Anyone want to give me a free clutch? Just thought I'd ask.

 

Post your pics of the failed rps clutch matt.

Chris

 

I have 3 local evo friends using the ACT with NO problems. Heck i have been using ACT on my eclipse for over 7 years with no problems as well as others in the DSM community. It's only when you are in the big hp figures when they can't hold up.

 

That's only because most people don't want to or can not afford the RPS clutch.

 

Before I responded, I was trying to get an idea of where you guys are comming from as I am somewhat confused by your intentions

I still am trying to figure out where you guys are comming from

I know that for some time you have been pushing the entire Exedy brand at greatly reduced prices and it seems you have sold many units

Then you are making this thread - which in my opinion asserts false information on the Exedy product and promoting the RPS unit - meanwhile you are still selling the Exedy line

if you think the Exedy clutch has some flaw - then why are you selling it ?

For the record - the Exedy clucthes are the best available for the evo

Exedy holds the patent for the revolutionary design of the clip style snap fo the release bearing attachment and most of the other manufcatures - e.g. RPS for example and ACT use Exedy pressure plates in their products which they modify

There are a whole series of Exedy clutches from a stock replacement through a ACT sytle stronger pressure plate and re-enforced organic disk - to the twin disks and all the way to the triple carbon which I have used on my 667 whp Evo.

I usually make my points by anaolgy - and Brembo brakes is a great one.

Although our car comes with some fairly trick brakes from Brembo - which would have been considered state of the art even 15 years ago - in a real racing situation they quickly fade and warp.

I have seen stock evos with the front breaks warped so badly that the steering wheel violently shakes when you touch the brake pedal. Others have deposits of pad material on the disks which also causes uneven breaking.

How come these stock evos have shot breaks while my race car which has to stop over and over again from 137 mph in the 1/4 mile still has the ORIGINAL Brembo calipers and pads ????? What is the difference ?

Two points - proper BREAK IN - and proper USE are the key to survival of the breaks and or CLUTCH in a car being used for racing

Those who know cars know that you must drive within the breaks ability to displace heat - pushing too hard damages the parts

I can promise you all this - I can totally destroy any clutch produced for the evo in about 5 minutes of ABUSIVE driving

I can also tear the front diff out of any evo and snap off the rear half shafts

When you ABUSE the equipment things break

A upgraded unit with higher technology - such as the Brembo Carbon breaks on a road racing car which can retail at up to $15,000 just for the front can disapate a LOT more heat than the ones on our car and therefore, you can drive much more agreesive and not over heat them - however - they sacrifuce driveability and behavior during cold breaking conditions so there is potential problems with street use

The clucthes are very similar

My tripple Exedy has lasted me for over 30 full on drag launches at 10.5 - 10.7 speed and showed almost no detectable wear what so ever

Of course - I am an easy driver and shifter - thus my stock drivetrain has lasted for over 22,000 miles without breaking even one transmission or transfer case

With the Exedy Twin - I used it for racing for months and months of 500 whp plus with no issues or problems with the clutch what so ever.

I really feel the issue with the so called "drag" racers who are wearing out or warping the Exedy twin unit comes down to people who are really reving the **** out of the engine and using the clucth as a "slipper" unit to feather the car for a long distance off the line.

In that case - extreme heat is generated. If you have the Twin unit at that point you must allow the clucth to cool down for a period of time before you do the next pass. This has nothing to do with Exedy per se - ANY clutch can be destroyed with abusive driving practices

When you are racing - with brakes OR CLUTCHES - you must drive within the limitations of the units you are using and modulate the heat. Back to back drag style launches will destroy any non carbon clutch.

Its always amazing to me when I see drivers who KILL the stock clutch in 4,000 miles - then who are upset when they kill the exedy twin disk in 10,000 miles - YET they have continued the same abusive driving style

In AWD cars - the tires do not burn and spin - either the clutch slips - OR parts break - the clutch needs to be slected to handle the heat your tq application is going to throw at it

Reputable dealers will advise customers on the proper selection of the right clutch for his / her customer's applications

Experience with the product and its use is helpful in this regard.

Finally - the Exedy clutches are vastly superior in other areas - such as shifting speed - load on syncrhos and inertia reduction. Remember, Exedy is a huge comapny with a vast network of engineers working closely with OEM manufacturers and they are the OEM supplier of all Mitsubishi and Subaru cluches. Many of the aftermaket clucthes use Exedy parts.

If you explore the production capacity of exedy you will realize that it is a very carefully and methodically designed and manufacturerd product.

