Well, I have been a busy busy bee lately. I have recently installed a new ACT HDSS clutch kit, and also the ACT Prolite flywheel.

Install wasn't too bad if it weren't for the randomly stripping 10 year old bolts. The actual clutch and flywheel install itself was very easy and straight-forward. But whatever you do, do not drop the pressure plate and disc on your face. It sucks.

I broke the clutch in for 500 miles of very easy driving, always shifting below 3500 rpm. But after 500 miles I beat the snot out of it. So far it is holding up great. Clutch grabs extremely hard, but is still very streetable. No chatter, and pedal pressure is only slightly more than stock. I can even chirp third every now and then! Only problem I am really having with it now is the massive wheelhop I am getting on hard 1-2 shifts. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the clutch.

The flywheel is also very nice. Also totally streetable. Yes, the revs do drop faster on shifts now, but if you don't suck at driving, this isn't a problem at all. Rev matching is much faster, and much more fun. Acceleration also seems to have picked up a bit too.

And today I installed the new Ground Control upper shock tower mount thingies, heh. You can see a picture of them here... http://www.ground-control.com/...l.jpg Install was very easy and straight-forward. Only problem that I had was they didn't clear the strut tower bar I had up front. No biggie though, I am going to get a 3 point bar or something now

So I get the entire suspension put back together and my friend and I decide its time for a test drive. We head up a road from his house that normally rattles the crap out of my car. But now it rides as smooth as my car did when it had stock suspension! It is so nice having a smooth ride again. (Keep in mind this is still with my KYB AGX's set to full hard)

So we start to head towards a nice windy road to test the suspension out a little more. Come to a stop sign and get going in first nice and easy. Then I decided that I should see if this helped my wheelhop at all. I mash the gas, bring the tach up to about 6 grand and grab second. I dump the clutch out and BRAAAAAAAMMMMMM! The tach needle goes flying up into the red, but I'm not accelerating anymore. CRAP! So I coast into a parking lot and get out to figure out what the hell hapened. Turns out that I broke my freaking axle. SUPER!

So I get a tow home and now I sit here writing a review when I need to get up in like 5 hours to fix my axle.

But anyways, once I get my car back on the road, I'll elaborate on the ground control review a bit more.

Cliff Notes : Installed an ACT HDSS clutch kit, and ACT prolite flywheel about two weeks ago. Both are awesome and very streetable. Intstalled the new Ground Control upper shock mounts today and the ride is very smooth, but broke an axle about 2 mins into the test drive. More info in a couple days. All three get

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by buskethead &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> But whatever you do, do not drop the pressure plate and disc on your face. It sucks. </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha nice one. Sounds like you had a handful on installs, nice mods and nice little review

 

nice review of the mount. How much did that cost and do you think it was worth it? I have been thinking about doing the DIY version.

Edit: spelling and also What is the part #? TIA


Modified by GSRrR at 2:45 AM 4/29/2003

 

Yah, I'm also curious about that mount.

How's the pedal pressure on the HDSS?

 

Even with the limited test time on the upper mounts, they feel like they have made a pretty big difference in ride quality. So I am very happy about that because I have some really bumpy roads around here. As long as they don't take away from the handling of the car at all (I don't see how they really could do anything but help actually), I would definately say these were worth the $150 that I paid for all 4.

The pedal pressure on the HDSS is only slightly stiffer than stock also. Not bad at all for me.

 

Sounds good, I'm currently looking around for a replacement of my clutchnet stage 2. I want something that will hold maybe 300 lb tq, but NOT chatter. The clutchnet (6 puck, sprung) chatters horribly and the pedal feel is all spongy.

Could you in detail describe how the pedal feels when you're pushing in and releasing it? Also what is the HDSS rated up to for power/torque?

 

What is the purpose of those ground control shock tower mounts? Do they give more shock travel while keeping the same ride height?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GSRrR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice review of the mount. How much did that cost and do you think it was worth it? I have been thinking about doing the DIY version.

