The whole electric motor thing is interesting... So many manufacturers are adding them on these days. Even now the next gen R36 GTR will have a hybrid electric drive system! It would be fun to have that torque boost in the low end and especially from a dead stop
On another note... My clutch is not doing so well - it seems like a spring or something has broke internally... the car can still drive but it makes a strange noise on engagement and grabs overly harsh. Granted it has had a fairly long life now in the car for ~4 years. It was purchased from Garrett/GSE Turbo - 6 puck ceramic to work with OEM "Pot" style flywheel. So I've tried contacting Garrett again to get another one, and we had some dialog back and forth in which he was going to sell me a replacement. Now he has totally dropped off the planet and isn't reachable. So I'm thinking I'll have to remove it and bring it to a local shop which specializes in customizing/rebuilding clutches.. Unless anyone has a better idea?
I should try and look back as to the clutch company he was using, I chatted with him quite some time ago about a USA supplier selling "Z20LET" clutch systems in to the UK market, I'm thinking that was his source.
As for dropping off the face of the earth, I know of a few other forums where he was active and there has been little activity over the last year or so.
I'm thinking his shop pulled him down financially, but I can't be sure of that.
If all else fails, I'm sure one could be pulled in from the UK or Europe, shipping is really not that expensive for a clutch plate.
2010 BMW 335D
1994 Opel Calibra 4X4 turbo ( C20LET 2.0L Turbo )
2002 Daewoo lanos
PrecisionBoost wrote:I should try and look back as to the clutch company he was using, I chatted with him quite some time ago about a USA supplier selling "Z20LET" clutch systems in to the UK market, I'm thinking that was his source.
As for dropping off the face of the earth, I know of a few other forums where he was active and there has been little activity over the last year or so.
I'm thinking his shop pulled him down financially, but I can't be sure of that.
If all else fails, I'm sure one could be pulled in from the UK or Europe, shipping is really not that expensive for a clutch plate.
Thanks for the reply Chris. It is kind of weird... I was communicating with him directly via email and phone. We even had 2 long conversations about projects we were working on, my future plans, etc. Progress went as far as him saying he had the clutch disc ready, but the PP "came in wrong" and he would get it sorted out for me. Then that was about it, couldn't reach him
I am still using the F28. I know the thing that makes my clutch somewhat unique (at least I think) is that I am using the "pot" style flywheel in a performance setup whereas I think most guys overseas always use the "flat" style flywheel especially when running the F28. So I figure the clutch is a bit of a hybrid? I wouldn't mind converting/switching to the lighter flywheel as long as I can be sure to have a combination that works correctly.
I'm still talking to Garrett about my build. His new kid was born in March and he also took over another shop in January, so I think he's just really busy.
So I recently blew up the oil pump in my IS300 at the track and it took my bearings along with it... Motor will be coming apart for a full rebuild :O It's not entirely a surprise since it was an original OEM pump 12 years old and 250,000km on it lol. Also I've discovered there is a significant difference in strength between the GTE (turbo version) and GE (non turbo) pump - lesson learned for the rebuild.
That said, I'm wanting to get the Optra back on the road and I can't wait any longer for a reply from Garrett about the clutch he was going to sell me. I'm going to give these local guys a shot - hopefully they can repair whatever happened to my clutch. I haven't removed the clutch/trans yet so I haven't even seen what the damage is ...
02/19/15
Finnnnnnallly had some time to take the clutch out and investigate... Car has been sitting for quite some time due to the clutch issue. The ceramic pads have worn down to the rivets and that's what was causing the strange engagement and noise. Also scored up the pressure plate and flywheel..
Clutch & flywheel are being sent out to a local shop which does rebuilds/machining... If Garrett didn't disappear I would have just bought a new one lol
Got the clutch back - everything looks pretty good. They machined down the friction surface of the pressure plate and then shimmed it to keep the clearances the same. Disc has a new hub (apparently the splines were slightly worn) and also new ceramic pads. Flywheel has been machined to match again.
While I have been waiting on the clutch, I took the opportunity to clean/re-fresh the linkages and the appearance of the F28 gearbox + custom mount. They were all very corroded and oily/dirty after 7 years of service.
Tranmission is now installed back in the car and the clutch seems to work (tested on the hoist). Now to finish up with the rest of the maintenance...
With the clutch/transmission maintenance done last year, I wanted to tackle another issue I had been having. Occasionally the Haltech Sprint500 would loose track of the cam sync and cause an abrupt cut. No amount of fiddling with the settings in the software would fix this, so we decided to change the pickup to something more precise and clean for the ECU.
We used a Haltech S4 dual channel hall effect sensor and a custom machined aluminum trigger wheel with magnets. The nice part about this sensor is that it can do both crank and cam sync in one physical package. There are 4 magnets equally spaced 90 degrees apart for crank, and then one additional magnet to for the cam sync. So far after a dew days of driving the results seem promising!
PrecisionBoost wrote:Seems like the engine mount was a great place for your sensor change, interesting design, hopefully it helps.
How did you end up securing it to the cam? Just a dowel or screw or weld?
Yah after some more seat time, I can say there hasn't been one cutout since the change which is awesome.
To mount, the hole in the wheel is a very snug fit on the bolt and then it it simply held in tight with the bolt/washer. Made a small alignment marking for when it needs to be taken apart.
Still wanting to go back to a larger turbo, but I always seem to have less and less time these days lol
