Since the car had 175,000 miles on the original clutch, I replaced it with an Exedy stock replacement unit and matched it up with a very nice lightweight chrome moly steel (4.7 KG - about 9 pounds) flywheel. This cut
about 12 pounds of rotating weight off the engine and has made it much more responsive and easier to drive. It also revs up and down quicker, so shifting is smoother. Installation was simple - just take out the old and
replace with the new part. ZERO modification was required! I bought it on E-Bay for about half the cost ($160 shipped) of a Fidanza aluminum unit and I feel a LOT safer with the steel one in there!
You can also see how the Exedy clutch uses real springs for the hub, as opposed to the rubber cushions used in the stock unit. Obviously, they worked for 175K miles, so they can't be that bad, but for performance use,
I'll take the real springs. When the new engine goes in, I think I'll be replacing the Exedy with a puck style clutch, still debating if I want to go with a sprung hub unit then or not.
Just for safety and reliability, I also replaced the stock rubber hydraulic clutch hose (the one between the frame and the clutch slave cylinder) with a braided steel hose. It didn't make a difference in clutch feel, but it sure
can't hurt, and it's tougher than the stock piece - looks cool too when I'm under the car. While I had it apart, I also filled in the stock front and rear engine mounts with silicone to firm them up without making them rock
solid. It's not a pretty mod, but it works well. You can see how much flex there was in the stock mounts and now that they're filled in, they are VERY firm, but still flex just enough and don't transmit any more vibration to the
car like hard ones do. They've been in there for over a year now like that and are still in pretty good shape. Considering how I drive the car, that's saying a lot. Another project I want to accomplish it to make some "soft"
polyurethane replacement inserts for all 4 mounting points. This should locate the engine correctly, get the half shaft angles back to where they should be and transmit the minimum vibration back into the car.
about 12 pounds of rotating weight off the engine and has made it much more responsive and easier to drive. It also revs up and down quicker, so shifting is smoother. Installation was simple - just take out the old and
replace with the new part. ZERO modification was required! I bought it on E-Bay for about half the cost ($160 shipped) of a Fidanza aluminum unit and I feel a LOT safer with the steel one in there!
You can also see how the Exedy clutch uses real springs for the hub, as opposed to the rubber cushions used in the stock unit. Obviously, they worked for 175K miles, so they can't be that bad, but for performance use,
I'll take the real springs. When the new engine goes in, I think I'll be replacing the Exedy with a puck style clutch, still debating if I want to go with a sprung hub unit then or not.
Just for safety and reliability, I also replaced the stock rubber hydraulic clutch hose (the one between the frame and the clutch slave cylinder) with a braided steel hose. It didn't make a difference in clutch feel, but it sure
can't hurt, and it's tougher than the stock piece - looks cool too when I'm under the car. While I had it apart, I also filled in the stock front and rear engine mounts with silicone to firm them up without making them rock
solid. It's not a pretty mod, but it works well. You can see how much flex there was in the stock mounts and now that they're filled in, they are VERY firm, but still flex just enough and don't transmit any more vibration to the
car like hard ones do. They've been in there for over a year now like that and are still in pretty good shape. Considering how I drive the car, that's saying a lot. Another project I want to accomplish it to make some "soft"
polyurethane replacement inserts for all 4 mounting points. This should locate the engine correctly, get the half shaft angles back to where they should be and transmit the minimum vibration back into the car.
MR2 Clutch and Flywheel
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