V1 Neodied's #375 Extended Track - 07 SS/SC donor

[Mahkoi]

I have a cylinder leak down tester you are welcome to borrow if it helps you in figuring out the issue. Not sure if you have an air compressor but you'll need one if you do borrow the tool.

 

[neodied]

Swapped the flywheel, clutch assembly, and clutch slave cylinder. Measuring the air gap (very imprecisely) gave 9/32" or roughly 0.280 which is hopefully close enough to the desired spec (0.150-0.200 according to the ZZP video). The smallest spacer they sell is 0.200 which would shrink the gap too much according to their recommendations.

Now time to mate this trans back to the engine which was a pain the last time to get the splines lined up even with the alignment tool. After turning the half shaft a couple times and retrying it, it eventually lined up.

 

[neodied]

Powertrain back hanging in the Goblin again after the upgrades. Four evenings and one Friday left to get it running before Dream Cruise.
Mating the trans to engine was just as fun as I remembered. Ended up using a ratchet strap hung off the boom of my shop crane to suspend the trans at the appropriate height to mate the splines, and used the shop crane to adjust the angle of the engine. It was gloriously terrible, but it worked.

 

[neodied]

Good news and bad news: I got a ton of work done and had the Goblin at 80% of the way to roadworthiness by Friday night, but then I turned the axles with clutch in and it produced a "tick-tick-tick" sound which @SmsDetroit helped me figure out is almost certainly my new flywheel bolts contacting the back side of the clutch disc.

So it has to come apart again. Hopefully not fully apart since it may be possible to pull the trans with only lowering the engine a little and not disconnecting coolant or electrical.

 

[Sluggonaut]

So it has to come apart again. Hopefully not fully apart since it may be possible to pull the trans with only lowering the engine a little and not disconnecting coolant or electrical.

If it weren't for coolant hoses and electrical, dropping the engine would be a decent experience.

 

[neodied]

If it weren't for coolant hoses and electrical, dropping the engine would be a decent experience.

I do have a shop crane which means i can hold it in place with some flexibility while unbolting the trans. Shouldn't be as bad as the first time if it works.

 

[ah.b.normal]

So it has to come apart again. Hopefully not fully apart since it may be possible to pull the trans with only lowering the engine a little and not disconnecting coolant or electrical.
[/QUOTE]
It can be done. I'd suggest an engine hoist, at least 2 jack stands and a floor jack. Doubles of any or all of these can make this job even easier. Goblin up on 2 to 4 jack stands, keep the engine on a hoist, a second hoist would be handy to dangle and "drop" the trans. Oh and another tech who is at least an adult, even if they're just handing you tools!
Josh and I had trans out to replace T/O bearing, start at 9:00, back in before 2:00 including lunch break. One hoist, pair of jack stands and 2 floor jacks.(some electric tools used, impact and socket wrench.) 2-3PM spent checking and tightening all the bolts.

 

[neodied]

The first half (easy half) can be done! Just me and my tools and some swearing. Yet again the Quickjacks were super nice to have easy adjustability on the frame height. TBD whether flywheel bolt clearance is actually the issue

 

[neodied]

It was definitely the clutch disc contacting the flywheel bolts.

 

[neodied]

Pulling the clutch apart showed wear marks on two of the eight small tabs on the back side of the clutch disc. The two tabs with wear marks were 1-2mm taller than the other tabs which had no wear marks. As far as I can tell, there's no need for the two taller ones to stay taller, so i ground them down to match the other tabs' height.

Hopefully this next weekend I can get the trans back up in there and check for the sound again. This time I put a vacuum cap on the clutch line connector to hopefully minimize the amount of air that gets in and bleeding that needs to be done when it goes back together.

 

[neodied]

Trans is back in and no more ticking noise!
Remaining To Do:
- Engine coolant fill
- Intercooler loop fill
- Parking brake cables
- Rear alignment
- Flash ECU with Ghostknife's baseline tune
- Update fuel injector specs (min pulse width and max flow rate)
- Compression test
- Cut counterweight off trans shift lever if it still impacts shifting

 

[At4Connor]

Took the Goblin out again and the tap/rattle noise toward the right rear that I have heard before was much more pronounced. I'm not an expert on engine noises, but the location of the noise seems to be the timing chain area. I've been meaning to do a timing kit at some point, but I guess no time like the present...

Parts purchased:
- Timing kit
- Valve cover gaskets
- Front main seal
- Front cover gasket
- ZZP upgraded timing chain guide
- Harmonic balancer bolt
- Valve cover breather (not for the timing kit, but as a stopgap for the dipstick popping out issue)

Cleaning gasket material off of the head without letting any fall into the head or spark plug holes is a PITA.

Did you ever figure out this noise. Was it a timing chain issue?