Edit: spelling and also What is the part #? TIA

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hmmm, I have no clue on the part number, but if you call ground control, I am sure they can tell you what it is. They are really cool guys down there.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Teg4e &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Could you in detail describe how the pedal feels when you're pushing in and releasing it? Also what is the HDSS rated up to for power/torque? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, its really easy to push in until you get about half way down, then it firms up a bit, then it gets easy again down by the floor. I like it a lot more than how the stock clutch felt. It feels a lot more solid. And it feels kinda like it just wants to spring back up off the floor too.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TuRbEeZy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What is the purpose of those ground control shock tower mounts? Do they give more shock travel while keeping the same ride height? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, I believe that it what they are for. They probably stiffen things up a bit more too, because they use urethane bushings throughout instead of rubber ones, and the whole assembly is made of aluminum too. I got them because I had like an inch of travel left in my shocks when my car was just sitting on the ground. I haven't been able to check on how much the travel has been increased yet, but that will be coming in the next couple of days, along with a little more in depth review of them.

 

Coo thanx looking forward to the complete review.

 

Clutches should be rated by torque capacity. The HDSS is rated at 243 ftlbs of torque at the flywheel. This is a real number and is based on slipping friction (not static friction which is higher) at peak clamp load. You would need a little reserve (maybe 10%). It is an honest increase of 55% over the LS or 30% over the GSR or type R clutch. Other features: The disc doesn't have as much trouble with springs coming out as the stock ones do. The disc has steel backed linings for burst strength and high copper content to help dissapate the heat from the surface. The pressure plate is our own stamping allowing for better straps and larger rivets. The contact face is ductile iron and the pressure plate is SFI certified. OK, enough advertising. Sorry to ramble on.

 

Also how is the clearance under the hood since those shock mounts do stick up? Do they rub or hit cuz they look tall from the picture?

 

Hey, very cool ACTman! Its nice to get some inside info on that stuff.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TuRbEeZy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also how is the clearance under the hood since those shock mounts do stick up? Do they rub or hit cuz they look tall from the picture?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, the top of my shocks are barely hitting my hood, and it isn't all the time, so I think I am going to shim my hood up just a tiny bit, just because I don't want to hear it rattle at all.

 

Ok, well, I finally got to put some miles on my suspension and I got it all aligned. It seems that now everything has seated and worked in, so now the ride is actually back more towards how stiff it was before. I am thinking that all the brand new bushings and everything that wasn't broken in yet is what made the car fell so soft on that first night.

But that doesn't bother me at all, I wasn't looking for a softer ride anyways. What the ground control mounts did do, however, was increase the amount of shock travel that I have by about 1.5 inches or so. Considering I had about 1 inch of travel to begin with, this is a big improvement.

Now that my car is aligned and everything it handles really really well. I am very happy with it.

So, in conclusion, for all of you guys who are constantly slamming into your bumpstops, these might be a very worth-while investment for you.

 

what other mods do you have inyour car.....im more interested on whtaver else you can share about the clutch & flywheel coz im about to install the same clutch & flywheel into my LS. You think your car picks up a lot faster now & lil quicker coz of the flywheel.......share your experiences so far both good & bad if any.....thankx

 

Um, lets see here, I have a d16z6 swap, y8 intake manifold, carsound highflow cat, apex'i ws catback, and a super duper red valve cover. The car feels like its a little bit quicker with the flywheel, nothing amazing really, but its there. But it definately revs a lot faster with rev matching and whatnot. Clutch grabs really hard, and I can chirp third now. So I am pretty stoked with that. (my tranny isn't so happy about all the chirping though ) No bad expeciences with it at all really, I like them both a lot. I don't get any chatter with my clutch either, just grabs like crazy when I want it to.

Just lemme know if you need any more info

 

Congrats on the broken axle.