Got a ton done over the weekend. Worked until about 12:30 last night getting stuff thrown back together. I splurged on the Sikky shifter. I've seen mostly good feedback, and after so much frustration with my old shifter I'm trying to do it "right" and hopefully not have issues again. As I was putting everything together I kind of had a moment where I thought about how "right" I've been doing things, and still just perpetually redoing the same shit over and over...so I hope I'm not disappointed by this thing. I might have to go back to buying used parts and spending less money if it is all just going to break anyways lol.
The moment of self pity was when I was laying under the car bolting the exhaust up, I found the rear of the car covered in thick grease. Turns out my axle boot has recently split and it is throwing axle grease out everywhere. I have had relentless issues with the multiple 8.8 setups in the car since I made the swap. I really wish I had kept the mazda diff truly. I loved the engagement of the T2 diff, and the rear end itself was quiet other than the noisy diff mount. Could have added some more isolation there and been happy I think. I even prefer the short gearing I have 3.90's in the car now.
It isn't a major issue, and could be easily fixed with a new boot from vatozone, but just frustrating to be on the home stretch and sent back to tear things apart again. Once I get it running in the next few days I'll be taking it up to my dad's to use the lift and the press. Months ago I picked up some clearance DSS pro level axles for Cobra diffs which have the Porsche CV's. I guess they didn't realize with a $20 seal swap you can use cobra stubs in an explorer housing. Should be a nice refinement for the car vs the sloppy Ford tri-pods. Another LS7 swap component I can throw on early I guess.
Construction of the Sikky shifter is obviously very pretty, and it is a neat trick how they keep the shift lever in plane even though it is offset. It just better not leak or have any performance issues or I'm ripping the bitch out and using one of the stock magnum shifters.
I did get myself into a bit of a frustrating situation lol...started out not on the trans jack, but rather the trusty barstool and floor jack method I used to drop the trans. Turns out the Sikky shifter lever hits the floor on the way up. Had to cut and bash the floor down a little bit, but Matt's shifter plate still seals just fine. However, when it was balancing on the jack and got stuck on the floor it tilted the trans too far nose up and I started showering in gear oil, which by the way - Tremec now sells their own syncromesh manual transmission fluid. I'll be trying that out instead of the Redline D4 that I had in it. Trans fluid is I think the most expensive liquid I put in the car so it is always nice to be showering in it under the car.
As a round 2, and with the driveshaft yoke in the rear of the trans, it went in very easily with the trans jack. This thing is badass I hadn't used it before.
You can see the section I had to cut for clearance. I bashed it a lot before cutting it, but still barely didn't have enough room. Wound up buying a sawzall over the weekend and made short work of it.
I'm finally retiring Mattster's prototype MGW shifter plate cover. This was one of the first if not the first units he made for the MGW shifter way back in the day. He got a new one out to me in only a couple days for the Sikky, and it fits great and seals very nicely.
So, really in the home stretch now. Need to bleed the clutch slave, install the radiator and fill it, hook the battery up, and then flash in a new calibration for the LS3 MAF and the coil packs. Should only need 1 or 2 more short nights of wrenching on it.
I want to vaporize my old tires in a massive burnout, but they're also in really good shape...not sure if I want to sell them, hold onto them to use at an event, or light them off lol. The tires are 2 years old, but still work well and have a ton of tread. No camber wear either they're wearing evenly. Most of the value is probably in the wheels, and even that isn't huge, but if I could get like 800-900 out of them that'd be nice.
