Thread: Clutch and Motor Mounts - Ideas??

Having contracted the dreaded 5th Gear Pop-Out on my B13, I'm soon to replace my transmission. While in there I'm planning on giving a couple of other items my attention...

Clutch -- It would be silly not to throw in a new one. The current OE-grade clutch, though only at half life, has a tendency to slip when dropped between gears at higher revs. I understand that the transmission is fragile and I don't want too much clutch, but surely there's something a little stronger I could use?

Looking for recommendations. Is the old 'Nissan Motorsport' clutch made by Centerforce a good option (and still available)? Should I just use a stiffer pressure plate? Power output is stock and likely to stay that way for awhile.

Motor Mounts -- Mine are certainly ragged out and I understand this is important to longer transmission life. Anybody have experience with the Energy Suspension motor mount inserts? I notice there are separate sets of Driver/Passenger Side mounts and Front/Rear mounts. Do I need them both? Are there some other mounts I should be considering?

Anything Else? -- Are there other things I should be replacing or upgrading while I'm in there? I saw some Energy Suspension shift linkage bushings for not much coin...

All advice and first-hand knowledge is appreciated.

Mounts:

You'll have to remove three of the four mounts when you drop the transmission. There are two on the crossmember and one on the transmission itself. When I did my transmission I did not intend on placing any of mine. That is before I discovered the radiator side crossmember set was trashed. I am talking about no rubber around the metal dowel trashed. I ended up replacing only that one. Going from essentially no insert to the prothane was a big difference in 1. Responsiveness 2. Wheel hop reduction 3. Vibration into the cabin. Totally worth it. When I pull the engine out for the VE I plan on replacing the firewall side mount with a prothane insert and window welding the other two.

TLR At minimum get a Prothane one for the radiator side one, then maybe a second one for the firewall side one. No need to go all out (all four) for a stock power car.

I also did the shifter linkage bushing. Easy to get to, cheap to buy, worth it

^ Excellent wisdom, thank you. You used the Energy Suspension insert ones?

Window Weld...interesting.

IIRC, you should probably make the rear mount the priority, then the front one. i believe rear gets a lot more torque transfer. i could be wrong though. and if that's too much vibration, then leave the other 2 as OEM.

I heard the "stage 1" kit off gspec is a good upgrade its basically the stock key value clutch kit but with a b15 disc definately worth checking out. I replaced all my rubber mounts with prothanes, it does vibrate more, but feels so much better when u launch and when accelerating.

I used a G-Spec Stage 3 upgrade. LOVE it. Near as I can remember stock, it feels stock.

Here is the Stage 2 upgrade, which includes the B15 disc.

Clutch Kit Bundle, 2.0, Stage 2, Stg 2 : Key Value clutch with 2k SE disc, t/o bearing and clips, ax

That is the least I would do. I did the Stage 3 because of my future planes for a VE.

You cannot go wrong calling Greg V because he knows more about these cars than you ever will. He's dead honest, and will point you in the right direction with solid advice based on your needs.


The stock mounts suck and will not even hold up to stock power levels. I went through two (2) sets with a stock DE. They are also relatively expensive, especially that big liquid-filled one.

JWT (Nismo) or Place Racing - The best upgrade options. Harder durometer than Nissan OEM, softer than Prothanes. Like the porridge in the Three Bears "just right." Both types long-discontinued, and very expensive pre-owned in our Classifieds, and about as easy to find as a unicorn. I've got a set coming my way, for....gulp....$250.00. Second set I've seen in about 5-years become available.

ES Inserts - Old school and lame because you insert them into your ragged-out and dead OEM rubber mounts. Maybe if you bought BNIB Nissan rubber mounts and then inserted the ES mounts...but that would be an expensive PITA. Screw this option.

Prothanes - Completely replace the rubber portion of the OEM mount. You re-use the metal portion of the mount. Inexpensive and very effective. Will certainly cause more rattling and shaking at idle. No issues during normal driving. Holds your tranny and motor firmly in place. You can always just use the Prothanes in the two (2) mounts that resist the torque of the motor. Use OEM Nissan in the other two mounts for a nice compromise. Dave Coleman did this in SCC waaaaaay back in the day (using ES inserts, because Prothanes were not even produced yet).

http://www.sr20-forum.com/suspension-brakes-tech/14833-how-prothane-motor-mounts.html

I used all four (4) Prothanes and never had much of an issue with the extra rattling, got used to it very quickly. I am only upgrading because I have a bigger budget now for modifications, and I am getting ancient in relation to most of you youngsters. With age generally comes a bigger checkbook and less compromise.


Do the ES urethane shifter bushing, a no-brainer with zero downside.

Do NOT discount second-hand knowledge IF it comes from an expert, reliable source. Learning something from a book does not make it less factual or informative. It allows you to avoid learning every single thing first-hand which is a hard and expensive way to learn many lessons. The Suspension Thread is all second-hand knowledge from expert, reliable sources. Compiled by me to make sure you don't fuck-up your suspension. Every source is cited, and every source is an actual expert with our chassis. Thank me that it is NOT "your buddy" or some "forum newb" that ignorantly "loves his Drop-zone springs yo!"

Search. Both these topics are covered, re-covered, discussed, and cussed to death.

Advanced Search.

"Mounts" in the keyword.

Titles only.

General SR20

Enter.....


Yep. It was that easy. Every single answer about mounts in this current thread, already covered in full. No kidding.

I'd do "clutch" for you, but you get the idea. Same exact search as above, with "clutch" inserted for "mount." 151 threads, easy as pie to quickly scan through, and at least six (6) threads address this very question. I looked.

Now....if you still have specific questions after searching, then feel free to start a new thread.

Welcome to the forum,

Shawn B

My thanks to the Viking -- excellent and detailed information. Don't assume I didn't search, however. Searches were simply leading down too many forking paths for applications that didn't match my own. Overload. This worked better.

You are most welcome kind sir.


Well then your Searching Skills are inadequate and need some polishing.

Search tips from HJBarker & crew - SR20 Forum

Please re-read my statements above. I found your answers in less than five (5) minutes, including the very, very simple search and quick scan of the results. I am confident that a bright young man such as yourself can easily duplicate my results.


Short-term it worked better for you in this instance. However, now you are relying on the charity of others, like my wonderful self, to find your answers, instead of becoming self-sufficient and able to uncover the information yourself.

Further, and much worse, is that you are now contributing to the Overload you dislike, by creating yet another thread on the same subject, making yet more redundant threads for folks to Search through in the future.

If everyone started a new thread on the same old subjects every time they had a question, then our forum would be inundated by new threads, old farts would get sick of answering the same questions over and over, no Newbies would ever learn how to Search, never get their answers from the worn-out old farts, and our forum would eventually implode into a giant ball of clutter, creating havoc in the universe and eventually leading to the complete decline of civilizations world-wide, just before the Earth collided with the Sun.

We wouldn't want that, now would we?

I kindly fed you fish, while trying to teach you HOW to fish.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

Shawn B

Shawn, don't spoil your good service by turning this into a platform of condescension. You've spent far more time and vowels trying to alter my research tactics than you did answering my questions. In the future, if you'd rather not explain something you've explained before, simply don't respond to the thread.