Mo's S13.5 VGT Updated 6/1/2011

This is for all those PICTURE THREADS ONLY. Motor installs, product writeups, showing off your car, put the thread in here.
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Mo's S13.5 VGT Updated 6/1/2011

Post by mo_hish »

Ok, so I'm tired of having my to-do list on my phone for this car. There's always something wrong with it that needs to be addressed and I figure it'll be easier to get to if I put it in writing.

Most if not all of these pics are phone pictures. A lot of them got destroyed when I went to get pick up some rims and forgot my phone on top of my car at the gas station and came back to find it in pieces. Good times.

Anyway, I bought the car from Tekudrifter on this tristatetuners.com April of '09 as a birthday present to myself. So it's been just under a year and I find myself on my 5th turbo, 3rd turbo setup, 3rd clutch (soon to be 4th), and second front end. This is actually my first build of any kind so its been a blast, and definitely been a learning experience.

When I first bought the car
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This pic was in the for sale thread, but there was actually a huge hole in the front bumper the size of a license plate
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It also came with SE's, not the steelies shown here
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This is where I had a bunch of pictures of my first t25 install, but they were on my phone which got destroyed. So a couple of months later t25 was installed and the car was now like this
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These are the rims that I was buying when my phone got owned.
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Steering wheel got grease on it and had a tear in it, so I just tore the rest of it off
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At this point I was still on my stock clutch, and it couldnt handle the t25, so I looked into the white bunny setup and decided to try it.
Old dirty setup 225mm vs new shiny 240mm d21 flywheel & 300zx setup
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Then my first t25 blew bc I over oiled it I think, so I got another and swapped it out
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In this picture you can see the hole that I was talking about in the bumper
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Boost leak tester I made
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Sometime after that I was working on my car, yada yada yada, I was cranking it without a spark plug in (completely forgot), it spit gas out which caught fire and burned up some wires and belts, but I put it out with the garden hose, and I just replaced the belts, fixed the wiring and no problem. The worst damage was because I had my bov facing up, when I put the fire out with the garden hose, I forgot that water would get stuck in there and that bov siezed up and sucked balls afterwards. I ended up getting an ebay pull type bov which leaked horribly.

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Soon after that I got some new side skirts
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and then a bigger intercooler
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Then the t25 blew again, so I purchased one off of zilvia for pretty cheap, but UPS lost it or something, so he sent me some sparco pedals instead
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I ended up getting one locally and swapping them out, then I decided that I wanted to fix the hole in the bumper so I picked up a bumper from J.E.T. here on tristate who was kind enough to give it to me for free. Thanks again!
It wasnt the cleanest bumper, but I just needed a bumper to throw on the car so that I could drive it. I cut up the front for the intercooler and zip tied one side on which had no bolt holes.
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Then I went top mount with what I believe was the same holset biggamehit first used, except I was using an ebay top mount t3/t4 manifold and I had major clearance issues with the bmc
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I tried wrapping the exhaust housing with some heat blanket, but it was touching the bmc to a point where I had to jack up the driver side and put a hockey puck there just to fit it (and it would still touch the bmc). Needless to say, brake fade was a serious problem after any boost
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I thought switching from the 18cm housing to a 12cm would net the distance away from the bmc I needed
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...but it didnt. It still needed the hockey puck there and was still touching a bit. This is when I roasted my second clutch. It was right before the first snow, and I did a couple of pulls that apparently the clutch couldnt handle and that was the end of that clutch. I ordered another one, and when I found the time, I pulled the tranny, only to find out that I ordered the wrong year 300zx clutch and it wouldnt mate up with the flywheel. I exchanged the clutch but had to wait like 3 weeks for it to come in the mail, so the car was down for that entire time and I didnt touch it. I ended up finally get the carbon metallic clutch which is a full faced clutch and is supposed to hold about 400 ft/lbs of torque so I figured that would be enough for me.

So I basically realized that I needed to get a 9cm housing in order to clear the bmc. I found an he351ve on eBay that was selling cheap. I thought this was the same as the he351 or the hy35, so i picked it up, and realized that the 've' there was pretty important. This thing was huge.
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I seriously contemplated changing my entire setup to run this turbo, but in the end, I decided to just sell it. Which turned out to be a good idea, because I soon found an hy35, which is what I originally wanted.

