1/2 NPT.

[Irace86.2.0]

I forgot to mention that I brought the driveshaft to a shop. The guy was a super nice straight shooting old timer. He said I didn't need a serviceable driveshaft, so he would just shorten what was there. Saves me some time and money for this experiment. I can always go back to the aluminum driveshaft.

[RedReplicant]

Oh, wow, that is cool. Curious to see what it ends up looking like.

[Irace86.2.0]

The South Bend pressure plate looks identical to the Exedy Stage 1 pressure plate, which according to them, they use Exedy clutches, and their pressure plate says Exedy on it. I had asked if they just supply a different clutch disc or if they modify the pressure plate, and they said they modify the internals. If they do then it is inside the pressure plate because everything looks identical from the outside. The product numbers on the teeth are the same, and they look just as thick, so it isn't like they changed those out. Besides painting the surface, I can't tell if anything is modified. Someone might be able to just use South Bend's clutch discs with their Exedy Stage 1 or 2 pressure plate. It would be nice if they were more transparent with what they did. Hard to tell if the products are just rebranded and marked up, or what.

The Endurance Stage 3 clutch disc is kevlar, which will be new for me. It looked like felt, which is a stark difference than moving from organic to semi-metallic to ceramic/sintered, where things get progressively harder. This looks like it could fall apart, but it is suppose to be good, so I'll give it a go.

Transmission is in. I need to adjust my clutch pedal and bleed the system because the pedal is super soft. Maybe air got into the line, but I also think I had this issue with the last time or the last two times where I would push the fork onto the pivot, but it wouldn't seat all the way. The pivot spread the retaining clip, but the retaining clip didn't fully snap onto the back of the pivot like it was suppose to despite my best efforts. Assuming the forged fork didn't get all the way onto the billet pivot, it would be sitting on top of the retaining clip, which might make the clutch engage sooner. I tried pushing it on and rapped on it with the rubber mallet, but nothing. I bent the clip this time, so it had more tension to slip over the pivot and that worked. I'll bleed the clutch and adjust the pedal height.

[DarkPira7e]

What a half assed paint job. I hope the clutch works out, if mine slips that's the disc I am throwing in!!
Thanks again for all your leg work to uncover Southbend.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

What a half assed paint job. I hope the clutch works out, if mine slips that's the disc I am throwing in!!
Thanks again for all your leg work to uncover Southbend.

I can’t speak for the center, but the scuffs around the ridge are from the clutch rubbing in the box during shipping is my guess. It looked a little wonky, almost used, when I opened it, but it was probably just shipping movement. I had a small chip in the kevlar material from movement too, but it should still work.

On a positive, the kit came with a white dot new TOB, so that is good. I’ll do a review once I break it in.

[Irace86.2.0]

I got a new starter and got that installed.

I got the driveshaft back. He removed the whole front section and replaced it with the same sized tube as the back section. The larger diameter might be for better resonance, but for $150, I'll deal with it if it has issues by going back to the aluminum driveshaft.

Fitment was good.

[Irace86.2.0]

I found a plastic plumping cap. I drilled and tapped the end for 1/8 npt, and then I cut away the excess and epoxied it to the housing of the boost sensor. It isn't pretty, but it should work fine.

[Irace86.2.0]

I installed the DW fuel filter, and I finished assembling the DW dual module, but it seems that DW provided the wrong sized pump filter/socks. The opening is far too large, so I'll have to call them tomorrow to see if they will send me the right ones.

[Irace86.2.0]

The other issue that I am running into is trying to bleed the clutch. For some reason, it just isn't bleeding. I had the wife pump the clutch a few times and hold it down, and I cracked the bleeder and closed it, and we repeated, but no good. I tried having her pump then slowly depress, as I crack and close before she bottoms out the clutch pedal, but there is no movement on the clutch master cylinder piston. It is like it is all the way out already. I can push in the piston, and then it will move back and forth, as she pushes on the clutch pedal against my finger, but it won't extend further agains the fork.

The only thing I can think of that is different, and I thought it was a good thing, was the retention clip for the fork on the pivot really snapped in place this time, and I was probably riding on the outside of clip previously. I used a scope to look inside, and there was a gap between the TOB and pressure plate, but it didn't look like anything had fallen off. Maybe a clip on the fork to the TOB dislodged. I don't know, but it is annoying. I might need to get some type of speed bleeder or vacuum bleeder, but I might remove the transmission again to make sure something isn't wonky. Annoying.

[RedReplicant]

That sounds like a pain.

If you want to try bleeding again my suggestion is to take the slave off the transmission, loosen up the bleeder so you can easily open/close it, depress the slave by hand, open the bleeder, close the bleeder, let the slave extend again, and repeat. Easier than doing the two person bleed thing.

That'll also let you see how much play the fork has.