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[Bad Influence GT350]

So I've had this thing on the road for about a month now and having a few issues with it. The main one being it's very difficult to get in to 1st.
I usually pop it out of gear at the lights rather than riding the clutch while waiting and more often than not it won't go back in to 1st or 2nd without forcing it.
Better when hot but only marginal.
Don't know what oil is in the trans but intend changing it to XT11 QDC but suspect something else is causing this. Car has 27k miles. Anyone else have that issue?

 

[JDee]

So I've had this thing on the road for about a month now and having a few issues with it. The main one being it's very difficult to get in to 1st.
I usually pop it out of gear at the lights rather than riding the clutch while waiting and more often than not it won't go back in to 1st or 2nd without forcing it.
Better when hot but only marginal.
Don't know what oil is in the trans but intend changing it to XT11 QDC but suspect something else is causing this. Car has 27k miles. Anyone else have that issue?

That's common with MT82's especially when they're cold, when I was street driving mine I could solve it by double clutching when shifting into 1st, even if the car was stopped, you might try that. But I have never heard of that issue from a GT350 owner.
I thought the Tremec was supposed to be a better gearbox than the MT82, but maybe that particular one has had some hard living thrust upon it? No trans is going to stand up to a ham fisted or dense owner for very long. I also understand that trans is supposed to be sensitive to proper amount of fluid, I'm told there's a TSB from Tremec on it suggesting a lower than factory specified amount of oil.

 

[Bad Influence GT350]

Oil is my next obvious port of call and since it doesn't do it all the time I'm hopeful its not internal.

 

[Bad Influence GT350]

Kiwi track rat talked me in to doing a track day at Taupo (4hr drive from our city) and rather than taking my GTI Golf I figured I'd better get the GT ready.
Could just run it as is but I tend to get that voice in my head that says, hey this could let go since you didn't bother to address it......I'm sure I'm not the only one?
Archetype racing balance hoses, Boundary OPG and crank gear, full service and check over.
Ordered a few consumables locally and with those in hand pulled the manifold.
In all much simpler than it looked, literally no more than 30-40 mins to remove.
Scratched my head with the galley plugs but in the end realized they are imperial yet the entire car is metric. Had to look pretty long to find one that fit. Fittings in and hoses on. Easy. Manifold back on and on to the big one. OPG.
Valve covers off, bit of a struggle to get to a couple of the pan bolts but soon dropped that down. As a few have said entirely doable without dropping K frame or lifting the engine.
Front of the motor apart, and timing chains off. I've opted for the turn engine forward for removal and back for installation. Works perfectly.

Oil pump off and apart, gears and housing look like new. Couple superficial scratches but all very clean. Installed the Boundary gears, added a little lube to aid oil pick up and a drop of thread locker on the bolts.
New pick up tube seal, cheap and piece of mind replacing that.

Back on the engine and assembly reverse of removal. I'm terrible for doubting myself on tightening critical bolts after the fact so with this it was a case of mark each bolt with a marker once torqued. Checked the timing marks 4-5 times and put the covers back on.

New water pump o ring, vacuum filled the cooling system to avoid air pockets. New oil and rather than changing the filter now I thought I'd first get oil pressure up and then change the filter. This way I wouldn't have an empty pump and empty filter to fill.
Cranked it with the pump fuses out multiple times and........NO oil pressure on the gauge.....mild panic set in (I've had issues with oil pick up on other engines in the past)
Paced around a bit and read on the net that the consensus was these don't build any meaningful pressure cranking.
Only one thing for it, start it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.
Got ready for immediate shut down, hit the button and within 1-2 seconds had 100 psi. Relief.
Changed the filter and started it again allowing it to warm up and checked for leaks. A big job done.

 

[Bad Influence GT350]

Being a holiday weekend Phil and I thought we'd beat the mass exodus by leaving at 1-2pm on the Friday but that didn't help. A 3.5-4 hr drive turned in to a 6hr drive although I did make a stop to drop off some powder coating from my Porsche project.
Another friend of ours also went, he was towing his M3 track car on a trailer.
About 3/4 of the way down we got a call from him saying he'd left the key to his BMW at home in the kitchen drawer!!! Oops.
Anyway, committed now so carry on.
Next day we arrived at the track around 8 and started looking for a way to get his car mobile, best course of action was to break the ign and screwdriver start it, problem was we didn't have one small enough.
While we got the driver briefing out of the way he went off to the hardware store to look for something suitable.
I'd forgotten my neck donut so I changed groups so that Phil and I could use his, pretty cold day at 50F but blue skies.

My first session was interesting, selected Track (first mistake) and out I went, immediately it became apparent my tires were going to be a limiting factor (6 years old) but never the less managed a couple laps to try and at least get some temp in the tires before the rear end stepped out, caught it only to be flung the other way a full 360 on to the grass. No one around and no damage I re joined the track.
By the time my session was done our friend returned with tools.
Decided to miss my next session to help him get his BMW going which we managed to do.

Next session I went out in kept it in sport on all settings, much better. Allows you to push a bit without losing it.
Took it easy and tried to learn the track (fairly short with some tricky corners)
Realized pretty quickly that 3rd was good for the whole circuit.
Had a much better run, no spins.
As the day warmed up the track warmed up too and my tires had been scuffed up really well immensely improving grip.
The last 2 sessions of the day were the best and most fun, learnt a lot and picked up plenty more speed.