My new car!

[speedjunkie]

I have a 6 puck sprung ACT street/strip clutch plate with an ACT Xtreme pressure plate and I put it in back in '05, it's still holding fine. The only reason I'm even looking at clutches now is I wanna be ready for when this one goes. I've been expecting it to go for about the last year and it hasn't yet. Last time I looked in the port, I could tell the replaceable surface on the RB flywheel was VERY worn, almost down to the screws, so that may be hell getting it off lol. Anyway, I didn't get a good look at the clutch disc though so I don't know how bad it is. I just want to be ready when the time comes.

Anyone that's driven my car said it's hard to press the pedal down, but it's a lot easier than when I first put it in, and I never thought it was that bad to begin with LOL. That may be why my left leg and calf muscle are HUGE though. LOL

[Chance]

Just go drive his car and see if its something you could handle daily

[chickenwafer]

I bought the GReddy Airnix intakes off a guy on 7club last week. He still hasn't shipped them yet, LOL. I better not get burned again! That will be 2/2 on getting screwed!!!

So I've decided to ditch some crap on the FD that's weighing her down that I don't really need. Ironically these are two things I was hell-bent on originally keeping- A/C and power steering.

I want to delete the A/C because I don't really need it. It clutters the engine bay, makes the already thermally inefficient rotary run even hotter, and I would just stress about it everytime I have it one about the car overheating.

I'm ditching the power steering to also free up some clutter under the hood (changing plugs should be easy now), and it will increase steering/road feel. The biggest debate here is which way to do it:

1- loop the lines. This is viewed as the ghetto way, but I've heard a lot of guys like it. Basically remove the PS pump, belt, and lines, drain all the fluid from the rack, then just connect the fittings with a length of rubber hose. The benefit here is it's super-*** cheap (under $10 bucks), but the main drawback is you don't have a true manual rack- you're still working against the fluid. But with the pump out of the mix, it's still a hell of a lot easier to work than just ditching the belt, or the feel of when your PS goes out randomly...

2- Maval manual rack conversion. It costs $250 bucks, basically you send in your rack to Maval in Ohio, then remove the seals inside the rack that hold the fluid, clean it, and send it back to you. This gives you a true manual rack, and no fluid to work against. Good option, but it's much more expensive than the simple line looping method...

3- Atomic Rex billet manual rack. This is mucho denero, about $1000. It's a true manual rack- meaning never designed for fluid. It has a quicker ratio from lock-to-lock, about 2.5 turns vs the stock 3 turns, so you get better feel. It's also a truly beautiful piece- machined out of a single piece of billet CNC bar stock, not like anyone will be able to see it when it's installed, LOL, but at least you know it's durable. Price is the main thing holding me back from this- I've heard it's utterly fantastic. People say it's night and day compared to the Maval rack, and not even comparable to the line-loop conversion.

Just making plans for winter...so I'm debating on what to do, haha.


Edit: Forgot to add, I'm probably just going to cheap-out and do the line-loop, see how I like it, and if I want to in the future, do the Maval rack conversion or save up for the Atomic Rex rack.

[Chance]

none of the above.

you will buy a 90-95 MR2 power steering pump and keep power steering and hide it wherever you want.


ditching power steering blows, its so ridiculous how hard the car is to control versus having it if you lose control EVER

[speedjunkie]

Simon was telling me about another steering rack but I don't know if it's out yet. It has a switch that turns on electronic power steering, or switch it off for manual. That's what I'll be getting if and when I ever do the swap. YEEHAW!!

[chickenwafer]

none of the above.

you will buy a 90-95 MR2 power steering pump and keep power steering and hide it wherever you want.


ditching power steering blows, its so ridiculous how hard the car is to control versus having it if you lose control EVER

I will look into the MR2 pump...

But I've driven plenty of cars, ones MUCH heavier than the lightweight FD, and haven't had any problems. I'm a big guy (6'6") and I can easily muscle a car around the parking lot.

Above 10mph PS doesn't really do anything anyways...

Simon was telling me about another steering rack but I don't know if it's out yet. It has a switch that turns on electronic power steering, or switch it off for manual. That's what I'll be getting if and when I ever do the swap. YEEHAW!!

Yeah, I got your email. I send some details about doing an electrical power steering system. I had to do a lot of work on the EPS on my old RX-8 so I'm pretty familiar with them.

[Chance]

You don't think it does, but when something happens you would be surprised how much it helps. Makes your life easier, and its not a big pump at all, and it's electric.

I sold the one out of my mr2 for $100 to an FD guy and he said it felt great all over. He uses the car for drifting, road racing, auto x, and its his daily.


I bet you could sell your ps pump for about the same as buying an mr2 pump, just a suggestion. My white FC has one in it and I love it

[chickenwafer]

The MR2 unit is an electric motor? How does it attach to the rack? Can I still use my stock FD rack? And how does it know how to vary the power assist, i.e. I don't want full assist at 80mph.

My first vehicle was a 1974 Chevy 2500 Camper Special 4x4 the previous owner did some work on, which included putting 38" tires on and removing the power steering because it didn't work properly. Imagine maneuvering a 6500lbs truck with 95lbs-a-piece tires (nevermind the cast wheels) at the front with no power assist. It sucked.

