Bates' 2012 Nissan Juke & 1987 300ZX

[mr_eh]

Originally Posted by Godofelru

Agreed.

I'm surprised the clutch is so weak that it can't handle that small increase in power. I'm terrified my clutch is going to cook on 11 psi. It's holding on now, but it's taking a beating. I don't know what another 30-40 lb-ft is going to do to it.

time to upgrade.

[Antonio]

Originally Posted by Godofelru

Agreed.

I'm surprised the clutch is so weak that it can't handle that small increase in power. I'm terrified my clutch is going to cook on 11 psi. It's holding on now, but it's taking a beating. I don't know what another 30-40 lb-ft is going to do to it.

that's the drawback of upgrading components of a car not meant to be a "performance car." Sure it may have forged internals, but every well built factory boosted car has forged internals for longevity. A turbo 1.6l engine is more for economy than power. Not saying it can't be modified to make power, but the realization that the rest of the car is still built to economy car standards is tough. Engine can probably handle 350hp, but it was never meant to be upgraded. I mean 99% of Juke owners are 100% stock and always will be. Nissan fitted a clutch in the car that could handle stock power + 10% for good measure/warranty reasons. That's the drawback unfortunately as Bates has learned/known.

[Bates]

Originally Posted by Godofelru

Agreed.

I'm surprised the clutch is so weak that it can't handle that small increase in power. I'm terrified my clutch is going to cook on 11 psi. It's holding on now, but it's taking a beating. I don't know what another 30-40 lb-ft is going to do to it.

I'm probably close to 80hp+ over stock, so I am not surprised. My Sentra stock clutch held up pretty good to 7 lbs.

Originally Posted by mr_eh

time to upgrade.

Custom 4 puck ceramic being made now, hoping to have it in maybe 2 weeks. Sadly, they don't make anything aftermarket for this transmission.

Originally Posted by Brianb351

I like what you're doing with the juke and i like that it is a different platform then we are used to seeing everyday on this forum. Keep it up.
This is when this forum is at its best. When people discuss, disagree, learn from each other, and continue on all while being respectful and open-minded.

Thanks. Can't wait to lower it a little more on new wheels. Looks so blah on the stock wheels right now.

Originally Posted by Antonio

that's the drawback of upgrading components of a car not meant to be a "performance car." Sure it may have forged internals, but every well built factory boosted car has forged internals for longevity. A turbo 1.6l engine is more for economy than power. Not saying it can't be modified to make power, but the realization that the rest of the car is still built to economy car standards is tough. Engine can probably handle 350hp, but it was never meant to be upgraded. I mean 99% of Juke owners are 100% stock and always will be. Nissan fitted a clutch in the car that could handle stock power + 10% for good measure/warranty reasons. That's the drawback unfortunately as Bates has learned/known.

Tell me about it, but you have to pay to play, but I have made some pretty good progress so far in a year.

[Bates]

Well after another very long night at PSI PRO, and a problematic boost leak, the Juke finally seems to be running better with it's new custom front mount.

[WRXD]

I appreciate and respect you making big strides on modding the Juke-- it is definitely unique. That being said, I think that custom front mount looks hideous.

[Bates]

Originally Posted by WRXD

I appreciate and respect you making big strides on modding the Juke-- it is definitely unique. That being said, I think that custom front mount looks hideous.

Trust me you are not the first to say that. I have actually gotten a lot of negative feedback on the overall look of the FMIC so far.

It is such a uniquely designed front mount and so much went into making it and mounting it (the mounting brackets are absolutely nuts, I forgot to get a picture of them though), that I had a feeling I would be sacrificing something somewhere to get it to work right, and the sacrifice came at the expense of my lower front fascia.

While I am not 100% pleased with the overall look of it, it had to be done this way for protection issues. Will it stay like this forever? Not at all. I plan on coating the bottom part of the IC that's sticking out black so it blends a bit more. For right now, it works just fine for me. Everything that I want covered is covered.

