AT->MT swap
11-27-07, 02:59 PM
#1
AT->MT swap
We finished it up. We put a JDM Tii MT into our 90 vert. Thought I'd pass on a couple of observations:
- The decision tree for diagnosing a non-starting rotary engine has 100 nodes. 99 of them are "It's flooded", "No, it really is flooded", "Yeah, the plugs look dry but it is flooded" and "WTF! Haven't you figured out that it's flooded?" The 99th one is that the alternator is dead.
- The clutch hydraulics were annoying. I had to really crank down with flare wrenches (if you dont have any do not under any circumstances touch your hydraulics) to get the hard line to seal with the new MC. If you're doing such a swap just buy a brand new MC, SC, SS line from Mazdatrix and have a new (not used) hardline made. Save yourself some ulcers. Oh, and get a Mityvac or the $15 one from Harbor Freight. And learn to love the clutch adjustment screw at the pedal. It is your friend, enemy and lover.
- Don't buy the SS clutch line off of ebay. It's junk. Wont fit. Will leak.
- The clutch goodies all felt bound up once we got the clutch hydraulics working. And I had lubed them lightly with wheel bearing grease during assembly. We had some squealing at 4k RPM but it has passed. The shifter was really tight at first too but it is loosening up nicely with every passing mile. The stock Tii clutch is really light even compared to my '04 G35 MT6 and the wife's '06 Audi A4 2.0T manual. I think when we do the Tii swap we'll go with the next beefier clutch. This thing is for girls.
No way you can get a nice, muscular left calf with this thing!
- The engine idles BEAUTIFULLY now. Before it would hunt and peck in the 800-1100 range. Without doing any tuning it sits rock solid at 900. I'm guessing the AT was providing a vacuum leak. We'd replaced all the vac lines last year with silicone ones but didn't get that one. Could have been internal to the AT too so the hose might not have mattered. The only other thing I could think of that would have affected that is the ground wire from the tranny to the firewall. Maybe the AT's was corroded inside. Looked ok.
- The flywheel feels heavy for the poor, tired out NA. I have noticed that the engine really wants to rev starting at 5500 rpm or so. I think we'll have to use RotaryResurrection's water de-carbonization process this weekend. I'm sure there is 17 years of carbon on those rotors. Each one probably looks like the coal yall get in your stocking! The carbon on the Tii we're rebuilding was approaching 1/8" thick so this poor NA rotors suffering at the constraints of that rev-inhibiting AT have to look like Hans Solo as he left Cloud City.
Thanks for the assists. This site and RotaryResurrection's sites are incredible resources.
- The decision tree for diagnosing a non-starting rotary engine has 100 nodes. 99 of them are "It's flooded", "No, it really is flooded", "Yeah, the plugs look dry but it is flooded" and "WTF! Haven't you figured out that it's flooded?" The 99th one is that the alternator is dead.
- The clutch hydraulics were annoying. I had to really crank down with flare wrenches (if you dont have any do not under any circumstances touch your hydraulics) to get the hard line to seal with the new MC. If you're doing such a swap just buy a brand new MC, SC, SS line from Mazdatrix and have a new (not used) hardline made. Save yourself some ulcers. Oh, and get a Mityvac or the $15 one from Harbor Freight. And learn to love the clutch adjustment screw at the pedal. It is your friend, enemy and lover.
- Don't buy the SS clutch line off of ebay. It's junk. Wont fit. Will leak.
- The clutch goodies all felt bound up once we got the clutch hydraulics working. And I had lubed them lightly with wheel bearing grease during assembly. We had some squealing at 4k RPM but it has passed. The shifter was really tight at first too but it is loosening up nicely with every passing mile. The stock Tii clutch is really light even compared to my '04 G35 MT6 and the wife's '06 Audi A4 2.0T manual. I think when we do the Tii swap we'll go with the next beefier clutch. This thing is for girls.
No way you can get a nice, muscular left calf with this thing!- The engine idles BEAUTIFULLY now. Before it would hunt and peck in the 800-1100 range. Without doing any tuning it sits rock solid at 900. I'm guessing the AT was providing a vacuum leak. We'd replaced all the vac lines last year with silicone ones but didn't get that one. Could have been internal to the AT too so the hose might not have mattered. The only other thing I could think of that would have affected that is the ground wire from the tranny to the firewall. Maybe the AT's was corroded inside. Looked ok.
- The flywheel feels heavy for the poor, tired out NA. I have noticed that the engine really wants to rev starting at 5500 rpm or so. I think we'll have to use RotaryResurrection's water de-carbonization process this weekend. I'm sure there is 17 years of carbon on those rotors. Each one probably looks like the coal yall get in your stocking! The carbon on the Tii we're rebuilding was approaching 1/8" thick so this poor NA rotors suffering at the constraints of that rev-inhibiting AT have to look like Hans Solo as he left Cloud City.
Thanks for the assists. This site and RotaryResurrection's sites are incredible resources.
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