However - like any other product - the end user must understand the procedures for proper break in and operation of a perfromance clutch set.

As far as the post by Logic performance with the warped clutch disk, it means little to me as I have said before as I could warp an Exexy clutch in 5 minutes of abusive driving just as I could destroy a ACT, ATS or any other clutch on the market.

What matters to me is I personally drove Exedy clutches on hundreds of customer cars and found that in 99.99% of the cases the customers love the fast shifts, great feel and long life of the exedy units.

Finally - for the record - I am somehwat biased in all of this as I am a sponsored racer by Exedy

I run the triple carbon in my race car and you can see me running it in the upcomming year

Unlike some of my competitors - I compelted about 15 races this year and the clutch never gave out on me once

Also - I have sold over 50 exedy units and no one has complained about then except two people who bought the single but then later upgraded to high whp capacity. In BOTH cases, Exedy swapped then for a FREE twin disk which I thought was great customer service.

From experience - if you have an issue with any exedy clutch - you call them - get a RGA # and send it in - they have a huge plant and in house engineers who inspect the clutch and they will give you a new one if the unit is defective

IN MOST cases - its driver abuse

 

I do not know enough info on RPS to make any comment about that company

However - its seems silly to attach the carbon material to a metal disk - this defeats the two main purposes of a carbon clutch - 1 - Light weight low inertia and 2 - high heat capacity. clearly the heavy metal disk will absorb all the heat.

All I can say for a fact about the RPS carbon unit is that I saw iwth my own eyes a 600 whp evo that distroyed the unit before it even left a dyno test here in CT

What that means about the street reliability and how it works in practice - I do not know

 

I just wanted to add that not only does my Exedy Triple have the tq holding capoacity to handle drag racing with my 667 whp evo - it also is totally smooth and stock like in its engagement and due to the super light weight 100% carbon disks it shifts 3 times faster than a stock clutch

Unless you have driven a Exedy carbon you do not know what you are missing

 

I have noticed that shifting is extremely fast with Exedy clutch.... I just never thought it was the clutch I thought it was me (Pro Driver ) ....

 

thanks for the insight Al, Matt and everyone who has contributed to the discussion. It's always nice to learn something new.

dru

 

Al your post has brought light into my world but i must ask you, whats the recommeneded range of tq requirement to run the exedy triple plate carbon and the range of the exedy twin plate carbon clutch.

Thanks in advance.

 

Here are my suggestions for exedy cluthes which are not endorsed by exedy or anyone else - just my thoughts

Stock replacement - exedy Stage II upgraded stock style pressure plate and organic disk

up to 290 tq - Hyper Single

up to 350 tq - Twin ceramometalic

350 - 450 tq - Twin carbon with upgraded pressure plate

450 tq and up triple carbon

I know from personal experience that the triple carbon can hold 667 whp and 510 tq with the soft standard pressure plate - I have a spare upgraded pressure plate for it when and if it reaches the limits

Frankly I like having the soft feel os a stock like pedal of the soft pressure plate

 

Just curious Al, do you rate these number at the Wheels or at the Flywheel? I assume at the wheels on a AWD Dyno, but I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks,

-M

 

Important to note that these are purely my personal recomendations based upon my own experiences selling 50 exedy clutches and having personaly road tested over 450 evos or various states of tune - these are not exedy recomendations

Also inprortant to note that this is tq at the wheels specs not whp

On low hp cars tq may be equal to or greater than whp but in higher capacity turbos the whp often id greater than tq

These numbers are measured in Dyno Jet

Also - these are conservative ranges recomended so you will have no problems - it may be possible to hold much more power than these suggestions

 

Well, I will throw in my 2c as well. I have an Exedy twin and these are my thoughts, it does chatter and the release is not as smooth as the stock or the ACT, that being said I have the engine out of my car right now getting some forged internals and I measured the disks before it went in and after about 5500 miles. The wear so far has been very negligable, a few thousands of an inch, actually it was very hard to see much of a difference from new. Now, I have not "launced" the car with the Exedy though. I have done a few quick take-offs, but not what I would consider a down and dirty launch. So I would have to say that it is holding up well and shows signs of lasting a long time, but only time will tell. It is not as easy to drive and my fiance has a hell of a time with it (she has driven a stick shift car for 65,000+ miles), but I will appretiate the longetivity and it does help with the quick shifting as compared to the stock or an ACT. Just my observations on a 350 whp Evo.

 

I'm so glad I'm not into drag-racing.