I finally got everything back from powder coating and a new bearing from Summit, put it all together and drove the car. First impressions are that the clutch is stiffer than I thought and incredibly grabby. It's pretty much an on/off switch right now. I've only driven a few miles on it, so I'm sure it'll break in and be a little more driver friendly. I also am not used to the clutch starting to disengage at around half the pedal travel. I must have had my cable adjusted poorly in the past because the clutch always started to disengage really high in the pedal travel.
Here's a picture of the throwout bearing installed on the trans:
If you want to do this, be sure to install the threaded sleeve first (it's a tight fit, even with lubrication) then put the anti-rotation pin in, and then thread the bearing on. I initially tried to thread the bearing on and then install the anti-rotation pin, but that didn't work at all. The pin is way too long.
I initially tried using a master cylinder with a bore of 0.625", but that didn't move enough fluid for the clutch to actuate with the pedal travel I have available. Maybe I didn't bleed the system enough and it could work, but I don't think it will. I think you have to use the Tilton recommended 0.7" bore. Luckily I got a -4 AN dry break fitting for my clutch line which makes swapping master cylinders pretty clean and easy. Over the last two weeks, I've removed and installed the master cylinder probably 6 times. Once the bearing was good to go, I didn't know what to do with the bleed line, so I clamped it to the transmission and tucked it back to avoid as much road grime as possible. I need to get a couple hose separators to tie the clutch line to the fuel hard lines for a little more stability.
So far, I've been really pleased with Ben's T5 adapter plate. It put the shifter in a little different spot than the Deeworks kit, so I had to counter bore the shifter bolts so they didn't hit the passenger edge of the hole. One benefit to Ben's plate is that the transmission no longer pops out of second gear due to the rubber shift boot bunching up. However, it did pop out of fifth a few times on my drive, so I may need to re-install my modified shift boot instead of the stock one I have in there now. I'll figure it out soon enough. I just need to drive it, it's been sitting way too long. I also need to work on the flex fuel part of the tune a bit.