Yeah, the guys that are doing full powertrain builds will do the following:

• Have the trans built
• Have the front diff built
• Have the rear diff built

Look at TRE for the highest level stuff. But Jacks & Shep do very good work as well

Those powertrain vendors have many diff levels of mods that can make the PT very robust for heavy use / loads

 

You described getting wheel hop. You can break most the drivetrain in short order doing that, even it's all built.

Meanwhile I have cars making 600ftlbs of torque without issues any real.

Building the trans doesn't make it stronger per se unless you put stronger parts in. Which isn't needed for first gear at an average level. And since first is integral on the input shaft, it only gets replaced when you go to a dog box.

You hurting first gear is a driver mod issue, plain and simple. Sorry dude.

 

You could preventatively rebuild them. But if you don't have the money for cams you likely don't have the money to send the trans and tcase off to have TRE go through them.

 

Personally, I like to error on safe side and would make the clutch the weakest link where it takes as much punishment as possible and not transfer all the shock to rest of drivetrain to help protect your tranny and transfer case. Change to a strong clutch after you build them since they need to be pulled for build anyway. You will have more torque out of your 2.3 and something always go wrong eventually.

My mistake was leaving oem engine mounts and only upgraded clutch. That's when I got severe vibrations during launches at the drag strip. I reengaged clutch each time to get rid of it, but it was already damaged in that first split second of launch. If you haven't already done so, upgrade your engine mounts (there are 4, one on each side) to avoid repeating into my mistake. What I'm saying is, you are losing buffer with your 2.3 upgrade and increase the chances of damaging your drivetrain.

As for someone else's evo making yada yada whp and having no problems handling the power, that is not your car, so it doesn't apply. Every evo has different problems, so assess your car for yourself since you know your car best. There is a local evo 8 here with over 100k miles on stock block. He modded his car with a 6466 turbo and puts down 630ish whp and runs 9s in 1/4. Will I tell anyone to do that? Absolutely not! He's playing with fire but he has the budget to build a new race engine. I'm giving you logical advice to minimize the chances of damaging your drivetrain.

Just so you know, everyone has gone through mistakes on their evos and will continue to go through mistakes. I am disappointed to see someone acting like they know everything and can't be wrong and then hint that you can't damage drivetrain on stock turbo. Especially right after saying stock turbo can hit 500 ft-lbs of torque. *just noticed comment was edited with drag racing exclusion after I explained my situation. That way, he can't be wrong! Lol*
Don't get me wrong, he has good advice most of the time.
Yes, he has problems with his evo too. He blows his motor on cool night from overboosting. Then tries to be English Racing and builds his fancy engine only to spin a bearing from oil contamination during break in. So no one is perfect, even if they act like it. They could have the most experience of everyone, but there's no excuse for giving people a false sense of security on someone else's car since we don't know the condition of your car (mileage, amount of abuse taken, fluid change intervals, use of correct fluids, etc).

Gather all the info and assess your plans because, in the end, it is your car and your dollar to fix. Good luck on finding what works for you.

 

Also, someone is selling a new stock clutch and pressure plate for $120 shipped. This is a cheap option to give you time to enjoy your car and save for the build.

 

Well yes but there’s gotta be some other way to prevent it. Even if it’s temporarily limiting power or I’ve heard people talk about tcase braces.

 

Nope. The tcase brace is a DSM thing.

Don't launch the car if you're worried about drivetrain life. Whether you have a fully built drive train or not, launching is hard on parts.

Otherwise, especially on the stock turbo, it's all fine.

 

Since the evo 8/9 head breathes pretty well from factory, I would just throw in a set of Billet R2's if you can. If you keep the oem fluid in the rear diff and transfer case (Diaqueen SAE90) and don't launch the car, they will not break.

 

I just want to add that if you insist on launching your car, you can do it more safely with one of these guys. It's cheating, but creates a lot more precision so that your anxiety before a launch doesn't bog you down. Better to slip more clutch than to break more gears/bearings/cases. There are clutches designed for launching over and over again, some are not. I would dial it in with a greater delay first, then reduce it to get desired slip:
https://www.realstreetperformance.co...-solenoid.html