[black e]

I my ever quest to improve on my Evo I decided that I wanted to do a light weight driveshaft. I had them in the past and I was always impressed by how big of a difference this simple mod makes but I did not want to get a aluminum DS because I have broken 2 of them and they also made quite a bit of noise.
So I decided to order the DSS 2 piece carbon DS with hopes to drop some lbs, not have a heavy noise penalty and not bang up the undercarriage if it brakes.
Anyway, the new DS eliminates one of the 2 DS mounts and comes with a new mounting bracket that bolts up to one of the OEM DS mount locations. All said it shaves 17lbs total and it's near OEM silent. It's not 100% silent, I get some deceleration noise but I think its because I used the torque solutions solid DS mount bushings so I'm going to swap back the stock bushings and report back. Other then that it is silent.

 

[black e]

I don't think driveshafts have any affect on the noise levels, they are all about improving response. Its always the bushings, as you guessed.

I've had aluminum DS from different vendors, they both made noise and both were installed on OEM rubber bushings.....they just can't absorb harmonics as effectively as the OEM unit.
The OEM DS has a lot of play and quite a few bushings.

Now the carbon DS should also be able to absorb said harmonics so I'm hopping going back to the OEM bushings will lessen the decel noise, it's not bad at all, I just like it quiet.

 

[black e]

very nice!

i assume this is similar to shaving weight off from your wheels. reducing your rotating mass will increase all performance aspect. any before/after dyno results?

It's very similar to the benefit of a lighter flywheel. The engine revs faster and you do put more power to the ground because the engine has less parasitic loss.
The car is also much easier to get moving from a stop.

 

[black e]

nice!! interested in how much it was and did u have to ship your oem one or no ?

I did not ship my OEM DS, this is a totally new, made from scratch DS. It's in the $1500 range.

 

[black e]

Im more impressed how clean the underside of your car is do you detail the underside? How many miles do you have on your car.
Looks great please report back once you swap the stock bushings.

I don't detail the underside! The car has ~4k miles and I live in South Florida.

 

[black e]

Interesting. I remember reading about a lightweight aluminum one a while back and it shaved 15 pounds off stock. I guess aluminum is already light as is

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

Yeah, the aluminum ones are light as well and can be even lighter if you do aluminum ujoints but they can brake (and in my opinion fairly easy) and tend to be noisy.

 

[black e]

As I'm finishing out the big parts of my build.. I'm thinking all these little mods are going to add up.

My favorite "little" mod so far is the base bushings for the shifter.. improved the feel of the car SIGNIFICANTLY. I wonder if it's worth doing the other bushings to reduce the slop of the drivetrain

I did Kracka's shifter package, the beatrush rear diff spacers and the TS solid rear diff mount. The drivetrain feels really solid and direct.
My biggest suprise was the TS diff mount, I thought it was going to make the rear real noisy but it didn't and it defenetly got rid of the rear diff slop and clunk. I think if you do all the rear diff mounts it would be noisy though.

 

[black e]

I swaped the solid mounts for the OEM rubber/metal mounts and the noise it's 90% gone, so it's not 100% stock like quiet but damn near close. It just has a tiny bit of decel noise but if you have a loud exhaust I bet you couldn't tell the difference at all.

 

[black e]

This is on my list, one question though it's for 08-10 evo x only?! I am pretty sure they can do it for 11-13 or 14 too right?!

08-14 is the same drivetrain so it will work on any year Evo X. Mine is a 2012

 

[black e]

How well do you think these would hold up over time?

I guess only time will tell for sure but there's no reason for it to last the life of the car.

 

[black e]

There's always going to be haters out there.....
I guess I'll update the thread. I ran the driveshaft for a good 3k miles and in that time I probably launched the car at the strip 20 times @ 580whp. The first issue I had was that the rear diff got damaged from the repeated abuse, it didn't break but it def started sounding like the gears were damaged. The following week the drive shaft broke on me on the front section at the track during a launch.
DDS replaced the shaft free of charge and they did so without to much fuss. The new shaft they sent me has a slightly thicker section (were it broke) and a different weave pattern. This shaft I've had for 3-4k miles @ 630whp and is still runing strong although I haven't had a chance to go to the track with the new power.

So I had the OEM shaft back on the car for 2 weeks and I immediately noticed the difference.
At the end of the day this is not a mod everyone is going to do and from the few that do get a lightweight DS even fewer are going to spend the $$ on a carbon one. The same way 99% of Evo owners won't get a exhaust like mine....is ok, no placebo effect here.
For the people that always go in to these threads to hate, remember, if nobody gets and try's these parts then you'll never now if a new or different item works or not, progress would stop if nobody tried anything new.

 

[black e]

Did the actual shaft break? I had mine break at the front yoke, which was 2 piece pre-installed by DSS (300 torque). DSS was pretty easy to work with on replacing mine under warranty but the new shaft I received has a 1 piece front yoke. Just curios on how yours broke and which front yoke type you have. I mostly AutoX my X but do use LC frequently. I agree, car feels better with CF driveshaft but it's not a mod for everyone.

Yes the actual carbon shaft broke in between the Tcase and the center DS joint.

 

[black e]

Z madnedd, we are sorry you did have an issue with your shaft, just so the rest of the forum understands this correctly. The carbon shaft did not fail, we use a 2 piece front yoke that the trans input bolts to a 4 bolt flange, the 4 bolts came loose and broke the bolts. Were not sure how this happened as we have used this for 5 years with out any issue. What was nice is when he sent it back for the FREE Warranty repair we has switched to a single design we had been working on (all are this way now). Again Were sorry you had an issue.

Frank

Frank, is the single piece yoke lighter then the 2 piece and if so, by how much?