T Montague's 2zr swap - '08 m/t sedan some extra info

[tmontague]

I've been able to drive my car in the snow quite a bit in the past month or so and I feel like it's been enough to give a good quality update on my experience. Keep in mind this is my first time driving a car with an LSD.

I have 4 winter tires (more of an ice tire) that are relatively new as well. There seem to be two camps on line in regards to driving an LSD in snow: 1. It will help increase traction by giving you a true 2wd car instead of the realistic 1wd that open diffs give you once they slip. 2. They actually make snow/ice driving worse.

To me #1 always seemed to make more sense. In this case I'm talking about a clutch type lsd, a torsen type will not do a whole lot when your one tire is free wheeling with no traction. A clutch type lsd will lock up regardless if one wheel is free spinning.

After a month of driving in snow the only time I can see an LSD being dangerous is under hard acceleration on slick conditions. This still entirely depends on driver input, so not actually the fault of the LSD but rather the driver. If one decides to give too much throttle during cornering in icy conditions then since the axles are locked causing both tires to spin you will under steer much much more than with an open diff. This is due to both tires losing traction and not just one. This leaves you with zero traction on the front which leads you to under steer. This is easily controlled by not giving too much throttle on corners or by backing off the throttle if you start to slide and you will regain control.

In deep snow or slippery conditions the grip has improved drastically. Instead of hearing the right wheel spin up and the car barely inch forward, I now notice much less wheel spin and the car pulls forward consistently. Not like an awd obviously but it is more consistent in the progress forward.

Performance wise (as best as I can with snow tires on) torque steer is essentially zero. I can go WOT (now with much less wheel spin) and the car doesn't pull left or right. The steering wheel under throttle actually has a tendency to want to self correct back to neutral, quite powerfully actually.

Overall the car feel more planted, firm and in control, even in snow.

As for the bad:

I still have a transmission clunk that seems to happen on left turns when giving a decent amount of throttle. This does not sound or feel like axle bind, that problem was fixed with swapping in Tercel axle. It sounds exactly like the transmission hitting the subframe. This is likely due to the LSD putting extra torque out from the transmission to both wheel leading to different forces on the mounts causing excess movement.

My plan to remedy this is to get a dogbone mount machined from solid aluminum which should severely limit movement.

Overall I'm really pleased with the LSD, it really transforms the car into more of a purpose built "sports car". My gas mileage is now at about 7.1L/100km up from 6.3L/100km when I originally put the 2zr in Lfwiw it was at 5.8L/100 km with my 1nz). That said I am also on winter gas and snow tires so realistically I am probably sitting at 6.7L/100km with the 4.3 FD. The only time the LSD makes a lot of noise is when the trans fluid is still cold. Once it heats up the LSD is very quiet.