I tried installing the hy35 on the top mount t3/t4 and still had clearance issues. At this point I was seriously fed up and was going to just get a log manifold. I found one on zilvia the next day for like $300 and paid the guy the day after that. Little did I know, he'd actually sold it soon after talking to me to some guy on ka-t.org who sent payment that night. F*^% me, right? So he refunded my money and told me that he could make me another one for an extra hundred or so. I decided that I'd just try to make my own. I was going to use the stock manifold and chop it up but then I decided that I would just take the bottom mount t2 manifold that I was using for my t25, and flip it. The bolt pattern is the same so I did that, braced and reinforced it, swapped out the t2 for a t3 flange and voila, I had a manifold to run my new hy35.
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and got her running (temporarily), just to see that turbo spin
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I found a pretty good deal on some xxr 962 with brand new tires 17x9 with 255s in the back and 17x8 with 215s in the front
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This is the difference between the new 255s for traction and my old bald 215s from my first car (rx7 fc) for drifting
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Sold the old ones, and threw the new ones on
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Then I bought some s15 headlights and Kevins old s15 front end. Did the mandatory mock up in my living room with my coffee table and some entanmanns boxes holding it up
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...was still waiting for s14 hood hinges and rps13 headlight brackets to install.

Meanwhile, I traded my type x front bumper that I never got around to fixing for some power doors and a boost gauge.
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Did the install of those a couple days after I got them because I was really tired of manual doors.
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I took the side skirts off during this install, and havent had a chance to put them back on yet. The wiring for the windows were ridiculously easy, but I still havent wired up the power assisted locks. I havent really played around with it yet, but if anyone knows how to do the locks, feel free to save me the headache of figuring it out.

Then I got the hood hinges and headlight brackets in the mail, so started on the s15 front end install.
Bye-bye old front end...
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...hello S15 front end
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I really like these next two pictures for some reason
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Thats how the car sits right now.. I still need to do the hood pin install and do a final adjustment of the headlights. All the lights are wired up except for the high beams which seem to be giving me problems. I need to find out whats wrong with them eventually. The high beams on my old headlights were broken, I always thought it was the lights, and never realized it might be the wiring.

So right after that I got the car inspected and took it for a spin only to realize that something mustve gone wrong with the install because the clutch slips as soon as I hit full boost (10 lbs). I'm assuming I either got oil or something on the flywheel while I was waiting so long for this clutch, or its not mating properly because I didnt get the flywheel turned. Either way, I'm going to need to pull the tranny again. I'm considering getting a 6 puck at this point, and giving up on full faced clutches even though I really want it to be as streetable as possible.

I think I'm going to leave this clutch for the time being because I miss driving my car, and I figured I'll work out all the little kinks in the car, and then change the clutch, break it in and get it tuned. Right now I'm running 9 lbs on purple top 370s and an N60 with a chipped ECU tuned for that. I'm eventually going to upgrade injectors and run an N62 and hopefully make about 350, but that obviously isnt going to happen on this clutch, so all in due time.
Last edited by mo_hish on Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:26 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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aaronlee97
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Post by aaronlee97 »

Get a full faced, segmented kevlar 300zx clutch. It will hold the power you are making and then some. Kevlar wants to be pushed though so make sure you push it well. You must go through a 1000 mile break-in period too. During the break-in period the clutch usually slips so don't be surprised. After it's broken in it may slip again for a little bit if it's not pushed once in a while.
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Post by mo_hish »

Hm... Well I currently have a carbon metallic segmented full faced clutch thats supposed to hold 360+ ft/lbs of torque installed right now. I'm only about 200 miles into the break in now but gave it a couple pulls to see if it would hold (never took it all the way through the rpm because it would slip once I hit full boost). Its nowhere near where the holding capability of the clutch is supposed to be right now. Are these types of clutches supposed to slip during break in as well?
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Post by Lord Umoja »

Mo....go back to 240Family!!! :lol:

j/k Nice build though. Expect me to be on your case on the family now when I have turbo issues.
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Post by mo_hish »

lol you're everywhere dude! Thanks, and I'm more then willing to help out when I can 8)
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Post by mo_hish »

So I went out this morning to take the car to work. Turned it on and the oil pressure was scary low even on a cold start. Checked the oil and there was very little, so I put some oil in and turned the car back on. The oil pressure rose like it was supposed to. Turned the car off and took the Geo to work. I'm assuming there's some type of oil leak I have to deal with, so until I have time to address that, the car is no longer streetable. Gey.
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Re: Mo's S13.5 Finally Streetable

Post by rn240sx »

mo_hish wrote: Image
now that is a thing of beauty...!!!
www.shopboldimpressions.com
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Re: Mo's S13.5 Finally Streetable

Post by mo_hish »

rn240sx wrote:
mo_hish wrote: Image
now that is a thing of beauty...!!!
Would make a pretty sick coffee table.
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Post by mo_hish »

I went and checked the oil again after I put some this morning.. it was once again ridiculously low. Put some more oil in, jacked the car up and started it. Oil pressure rose so I went and checked underneath the car for leaks. Saw a constant drip, followed it to find that the vinyl tubing from my oil pressure gauge had somehow gotten the tiniest little hole in it. The very thing I installed to know if something took a turn for the worse was the problem, ironic. Turned the car off and left it alone. I'm gonna grab some tubing tomorrow from autozone and swap them out during common hour. Might consider putting some kind of protection around it as well.
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Post by mo_hish »

Fixed the oil leak so its streetable again!

