Just went on one and blew chunks of the trans everywhere......not sure if it's time to abort this or sell the entire car

 

Oh no. I'm sorry to hear that Dave. I was really hoping to see it rip at the shootout.

 

I still have full intentions of it running at THE SHOOTOUT, don't count me out yet!

 

HAHA! I cant wait!

 

Could this work well for someone wanting a 600 whp car?

 

I don't care about it working on a 600 hp car so I don't know.

 

Update. The trans is out and apart. Not sure what caused the damage or failed inside. There is damage but nothing that stands out as starting anything. The good news is the clutches all look like brand new, no heat in them at all, the planetary is also perfect. There is a new shaft we added along with a bearing that has failed and is critical in the transmission holding together under any real power. We have no choice but to re-assemble it without this support shaft for this weeks race.

I'm not really sure at this point what to do with the project. I love the car but was very tired of broken 5 speeds and clutch issues. This trans is what makes me want to keep it but with $60,000+ invested in it and still working on making it last, I'm starting to think about selling it to someone else who wants to finish it or just giving up and putting a 5 speed back in the car and a small turbo.

 

i saw on your fb page that it survived the shootout. any further plans? i'd still love to see this come together as finished product.

 

I plan to run it again, maybe this week. The trans has some damage inside and we chose to run it anyway. The support bearing and shaft we added were both damaged last time we had it apart, we are going to go to a ball bearing rather than the bearing we are using now.

 

What were your times on this trans compared to manual? Any slips?

 

Comparing the two is difficult.

On the 5 speed the car ran 9.04 at 159.6 with a 1.41 sixty foot back in 2008. That was on slicks and the car weighed less.

Now the best is 9.34 on slicks with a 1.39 sixty foot but at much lower boost, softer tune and more weight.

This weekend it ran 9.7 on just a normal radial tire at low boost.

 

Are you using the "standard" flex plate/flywheel or the intergrated starter ring torque converter?

 

Starter ring is on the converter.

 

Update after the last repair and THE SHOOTOUT.

David (yes there are two of us here) got the trans put back together. This is the first time we have had a flawless flex plate to use with this set up. Kiggly Racing built it for us with the precise offset and bolt dimensions needed.

The bolts were installed with a LOT of red Loctite and an impact. We did not use our locking tabs or spot welding (haha). Looking at the last few failures it seemed possible that because of the slop in the bolt holes the bolts were being knocked loose. We wanted to see.

The car was buttoned up Thursday, I literally drove it around the block and back into the shop. My good friend Doug Derby and my wife Renee went to work cleaning off the trans fluid that was all over the car and cleaning the inside up. The car sat for the car show on Friday here during the Shootout. I drove it home Friday night, to the track Saturday morning. At this point driving the car is a joy but it is also nerve racking waiting for something to make a noise or break

Saturday morning was the Max Effort Class. I love this class but in the years past have run only 1-2 autocross attempts and then one drag pass and hauled the car home broke. This year I am happy to say that I ran all three autocross passes placing 7th out of 18 cars. As a side note, the electric power steering is NOT good for autocross, on the road it is fantastic, parking lots, fantastic, I feel even on a road course it would be fantastic, on an autocross course though where you are snapping the wheel very quickly it is not fast enough. I also apparently had way too much oil still on the brakes and tires from the trans exploding as the braking was horrible and I had NO front grip at all, I mean ZERO.

We took the car back to the trailer, jacked it up and double checked the converter bolts, 100% locked down and tight!!!! Hurray!!!! Up for my drag runs, first pass the car ran a 10.1 misfiring. I figured after running the same plugs for about 4 years they'd clear out with another full throttle run, wrong, next run I gave up and ran a 15.1. I figured that the 10.1 was good enough and headed to the trailer, too lazy to change plugs for my third run. To my surprise when I pulled up Kevin Lawson and Matt Smith were standing there with an electric impact, tools and plugs in their hands! LMAO. We swapped the plugs out in a few minutes and back to the staging lanes I went. They were running round robin and I made it back in plenty of time.

Next run the car left lazy, the converter is either a bit too tight now or I just didn't push hard enough, 1.82 sixty foot, no wheel spin, 6.45 at 121 in the 1/8th and a 9.79 at 144.06 hitting the rev limiter before I crossed the line.

I have been knocking the serpentine belt off when the engine gets over 10,000 rpm (this is our 2.3 RPM stroker) and had decided 8800 would get me across the line, I was wrong.

We jacked the car up again after those three runs to verify the converter bolts were still tight and all checked out 100% again. I drove the car to dinner Sunday night and then home and back to our shop Sunday/Monday. Right now everything seems to be perfect!

I know the trans is on borrowed time because of our support bearing/shaft that was hurt last time. I plan to run the car again very soon. I only own my one set of Volk CE289N's and the Star Spec tires that are on it now, no more slicks.

The best run to date with the car is 9.31 at 146.73 on this trans and that was a 1.43 sixty foot on slicks.

I am currently installing some new paddle shifters in the car rather than the push buttons which were too awkward. Also going to swap intake manifolds and then return to the track.

 

Why no more slicks?