Rep Power: 294

After a long trip away I came home to a clutch pedal that stayed down on the firewall after starting up the car. Spent the the weekend gathering parts for a Clutch Master and Slave Cylinder swap. Theoretically easy, but sort of a pain in the butt. Some thoughts on the swap:

1) An OEM CMC swap should take less than an hour, plus time needed to bleed. This swap took me a day and a half.

2) You can barely see the CMC from the engine bay, it's tucked into a little cubby to the right of the Brake Master Cylinder. You cannot see the CMC from the driver's side wheel well.

3) The supplied braided line for the OMNI Power CMC (which replaces part of the hard line) will not work for EM2s. It's about 36" too short. The line has a banjo fitting on one end with an adapter to couple to the -10 female fitting on the other. The flex line on our EM2s that couples up to the hard line has a -12 female fitting. No bueno. Earl's/Russell do not make a male -12 fitting. Not sure about Aeroquip, but aluminim isn't recommeded for high pressure lines, anyways. We're talking 1500+ PSI.

4) The only way the OMNI Power CMC will work with EM2 is to fabricate a steel braided line (depending on how you route it), approximately 54" to 60" from the CMC to the Slave Cylinder's hard line. I believe I used a 3AN to a -10 female coupler, to tie the braided line and hardline together.

5) The slave cylinder is a piece of cake. 10 minutes to swap.

6) Bleeding will take forever with new lines. Took me over an hour of pumping the clutch pedal and gravity feeding to a collection bottle to finally get it done.

7) Cost - $150 for the OMNI Power vs. $100 to $120 for a OEM CMC. $50 to $60 for an OEM CSC. $65 for a fabricated line and couplings. $15 for a new quart of ATE Racing Blue Brake fluid (you can use any DOT3/4).

I'll do a DIY later, if there isn't one posted yet. I guess the most important thing is, "How is it now?"

NIGHT and DAY. I should have done this YEARS AGO! It's THAT GOOD!

1) 3/4" of pedal travel to fully engage. No kidding.

2) Used to grind constantly at redline to third. Gone.

3) Shifting is FAST. Seriously. No pushing the pedal 3/4 of the way to the floor then feeling for the 1" of travel /extra pressure to actually engage the clutch. It is literally a tap on the clutch pedal 1/2" between shifts. CRAZINESS!

4) OMFG it is XXX stiff - This is the only real drawback. It's "slide your seat futher back until you get the right distance, better tighten your seat bolts down, I hope I didn't over do the squats at the gym today" stiff. But it's still wicked cool. Just got to get used to it. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

Some Pics:

 
Rep Power: 285

Awesome thread, as always.

That's quite inexpensive for a mod that makes such a huge difference in driving feel.

 
Rep Power: 294

Thanks.

One of the BEST mods period. It's that good.

Gotta re-learn how to drive the car again. It's unbelievable how short the travel is. Feathering still is a little weird. Blipping and heel-toe got easier, for sure.

 
Rep Power: 294

Need some technical advice. Yesterday I adjusted the clutch pedal to stock height (even with the brake pedal). Here's the issue I'm having, stock clutch engagement started pretty close to the firewall (maybe an 1" or so) with a lot of pedal travel prior to that. For the OMNI Power, everything occurs up close to the top of the pedal travel. Good for fast shifts, but a little difficult for everyday driving. The extreme stiffness coupled with a crazy position for my foot and ankle, makes for a whole new driving experience. Is there are an adjustment somewhere else that provides for some "dead space" before clutch engagement? Or do I need to just lower the height of the pedal closer to the firewall (which make it easier to modulate, but makes it goofy looking, being uneven)? I've been driving this Civic forever, so I can't remember where optimal engagement should occur (on other cars). Up top, mid-level or down low. Or is this something along the lines of just re-learnning to drive my car? Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 294

I think I got it now (after searching around the net and looking at some illustrations). I didn't quite understand how everything worked. From H-T: Basically, you loosen the locknut C. Then turn the rod that it locks. This adds or realeases preload from the master cylinder piston.

Reduce preload (clockwise) = more freeplay
Increase preload (counterclockwise) = less freeplay

There's maybe a 1/2" of freeplay.

More freeplay, and the clutch will engage closer to the floor.

Less freeplay, and the clutch will engage higher up from the floor.

I thought I could only adjust pedal height with the pushrod. Not sure if this is true yet, but I'll give it a shot in the morning.

 
Rep Power: 285

There's a decent DIY on adjusting freeplay on here, it's not great, but hopefully it'll be some help..

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...djustment.html

 
Rep Power: 294

That helped a bit. I was one of those guys that confused engage and disengage too. Haha.