Calimer Stage 3 - Is this normal?

[NGOT8R]

Calimer got back to me and this is what they said:

"The sound you are referring to is definitely the stage 3 gear set not a bearing please take the time to drive the vehicle through the break in procedure and in sure you will find the transmission is fully operational."

They confirmed that they did replace the input shaft bearing and that the sound is normal.

I was expecting gear whine when in gear due to the gear set, but I wasn't expecting noise in neutral. Guess I'll drive it through the break in and see how it goes.

I hope it goes well for you. Looking forward to a transparent and thorough review of your Calimer Stage 3.

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[NGOT8R]

@ammoman, can you please post the Calimer tranny break-in instructions here in this thread? I am curious to know whether he recommends upshifting and downshifting repeatedly? How about a fluid change, does he recommend an early change of fluid after break-in as well? Thanks

 

[ammoman]

Here are their instructions:

"CALIMER'S TRANSMISSIONS MT-82 CARE GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS​

​

RECOMMENDED OIL IN ALL CALIMER BUILDS IS 2 ¾ QUARTS of Amsoil Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90.​

​

Change oil every 9000 miles or every hard track day. If the transmission is used hard on a regular basis, change the oil more frequently.​

​

1000 MILE BREAK IN REQUIRED ON ALL NEW TRANSMISSIONS.​

Easy driving under 3500 RPM for 1000 miles.​

​

A new OEM Ford Slave cylinder is recommened with all Calmer Builds.​

​

Remember to bench bleed and or vacuum bleed all slave cylinders to asure proper function.​

​

A TOO AGGRESSIVE CLUTCH CAN AND WILL BREAK GEARS IN YOUR TRANSMISSION.​

​

A clutch that is rated for way more HP than your transmission can and will damage your transmission."​

The bold/italic/underline was my addition. That will by far be the hardest thing to do! Under 3.5k RPM for 1k miles?!

 

[NGOT8R]

Here are their instructions:

"CALIMER'S TRANSMISSIONS MT-82 CARE GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS​

​

RECOMMENDED OIL IN ALL CALIMER BUILDS IS 2 ¾ QUARTS of Amsoil Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90.​

​

Change oil every 9000 miles or every hard track day. If the transmission is used hard on a regular basis, change the oil more frequently.​

​

1000 MILE BREAK IN REQUIRED ON ALL NEW TRANSMISSIONS.​

Easy driving under 3500 RPM for 1000 miles.​

​

A new OEM Ford Slave cylinder is recommened with all Calmer Builds.​

​

Remember to bench bleed and or vacuum bleed all slave cylinders to asure proper function.​

​

A TOO AGGRESSIVE CLUTCH CAN AND WILL BREAK GEARS IN YOUR TRANSMISSION.​

​

A clutch that is rated for way more HP than your transmission can and will damage your transmission."​

The bold/italic/underline was my addition. That will by far be the hardest thing to do! Under 3.5k RPM for 1k miles?!

Thank you for posting those instructions.

I’m planning on logging my miles via city driving with lots of stop and go, as opposed to doing it on the highway in a single gear. I agree with you, in that it will be hard to do though. Stay disciplined!

 

[ammoman]

I'm planning on doing the same. Only problem is that I work from home and usually only drive to church on Sunday and youth activities on Wednesdays. At my current driving levels, it will take me 4-5 months to get that many miles! (but no highway miles)

I went to activities last night and kept it under 3500 RPM, but it was soooo hard! Doing this for MONTHS will require a new level of patience! Especially if I get my ESS supercharger installed this weekend as planned!!!

 

[Zrussian13]

I'm planning on doing the same. Only problem is that I work from home and usually only drive to church on Sunday and youth activities on Wednesdays. At my current driving levels, it will take me 4-5 months to get that many miles! (but no highway miles)

I went to activities last night and kept it under 3500 RPM, but it was soooo hard! Doing this for MONTHS will require a new level of patience! Especially if I get my ESS supercharger installed this weekend as planned!!!

Sounds like your gonna have to do a lot of beer runs to get that mileage knocked out!

 

[dbtgt]

Calimer got back to me and this is what they said:

"The sound you are referring to is definitely the stage 3 gear set not a bearing please take the time to drive the vehicle through the break in procedure and in sure you will find the transmission is fully operational."

They confirmed that they did replace the input shaft bearing and that the sound is normal.

I was expecting gear whine when in gear due to the gear set, but I wasn't expecting noise in neutral. Guess I'll drive it through the break in and see how it goes.

I believe what you are hearing is commonly referred to as "idle gear roll over noise". It is common to high strength, performance manual transmissions. The noise only occurs at idle, in neutral with clutch out. The noise goes away when clutch is pushed in. You cand do a google search on "gear roll over noise" and read all about it.

