Cant initiate in 2nd gear?
 

So the past couple times Ive gone drifting with friends ive been trying to drift in 2nd gear. When i try to initiate the car just plows. ill enter around ~35mph feint and clutch kick. As I do so, the car either plows straight or kicks out then dies out like it doesnt have power to continue sliding. Im runnin a stock ka-de with intake and exhaust. the car has a welded diff, coilovers, 6puck clutch, every suspension arm, and solid subframe bushings. It has 17inch rims also. The coilover's dampening are set to full soft, could that be my problem? Thanks for the help.

Your front tires are probably crap. And alignment.

Front tires are crap or , what coils do you have, turn the rears to very firm and or I'm assuming you have soft spring rates, get stiffer rears

Why not start out with the hand brake. Learn how the car reacts. Learn how it slides. Work more and more and give it gas while sliding and learn how that works out.

agreed.

you dont even need to give it gas for the first bit, just pull the ebrake and let it slide until it grips, and keep doing this over and over slowly adding gas and youll learn your car very quickly.

Ive changed the brand the front tires 3 times because I thought they were shit. I have bridgestone potenzas atm, and in 1st gear I can keep a drift forever. But as soon as I try 2nd the car feels extremely underpowered. I cant initiate with ebrake. It doesnt work sadly. Other ppl that have tried to drift my car And say it feels way underpowered in 2nd gear. My alignment is on par. In the rear im running -1camber 0toe. In the front i have 7.5caster,-3.5camber 0toe.

My coils are cxracing off ebay :/ there 12k/10k and ill try the firmer setting, right now there at like 16/32 clicks

Add camber up front.
Pushing is the biggest issue.
Add camber and make sure your alignment is straight.

You don't want it too stiff, but with your coils, stiffen it as far as they will go.
And make sure you aren't running anything over 205 in the back on those 17's cause a stock KA will have issues spinning big tires on the back.
But most important is that your suspension is Not soft on a stock KA.

you can try entering at a faster speed, but make sure there are no curbs around ;)

Even when I had 15s on the car I couldnt spin em...ill definately try stiffening the suspension tho. So add more preload to the springs also?

Are you letting off the throttle when you clutch kick or something?

Nope, if anything to get the car sideways I dump the clutch at like 4500rpm

Well, seems like there would not be the proper power going to the rear wheels or something.


I don't think the suspension is the problem. I've drifting fine on stock suspension and super stiff suspension.

Alignment, I don't think so either.

I am thinking the problem is just technique, somehow.

Its not just me though, 3-4 other people that ive watched drift their own 240s have tried drifting mine and said wtf.

Is your engine bogging out or something? Does it feel like it loses all power?

sounds like your clutch sucks balls. Have you tried drifting your friends car?

Also tire spec helps.

running stock clutch or aftermarket?

I think he said 6 puck.

Check to see if you're clutch is bled correctly or leaking. When I was at Irwindale last year for sideways sundays, My first two runs, I couldn't get my rear out when I feint/clutch kick. I realized, I had no more clutch fluid and my slave was leaking so on my third/last run, I added fluid and was able to get the rear out.

Edit:
I am unsure about your car dieing, but I would check CEL, if any, and maintenance. Also, set to full stiff in the rear and half-way for the front and then fine-tune to your liking from there. That's how my current settings are for PBM coilovers.

The clutch is an exedy 6 puck. Yea the car seems like it loses all its power and just grabs traction. I have 225/45 nexen n5000s on the rear.

somebody secretly put traction control on your car while you were sleeping

Your engine sucks ass. I can drift 2nd gear all day long in a single cam that had less mods than your car.

No shit...thanks for the helpful input. My distributor is set to 20btdc, but could my cam timing be off or would that be extremely noticeable?

My suggestion, got to a sanctioned track event, spend some time with a skilled instructor, perhaps let them drive your car for a lap to check for mechanical problems. You shouldn't have trouble initiating in 2nd gear, even with a bone stock car. Hell, Castro still rocks a single cam. Do you have a welded diff btw?

Change your damping to half soft front. and full stiff rear. Should help. 35mph is really low to initiate too.

or your car is not running right. Or everyone who drives the car doesn't know how to drift. That's also a possibility.

Shit, my KA is dead (140-145 psi compression across the board) and with a stock clutch when I first took it out. Managed to drift it via e-brake, feint and clutch kick (atleast until the clutch decides to say FUUUUUUU). No reason this car is any worst than my car. Get better front tires just in case, Im partial to Dunlop Star Specs. Thats all I've run in the last 3 yrs for my fronts.

your doing something seriously wrong if you cant drift with a welded diff.

Your car might be doing what mine is, and has done since I've owned it. It generally runs great, but if I run it really hard for a while without stopping to let it cool (consecutive drift runs), the exhaust note changes slightly (sounds more smooth and loses the ka "roughness" in the tone) and the car becomes extremely gutless, to the point where even first gear requires full throttle. I think it's a timing issue, I don't know if it's detecting knock or something and retarding timing, but I've never been able to figure out what's wrong. Usually won't run properly again until it's completely cooled down.

Star Specs are my favorite front tire.

15s on the rear bubble tires high tire pressure enter fast and just clutch kick and go balls out