Also had time to rebleed the clutch and adjusted the pedal to get some initial play to see if thats why the clutch was slipping. But after a 3rd gear pull, I realized that it was all in vain. I think I'm going to try to take it easy for the rest of the break in, but I dont think its going to hold afterwards because I'm pretty sure it should hold plenty immediately after the install and I've had it in for a little over 200 miles.
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Post by mo_hish »

Took a window switch I had laying around from my 3kgt and wired up my locks. It's temporary, but at least now I can lock and unlock my doors electronically.

And I got the emblem in the mail today, thanks Kevin.
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Post by eazye2000 »

I didn't see the details on the fenders you used. Are they OEM S15's, or did you get the 13.5 conversion fenders?

Either way, looks awesome! Get that thing put together and rip it up!
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Post by mo_hish »

Thanks man. They're raceonusa conversion fenders.

I've all but made up my mind about my clutch. I think I'm going to throw on an rb20 flywheel, so that I can mate up a full faced clutch that will be able to handle to power. I was considering going 6-puck but since this is my street toy, I dont want to dislike the drivability.
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Post by mo_hish »

Today during some 'spirited' driving, the turbo flange gasket took a **** on me. I took a look and about a third of the gasket is gone, so its a pretty big leak. I started to take the up-pipe off and the head of the bolt broke off...

I couldnt even find the extra t3 gasket I thought I had, so I ordered one and also ordered some heat wrap for the up-pipe.
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Post by Unbound Yuurei »

mo_hish wrote:Today during some 'spirited' driving, the turbo flange gasket took a **** on me. I took a look and about a third of the gasket is gone, so its a pretty big leak. I started to take the up-pipe off and the head of the bolt broke off...

I couldnt even find the extra t3 gasket I thought I had, so I ordered one and also ordered some heat wrap for the up-pipe.
DUUUDE! how does the HY-35 feel? I'm thinking of doing the same set-up.
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Post by mo_hish »

I got some work in on the car today so I changed the gasket that went on me the other day, and then drilled out the bolt that broke into the exhaust housing.

The gasket was pretty bad, so I got a metal one.
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Random pic I took while the turbo was out.
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And then everything back together.
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And Yuurei, the HY35 feels great, or at least what I get to feel of it before the clutch slips feel great. I'm at full boost around 3k and it hits nice and hard. I definitely recommend it.
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Post by mo_hish »

Ok, I'm upgrading my flywheel/clutch setup on my 240 (ka24de). I'm currently running the white bunny setup which uses a 240mm flywheel and a 300zx clutch. This is 15mm bigger than the 225mm stock clutch and is a bit heavier.

I'm upgrading to a 250mm rb flywheel and 350z clutch. I bought a stock flywheel, and then came across an awesome deal on a lightweight one that I couldn't pass up, so I have both. The car is my daily driver, but will see racing and launching about half a dozen nights a month give or take. My question is will the bigger surface area of the flywheel make launching the lightweight flywheel any easier (the clutch is full faced so I'll be able to slip it), or should I just put the stock flywheel on?
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Post by mo_hish »

Went out today planning on redoing the oil pan gasket because there was a small leak, only to find out that I couldnt pull the oil pan because of the bigger flywheel I was running. The dust shield was basically pushed farther towards the engine to fit the bigger flywheel making it impossible to pull the oil pan. I was pretty pissed, but I was going to have to drop the tranny to put in the new rb flywheel/350z clutch setup, so I just did it today and finished up with the oil pan. Pulled the old flywheel/clutch setup while the tranny was out.

RB flywheel (top) vs stock flywheel
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From top to bottom: Resurfaced RB flywheel - D21 flywheel - Stock flywheel
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My old white bunny setup that's supposed to hold about 400 ft/lbs
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Last edited by mo_hish on Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by eazye2000 »

Doesn't look like anything stands out that would make the clutch slip. Maybe just an adjustment of the master..?

I was going to ask, also. What core support, or brackets did you use to get the headlights to bolt in there? I'm curious.
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Post by mo_hish »

I adjusted the master to make sure it was fully engaging, so I don't think that's it.


And I'm using the s13 core support with rps13 headlight brackets. It's listed there, but definitely easy to miss.
Last edited by mo_hish on Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by eazye2000 »

Cool, are those the brackets for the flat nosed, silvia conversion? With the brick headlights and such? I'll have to find some.

