well, amidst the fires and the traffic, i battled my way to the people at technosquare to get a rear diff rebuilt and a reflash/dyno.

i picked up the rear diff from a member on the forums. it had a broken ring gear, so i got it for a great price (thanks rick). new 3.9 350evo ring gears will be going in along with new bearings/seals/etc, and a new Cusco RS LSD set at 60% and 1.5 way. i just dropped that off today, so hopefully it will be ready for me to take home tomorrow to install over the weekend.

while i pick it up, i will finally be reflashing the ecu on the dyno. i don't expect to gain much HP/torque (which is unfortunate), but my biggest reason for doing it is to optimize the fuel curve and increase my reliability/longevity. don't get me wrong, removal of the speed governor and increasing the rev limiter are great benefits. for those that care, i will keep you updated. for those who don't, thanks for reading!

 

SOunds good. I have been wanting to do the LSD and gears. What mods do you have and (if you dont mind) how much for the install of the gears and LSD?

Chris

 

as for the engine, i pretty much only have basic bolt-ons: intake, exhaust, HFC's, plenum, grounding kit. i didn't go with headers because the install vs. gain ratio is pretty bad. the install isn't that much actually at only around $350 plus the cost of shims.

 

headers would go really well with hfcs. I also went with tsquare to do my pumpkin rebuild. Great results and I overnighted my pumpkin,diff,fg from chi to socal!

 

jonny, i thought that headers would go great with them, but after doing some research and considering the installation time/effort (since i would do it myself), the couple of extra horses would not have been worth it IMO.

they took about 2 hours to dyno/reflash the car. they were very surprised to find that the car pulled pretty strongly from the start, and that the A/F ratio was a very flat stoich (around 14.7)! i was also surprised. they suspected an exhaust leak and investigated, but could find nothing. so after several runs on the dyno (probably about 8 or 9), they ended up leaning out the mixture! if they would add fuel (ie-richen), it actually took away power! i was told to investigate the possibility of an exhaust leak even further.

anway, they gave me a printout of the dyno, so i'll have to scan it. apparently i was making power as i was approaching the stock redline, so they upped it to 7k as i dropped off after 7.2k. my a/f was around 15 now, and it was a very straight line throughout the RPM range, which was my biggest concern.

now as for the power, i was not expecting to gain that much from the beginning. but i am very pleased with the outcome: an approximate 10hp increase with 10ft-lb torque increase. the increase in power came from 3750RPM on up. the torque curve remains relatively flat from 3750 to 5250. on the SuperFlow dyno, max power was 230.6hp and 210.3ft-lb torque. on a dynojet, it would be 266.0hp and 242.6ft-lb torque.

take the numbers for what you what, but either way, a 10hp/ft-lb jump is fine by me!

oh, and as for the rear diff rebuild, it was done before my car was done (which i was happy about, meaning that they didn't lag on it). i am off again tommorrow because of the fires so hopefully i will have time to swap pumpkins.

all-in-all, i am happy with the results and am glad that i finally took the time to get over there and invest $$$ and time. i can gladly say that (for now) i am done with engine modding and could concentrate on drivetrain/suspension...unless the voice of FI gets louder

 

Damn I might just have to do that. How was the turnaround? My buddy is getting his gears and LSD for his s2k and they have a guy that has a core swap program. They check to make sure the core is in good condition. They do the install of all the parts and you just pay a core charge and get it back when they get your "good" condition core. Maybe Tsquare could do something like that for us?

hardtopguy.com is the s2k diff guy.

Chris

 

i'm not sure if they have any kind of core exchange program. for some reason, their website was down. you could give them a call at (310) 787-0847.

 

wait till you get the car back on the track

 

what mods do you have besides the FD and LSD?

 

i was really looking forward to installing it today. however, when i looked at the service manual, you basically have to replace all the bolts, nuts and washers if you disassemble it. i put in the order and am waiting for the new parts. no one has them in stock so i just got them from courtesy since even they are cheaper than california dealers. i will get it all put in before the next laguna seca run in november. i could compare track times

*EDIT - when i say "disassemble it" i mean if the pumpkin is removed...

 

see post #3

 

glad you like the reflash

the server is down due to their internet hosting provider.

 

Nice!

 

hey, just wanted to let anyone know who may be doing this (diff install) - since you will be dropping the pumpking, please keep in mind that, per the service manual, new bolts/nuts/washers will be required for the propeller shaft and each drive shaft (axle). it's not that expensive, about $35 total. just FYI.

 

so i finally get a chance to install the rear diff yesterday. before i drove it, everything was smooth, not tight at all (when i spun it freely). when i drove it, it was a different story. i heard a humming down the street. i drove the car for less than 2 miles.

as i turned back around to go home, the rear diff locked up on me! i was going about 50mph. it was scary as $hit. the car spun around and everything! luckily no one was around, and it's not a very busy street. a few cars did come my way to offer help, but the car wouldn't budge! it was in neural, no parking brake, i mean...the rear diff simply did not want to turn.

i finally get three cop cars' attention, but they were actually very helpful! corona PD is great. they offered to push, and get a tow truck out there faster. they blocked traffic for me and the tow truck.

when the tow truck got there, it had to "drag" the car onto it (it was a flatbed) as the rear end just did not want to rotate. (the answer almost seems obvious now, huh?) so we get the car home and they actually managed to get it into my garage (AAA is awesome).

long story short, i checked the oil, and lo-and-behold, it was bone dry! checked the filler plug, dry...checked the drain plug...dry! i really did assume that they put the gear oil in it that i provided them (the level on the bottle looked lower to me). so there you have it....about 4.5hrs of labor (since i did it with my daughter...she's 8) and a stuck rear diff. i sent an e-mail out to technosquare, but probably won't get a response until monday.

i don't want to point fingers because ultimately, i should have checked the oil before taking it out. that's what happens when you assume i guess.

so i put gear oil in it to hopefully "unseize it," if that's even possible. if not, i guess the stocker is going back on and i have to take it back to technosquare.

so my question is, is the LSD done? i didn't hear anything break, but i guess you can't tell unless you take the thing apart again. any help would be greatly appreciated, TIA!

 

did u get ahold of them?

 

yeah....basically, howard acknowledges the fact that there was a miscommunication, but they say i'm basically SOL....i should not have assumed that they put oil in it, even if i gave it to them because i was "transporting it." they didn't want anything to "leak out." so i've got a really awesome, expensive paperweight.

 

so, a lesson learned: don't assume anything, and always check the oil on whatever you get, even if you gave them some!

 

Ouch.

 

so..was TS at fault?