I'm sure 90% of people will hate the way it looks, but I think that same 90% will go "WTF?" first when they see it, though I don't think they will all share the same respect for the effort and money I am putting into this car like you do WRXD. So thank you.

Right now, you could call the IC project "Function over Form", but the engine bay looks fantastic with all the new piping and the vanjen clamp. The way I see it, I could have gone a cheaper route and just pieced some pipes together with a a normal FMIC, used a ton of couplers and clamps and been done with it. I took the extra steps to make this unique vehicle more unique with a one off setup that is in my opinion, quite impressive.

I know everyone who worked on this project at PSI PRO are proud of it, even if it was for a FWD Juke. I also know that if I ever bring this vehicle back to PSI PRO and say to Travis "I have a new custom project I Want you guys to do" he may seriously throw my ass out, lol. Thankfully, this is the last big one off project I will be doing for a long while. The turbo upgrade will be bolt on, and clutch while custom will still just be a clutch job, and the brake upgrade will be more or less bolt on with some dust shield trimming.

The really hard parts are over (until an engine build comes lol), I am getting to that point where I can really sit back and enjoy the car, it has a lot more power then a Juke (with a stock engine) should, it handles great, it sound great, and it is so much fun to drive now.

[EvlEgl]

Add a Lip to cover the bottom of the core and it wouldnt look nearly as bad.

But I'd be one of those people to say **** yeah keep on modding that thing...Who cares what it looks like.

[TalonTsi97]

Bummed i didnt get to make it by saturday to check it out, but i think by blacking out the bottom of the fmic and/or adding a lip would look awesome. Post up a better engine bay shot now that its done!

[Bates]

Originally Posted by TalonTsi97

Bummed i didnt get to make it by saturday to check it out, but i think by blacking out the bottom of the fmic and/or adding a lip would look awesome. Post up a better engine bay shot now that its done!

Yea, at some point in the near future I will clean it up and make it look more presentable, but for right now I can deal with it. Once the weather clears up I'll snap and post up a good shot of the engine bay.

[Bates]

No real updates.

Talk to the shop making my clutch, it should be done this week I hope but we will see.
Decided I am going to try to make a home depot lip to hide the bottom of the IC. Cheap and effective.

Ran into some more boost leak issues. The IC pipes are too stiff, had to replace one of the couplers with a longer coupler to add some flex to the pipes. Seems to be okay for now.

Also running into some small issues when reaching higher boost. The car feels like it is breaking up very slightly. I don't know if it is fuel related, too much air, or what. I want to tweak my tune soon and make it a little less aggressive if possible, because I think my main fuel pump isn't happy.

Overall the car drives pretty good, just need to get the clutch in and fix the tune and the gauges back up and working. Going to run a dedicated line with a relay for the gauges now.

[Bates]

Purchase an Optima Red top with some marine terminals, and a relay kit for my gauges.

Waiting to hear back from Saikou Michi about a custom Oil Catch Can as well.

[Bates]

Came home today to find this. Custom 4-puck ceramic clutch. Will hold about 80% more torque over stock. Now the fun part... Installing the damn thing. Top pic is the stock clutch. Bottom pic is the 4 puck.

[Bates]

Ordered flywheel bolts, and lots of Amsoil goodies including a half case of oil, a few bottle of trans fluid and a few other things. Going to most likely drop the car off on the 24th or 25th to get the clutch installed. Going to break the clutch in and then finally go for a retune.

[Bates]

Ordered a custom Saikou Michi Oil Catch Can.

Clutch install might be pushed back but I am going to try not to, since I'll have a back up car for like 10 days starting next Weds. Reason why it might be pushed back is because I may be picking up a second car finally. More details on that if it happens because this seller has already flaked out on me once. It's not a Z sadly (surprisingly), but it is RWD.

[Bates]

Picture time!