And...
Here's what mine looked like when it gave out. Almost the same as yours, just an ACT Extreme PP with the same type of disc. The disc looks beat on mine. But I never figured out why it gave out totally. Barely got it home. Just an all-of-a-sudden loss of pressure. Hope it helps.

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Post by mo_hish »

Yeah, its the brick headlight silvia conversion headlight brackets. I picked mine up for $40 shipped on zilvia if I remember correctly.
Last edited by mo_hish on Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by mo_hish »

Could a leaking oil pan be the culprit? Like somehow the oil makes its way up the dust shield and onto the flywheel? Inside my bellhousing looked pretty caked in oil or something. It was dirty every other time I dropped the tranny too, and I never cleaned it so I'm not sure if that's new.

I'll probably clean it this time, and maybe replace the rear main oil seal as well just to be sure. The back of the D21 flywheel was clean though, does that mean the rear main seal is fine?
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Post by mo_hish »

Ok, so since I can't drop my oil pan with the transmission in, and I plan on changing the rear main oil seal, I'm thinking about trying to start the car without the transmission in the car to check for leaks. If there are leaks, I can fix them ninja quick before I put the transmission back on. I'm sure some people will be opposed to this, but I need to check for leaks in the pan so that I dont have to drop the whole transmission again because there's a tiny leak.

I already have the safety switch on the clutch hard wired so that shouldnt be a problem. I figure I can put the dust shield and a flywheel on after I finish with the rear main oil seal, that way I can bolt the starter to its spot in the dust shield and start her up. If the dust shield isnt strong enough I'll just hold the back of the starter myself while someone starts the car. Am I missing anything?
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Post by mo_hish »

Ok, so over the past 11 months I've run my share of clutches, and today I got my most recent setup in the mail. The white bunny 2.0 :D. I snapped some pictures of the flywheels and clutches I've got stock piled so that you can see the difference in size between stock, white bunny, and white bunny 2.0

Clutches (350z, 300zx, stock)
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350z, carbon metallic 300zx, stock
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RB flywheel/350z clutch, D21 flywheel/300zx clutch, stock fw & clutch (top to bottom)
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Same deal as above, but lightweight rb flywheel and carbon metallic 300zx clutch thrown in
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The new setup (still deciding between flywheels)
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Will probably go with the lightweight
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Post by mo_hish »

Ok, so when I initially went with a bigger flywheel/clutch setup the engagement point on the clutch was at the wall so I had to adjust the pedal all the way up to get the engagement in the middle. Now I upgraded a step further, and the clutch engagement point is on the floor again, but I'm out of room to adjust the clutch pedal. It's so low that it doesnt disengage and I can't shift into any gear.

Is there any other way to change the engagement point?
Need some help here guys...
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Post by eazye2000 »

Not sure how to change the pedal engagement spot if you're out of room. But you really shouldn't be.. Did you try to bleed it again when the pedal/rod is maxed out? That's the only thing I can think of.

And yes, that is the 14 pound lightened flywheel. I got it from F1 Racing in CA. I think they are under GripForce.

And is that an extra RB20 flywheel? Let me know if you want to get rid of it.
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Post by mo_hish »

Yup, I ended up using the lightweight flywheel so the stock one is an extra flywheel. Bought it used and got it resurfaced. PM me if you're interested.

Btw, I fixed the engagement problem a couple hours ago. Score! Will update the thread later.
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Post by aaronlee97 »

Great, I can't wait to see what you did. My friend is having a similar problem with his clutch pedal too.
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Post by mo_hish »

Ok, so I ended up taking the clutch adjustment fork thing at the pedal all the way out, then putting a lock washer and then threading it on like 4 or 5 turns and then locking it into place. I know the lock washer is probably overkill because it can't turn when in place anyway, but I put one there anyway for peace of mind.

I didn't really think that would be enough considering I had it adjusted to around there anyway. I remember reading somewhere about Toyota people using extended slave cylinder rods when upgrading to a heavy duty pressure plate so I figured I could do something like that. Not having access to another slave cylinder rod, I figured I'd made an extension for it. The 8mm socket fits the slave rod like a glove. I ended up drilling into the socket a bit farther just because I was paranoid that it might fall out. I tried putting it on like this but it wouldnt fit, so I had to grind down the other face until it was really tight against the clutch fork, but didnt really push the clutch fork any. It turned out to be about a 4-5mm extension. It's basically making it so that there's no wasted movement in the clutch hydraulic system. After doing both of these, I rebled the clutch system and immediately felt the pressure building up. Turned it on, pushed the clutch in and could shift into every gear including reverse without any problem at all. Took it for a short drive and it shifted like butter. Basically stock pedal pressure.
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