also you should bypass/replace the clutch switch, its an add on in the circuit for Americans, and they go bad

 

My battery is in the back, and I've been through this whole ordeal a few times now.

Currently I have an 18" battery cable going from the starter bolt directly to the frame rale with a ground point I recently sanded. that part should be fine.

I tried running a ground wire from the battery all the way to the starter and it didn't seem to help at all.

 

I should have figured you'd already checked this, but sometimes we forget the little things so it was worth saying. Missed you at the cruise, but understand that you couldn't make it.

 

This had me breaking my noggin for over a year, I have an S4 TII that had starting issues also. I found the problem was that the starter solenoid wire only had 4.5v going to it when I would hit the key and depress the clutch pedal.

A buddy of mine always suggested I throw in a relay in between, so I did. Got full 12v going to it and it cranks over beautifully now. In the near future though I will be looking to fix the voltage drop, where ever it may be, since I don't want it to get so bad that even the relay wont kick over.

 

Partly, yes but the non OEM gear sets are always louder than the OE Ford gear sets.
The gear noise from my 8.8 with Ford 3.73 gears is about equal to my old NA Mazda diff. Both were mounted fully solid with solid subframe bushings.

 

Partly, yes but the non OEM gear sets are always louder than the OE Ford gear sets.
The gear noise from my 8.8 is about equal to my old NA Mazda diff. Both were mounted fully solid with solid subframe bushings.

Maybe I am reading this wrong, but it sounds like we are agreeing any diff mounted solidly to the front subframe will transmit a lot of gear noise.

 

Yes, but my diff isn't solid mounted, it's all rubber

mazda-comp bushings in the back and the stock explorer bushing in the front.

I need to put the car back up in the air to see if the case around the front mount is hitting the toe control link's mount. I assume that's all it is. hopefully I can clearance that a bit and it'll get better.

 

Yes. And any diff that has non OEM Ford 8.8 gears will have more gear noise than an OE Ford gear set.

I bet your car gets it with the 5.14 gears Mike! You are ready for the V8 swap now

 

I will almost guarantee that the noise is the front case hitting the subframe mount if you used the Ronin rubber front isolator.

There is some inherent clunking out of the 8.8 itself as well, like in a parking lot creeping on and off throttle, or on the freeway at cruise getting on and off the gas.

 

Yes, but my diff isn't solid mounted, it's all rubber

mazda-comp bushings in the back and the stock explorer bushing in the front.

Not at all like the stock Mazda 1" + thick block of soft rubber mounted in shear. You know that because its not moving all over the place...

 

Ford rebuilds a lot of those diffs under warranty, we even did with the B trucks for a while, until we figured out that the clunking and whining was part of the design...

 

First event of the season is in the bag!

First place in SSM, would have been 5th in SM behind 2 very fast cars (an evo and sti both with 500+ hp, aero, and tires the size of mine)

the car is much better to drive with the new final drive, I don't feel like I'm just waiting for power out of every corner. I just need to work on throttle modulation now

Video of my Final and fastest run:

At about 30 seconds in I'm hitting 9000 rpms and it's runnning out of breath pretty well, but on this course at least, I think it was a fine comprimise. I'll probably raise the rev limiter and work on the fuel map up there. I don't think it's really tuned, I think I just left it super rich...

One problem I did have is it puked gear oil out of my rushed diff breather... luckily I was running with the CAM class (classic american muscle) so they had bigger fish to fry when they can looking for the car that was leaking oil on course LOL.

It shouldn't be too hard to fix. just need to get a hose on it and pipe it to a better breather setup.

 

Here is a video from a stationary camera we had setup at the event, at about 7:55 is my buddy's 300+ hp turbo mint GSL-SE, followed by me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZqI...utu.be&t=7m55s

I need to get closer to cones...

 

Very nice! Driver mod = very good

 

So after doing the diff swap, how much of the street driveability is taken away from the car? Besides the noise, is the cruising down the highway reasonable? Are you closer to taking it to events on a trailer?

 

It's not too bad. My car is at about 4500 rpms on the highway... which isn't ideal haha, but it's not too bad. it actually might be quieter than before since my exhaust is kind of droney under that.

I don't have a trailer due to cost (I would have to buy a tow vehicle) and just plain hassle... driving to event is as good of a shake down as any

 

I didn't know this existed, sweet video! Is this a new/consistent thing? The E28 doesn't even look like it's rolling over on itself too much.

 

The evo/sti wouldn't happen to have been drivin by David Wampler? He's a friend of mine who moved up in that area from Lynchburg. Very fast

 

Haha, yeah.... he got 3rd in an STi... 7 tenths out of first which was his co-driver, Martin Kriz. Both are stupid fast.

 

Shane started doing it late last year, but doesn't do it every event.

Yeah, your car doesn't roll much at all, probably has to due with the crap tires not generating many Gs

 

You are wheeling that thing! Looking good. The car looks like it really gets off the corners hard now!

 

Definitely, it completely solved my turbo lag complaints

nice picture I just found on bookface:


the car definitely loses something without the rear spoiler, need to get that wing on asap

 

Glad the changes are working out! I will have to come over and watch you drive that thing around those cones.

 

Hopefully I fixed my diff vent issues. Here is my quick vent I threw on it to get it running:



Not surprisingly, it puked diff oil pretty bad once I started autocrossing

Here is the new vent setup, I didn't have any 3/8" fuel line, but I did have some -6AN line, which didn't want to go over the fitting very well, hopefully it doesn't leak.

It basically goes from the diff up to the bottom of the trunk floor, over the fuel lines and then down into a filter mounted on the gas tank corner. ideally the filter wouldn't be pointed down... but this way the hose travels uphill more and for longer than it would if I had to put a filter on top of it. The line is also going towards the opposite corner of the diff, so when it's sloshing to the right (vent side) it won't go down the line that's going to the left and vice-versa. Hopefully it works out.

Sorry about the terrible pictures...







I also got a screaming deal on a set of 4 brand new 335/30/18 Hoosier A6s.... so I test fit one on the back today.... and they don't fit lol









so... that sucks.

right now the car is at ~ -0.8* of camber in the back (I had to choke up big time on the subframe link to get the pinion angle right). so if I get the rear camber down I might be able to fit them... we'll see, I'll play around with them a bit more in the future before I sell them.

 

Damn so that's 60mm overfenders with a 18x12 et12 wheel?