My stock clutch... pretty much toast:



Stock Pressure Plate has a bit of wear:


The giant transmission mount and the trans itself:





And the resurfaced dual mass flywheel:

[Bates]

Was suppose to have the car back today but we ran into some problems that I am not at all happy about.

The clutch shop screwed up on the clutch. They made the clutch disc shaft too fat so it won't fit in the flywheel cavity. This means, after a call to the owner of the clutch shop, they have to build me a second brand new clutch with the proper measurements, as it sounds like from our phone conversation he didn't use the right measurements on purpose.

The only way I will be at all happy with this BS situation is if the clutch is done and shipped out tonight, and my mechanic has it early tomorrow afternoon to finish the car for me tomorrow. There is no reason that this should not have been done right the first time since the shop had a brand new OEM clutch disc, plus all the FSM info for references. This shop has been doing this kind of work for 30 years, it is just mind boggling how something like this happens.

This isn't even the first mistake this shop has made with my order. The new OEM pressure plate I had sent to the shop was bent on one of their machines, they had to replace it for me.

While I must say the customer support thus far has been as good as good gets and dealing directly with the owner of the company is always a fantastic way to do business, the quality assurance is lacking. The owner assured me a new one would be made today and shipped today, and if that turns out to be the case than one can't complain about the service, but when the quality is lacking, the best service in the world can't make things right.

Verdict so far for Mark and Falcon Clutches: Great customer service, super friendly, honest, and will update you constantly. As of right now, will stop at nothing to make things right to keep the customer as happy as that customer can be.

2 mistakes on the same order, one pushing back completion time for the part order, and one holding up installation time because of a miscalculated measurement on the part is a recipe to anger any paying customer.

[Bates]

Update as of the afternoon of 4/30:

Mark was able to build a new clutch (that fits) and shipped it out Monday, and it got to the shop yesterday. When I got to the shop the transmission was bolted back in but there was still a lot of other stuff that needed to be buttoned up. I will have the car back today and can begin reviewing the clutch.

While still mad I have been without my car for an extra 2 days, Mark at Falcon stepped it up and came through. Again, miscalculations caused problems, but A+++++ customer service came through and turned an awful situation into a tolerable one.

[Bates]

So after about 30 miles or so let me first say that this clutch grabs probably harder than the Stage 3 Clutchmasters Clutch I had in my Spec-V, but that was a sprung disc type clutch.

There is no in between with this clutch. It is either engaged or not. Clutch pedal feels slightly different but the difference is definitely not enough to bother me. The chatter is pretty unreal but that is apparently common with puck type clutches, I wouldn't know as this is my first puck type.

Overall, it makes the car a little tough to daily, but once it is broken it and I learn how to drive the car again I don't think I will mind too much, but it's going to be a fun few weeks relearning. Hopefully I get one of 2 cars (or both) I am looking at buying so I have a new daily.

Next for the Juke:

My Saikou Michi Oil Catch Can came in a few days ago, just need to get some hoses to install it.
Mod wise I am still looking at getting some new wider wheels and tires. I have some in mind since I don't want to spend a lot of money on the Work wheels I want just yet, that will be later.

As soon as the clutch is broken in, the last thing I will be doing is getting a fresh tune, which means I most likely will be moving over to UpRev.

[mr_eh]

look into upgrading the slave clutch cylinder if it's hard to drive , my exedy triple plate was barely driveable before upgrading that.

[Bates]

Originally Posted by mr_eh

look into upgrading the slave clutch cylinder if it's hard to drive , my exedy triple plate was barely driveable before upgrading that.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Well that might be a little difficult on my car. The clutch slave is internal, and it is also a part of my pilot. You can actually see it in the picture I posted above of the inside of my transmission. It's an interesting setup, but it also means that my transmission needs to come out again if I wanted to do replace my slave. Oh Nissan, couldn't just leave the slave where it should be.