 

[NGOT8R]

I'm planning on doing the same. Only problem is that I work from home and usually only drive to church on Sunday and youth activities on Wednesdays. At my current driving levels, it will take me 4-5 months to get that many miles! (but no highway miles)

I went to activities last night and kept it under 3500 RPM, but it was soooo hard! Doing this for MONTHS will require a new level of patience! Especially if I get my ESS supercharger installed this weekend as planned!!!

Maybe hold off on the supercharger for now, lol. It may make it a little easier to do without it. You can also get out every night for about an hour or so to speed up the process.

 

[ammoman]

I believe what you are hearing is commonly referred to as "idle gear roll over noise". It is common to high strength, performance manual transmissions. The noise only occurs at idle, in neutral with clutch out. The noise goes away when clutch is pushed in. You cand do a google search on "gear roll over noise" and read all about it.

Thank you so much for that piece of information! Doing a YouTube search returned this video, which demonstrates it and explains it a little:



I’ve never had a high performance manual transmission before. Now that I know I feel a lot more comfortable driving it around. Thanks again!

 

[dbtgt]

Thank you so much for that piece of information! Doing a YouTube search returned this video, which demonstrates it and explains it a little:



I’ve never had a high performance manual transmission before. Now that I know I feel a lot more comfortable driving it around. Thanks again!

Glad to help!

 

[NGOT8R]

@ammoman, how’s the tranny holding up and treating you thus far? How many miles have you logged with it?

 

[ammoman]

So far so good! But I'm a bit embarrassed to say I'm only that 750 miles, so I still haven't gone over 3500 RPM. I've been driving it every chance I get, but working from home really limits how quickly I put the miles on. A side benefit that my wife loves - I'm always asking if she wants me to go into town to pickup things up for her!

The only change I've really noticed is that the shifter isn't as stiff as it was before. Which is nice, because at first it was really stiff.

The clutch has been good, but I haven't done any hard launches because the transmission isn't broken in yet. On the stock clutch, the engagement point was high and short. Now just over midway up I feel something starting to engage, but just barely. It's not enough to move the vehicle, but enough you can feel something. From that "partial" engagement up towards the top, nothing really changes - you have to come almost all the way up (just like stock) before it engages enough to move the car. It's very different and interesting, and so far I'm indifferent but wanted to share.

 

[NGOT8R]

So far so good! But I'm a bit embarrassed to say I'm only that 750 miles, so I still haven't gone over 3500 RPM. I've been driving it every chance I get, but working from home really limits how quickly I put the miles on. A side benefit that my wife loves - I'm always asking if she wants me to go into town to pickup things up for her!

The only change I've really noticed is that the shifter isn't as stiff as it was before. Which is nice, because at first it was really stiff.

The clutch has been good, but I haven't done any hard launches because the transmission isn't broken in yet. On the stock clutch, the engagement point was high and short. Now just over midway up I feel something starting to engage, but just barely. It's not enough to move the vehicle, but enough you can feel something. From that "partial" engagement up towards the top, nothing really changes - you have to come almost all the way up (just like stock) before it engages enough to move the car. It's very different and interesting, and so far I'm indifferent but wanted to share.

Copy that. I’m glad to hear it’s performing well so far. I’m happy to report the same thing with mine. I’ve logged about 640 miles so far. The gear rollover or knocking noise that I experienced on initial start up has quieted down considerably. I haven’t redlined mine yet, but I have spun it up to 5500 twice briefly.

My engagement point is in a really good spot. The car starts trying to move at just less than half pedal travel and by halfway it’s fully engaged which is just where I like it to be.

 

[TeeLew]

Here are their instructions:

"CALIMER'S TRANSMISSIONS MT-82 CARE GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS​

​

​

1000 MILE BREAK IN REQUIRED ON ALL NEW TRANSMISSIONS.​

Easy driving under 3500 RPM for 1000 miles.​

That's absolutely absurd. If this were a race car, are you going to drive 1000 miles of break-in? You couldn't.

Here's my recommendations:

Warm the car and gearbox up gradually to normal operating temp over the course of a 10-15 minute drive. Accelerate and coast in every gear several times, but applying the load smoothly. Don't bang gears. Apply full throttle for short durations. You want the parts to have enough load to mate correctly, but you don't want to create excess heat and you need to maintain lubrication.

Let it cool down. Now it's broken in.

If you're really paranoid on a virgin build, do an oil change after 100 miles in case one of the oil passages had casting sand in it or something crazy.

 

[ammoman]

That's absolutely absurd. If this were a race car, are you going to drive 1000 miles of break-in? You couldn't.

Thats a very good question! I don't know if it is simply for a "cover their butt" situation or if there are other reasons the billet gears need to be broken in that way.

But since my new Vengeance Stage 2 clutch also recommends 700-1000 mile "easy street driving" break-in, I'm fine doing it for both. (I only have a couple hundred miles more to go)

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