And that's why I was originally going to keep my power steering- but everyone says the FD is "perfect" without it, plus, I like loosing the clutter, having the connected/mechanic steering, and loosing the one extra thing to maintain (fluid, hoses, belts, they all wear out over time).

In that Chevy truck of mine, I owned it in high school, and believe me, I did some stupid *** shit in that thing. I had some close calls when I had to crank the wheel to avoid an accident. In the moment, the adrenaline is pumping, and you just react.

Not to mention, even in that big lump of iron, I still didn't miss the power steering at speeds lower than 10mph. Above 20mph the steering was pretty much effortless- the momentum of the truck (or vehicle...) acts like your "assist". Even modern vehicles with power steering do the same thing- at speed the assist diminishes since you don't need it anymore. Otherwise the assist would make the steering too "touchy" and just a hairline movement of the wheel at 80mph will send you into on-coming traffic or a guard rail.

The ONLY time I missed power steering was parking lots, parallel parking (I think I only had to parallel park my truck twice. Ever. And I doubt I will ever parallel park the FD anywhere...), and low speed stop-n-go traffic. Other than that, never noticed it was gone.

I figure I can try the line-loop method first, because it's 100% reversible. True, it will be a pain draining the PS hydraulic fluid, yanking the pump, belt, lines and crap, only to have to put it all back in if I want it. But, that's the beauty of it- might as well try it out.

[Chance]

All I have to say is this is with the pump, and you will never see conditions like this in your car

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfplv6-yTG0"]YouTube- ‪Bergenholtz Racing-JTP @ Formula Drift Monroe, WA Rd. 5 2009‬‎[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-44sPxZM_g"]YouTube- ‪Bergenholtz Racing-JTP @ Formula Drift Las Vegas Rd. 4 2009‬‎[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDojfgcRUI"]YouTube- ‪Justin Pawlak Smashes Wall in Qualifying @ Formula Drift LBC‬‎[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjsnUAnlico"]YouTube- ‪Joon Maeng and Justin Pawlak in top 16 competition Drift Atlanta '09‬‎[/ame]


But when you are driving harder than anyone in the world.....sometimes you **** up even with a helpful ps pump
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms7AJQtYxXk"]YouTube- ‪Drifting RX-7 CRASH!‬‎[/ame]



Bottom line is there is a reason dudes are using it, and all of the videos of the guy I just posted is who told me why its better than stock or no ps.


No ps sucks dude, if you want to try it, try it, but vs the mr2 pump its no comparison

[speedjunkie]

There are a couple reasons I don't want to get rid of my PS, but one is kinda silly. I have the Pettit PS pulley on it with the little rotor shaped holes...it's gorgeous, I just can't get rid of my PS and lose that HAHAHAHA.

[Chance]

At least the FD pump isnt a total eye sore like the FC one

[RX-7 Chris]

My car never came with power steering. It was a rare oppsion from 84-85. My car does fine without it.

[chickenwafer]

But you're comparing Drifting to the type of driving I will do in my car; mixed street/highway action along with road course and the occasional drag strip. If I was drifting or Auto-X'ing, I would FOR SURE keep the PS. But I'm not.

You should know different types of racing require different setups. I don't need the PS for getting around town, going in a straight line on the highway or down the drag strip, and I won't need the PS on the road course, either.

I'm going to do the line-loop method, that way I can easily test it out. If I don't like it, no harm, and I'll put all the PS parts back on or looking into the MR2 pump.

[chickenwafer]

OK, so I really think I'm going single turbo here soon. It might not get done this winter, but should be done by the Spring time, 2011.

Basically, I'm having problems with not getting full boost, but it happens randomly (kinda long story). So, sometimes I will get full boost following the 12.5-11-12.5psi boost pattern, other times I only get 5-7psi and the car feels like a pig. It's amazing how much quicker the car feels with just another 7.5-5.5psi!

So, really I'm too stupid to properly diagnose the over 14 solenoids and 72 vacuum lines and two vacuum/pressure chambers that make up the overly engineered twin sequential control system. And, I don't feel like spending $100's of dollars to fix the system only to have it fail quickly on me again.

So I'm going to go non-seq this winter for sure. Get it running good that way and and enjoy it while I save up some cash for the single turbo.

I'm going the modify the car with single turbo in mind, so when the times comes, I'll only need the turbo, the manifold, wastegate, oil feed/return lines, and downpipe, so it won't be too expensive to make the change.

Then I will only be held back by the clutch, which will need to be changed out for something stronger, and I'll do a lightweight flywheel at that time as well.

Goodbye, sequential twins, I will miss you...LOL

[speedjunkie]

Well it would be easier to troubleshoot once we narrow it down to which solenoids and other parts affect the twin turbo system. That's just something I never tried on my own so it will be a learning experience for us both haha. Back then Zico was saying something about a switching solenoid that could possibly be bad, but I just never got around to checking it, and I didn't have any spares available to swap in.

I think we could figure it out, but it would take time that I'm sure you'd rather spend driving the car haha. At least you knew what you were getting into before you bought the car haha.