So, I found out the purpose of the restrictor pill on the clutch line on Saturday. Launched from the limiter and when all of about five feet before I bounced off fuel shutoff (around 7600-7800rpm), grabbed second and went nowhere. All in all I must have spent about 5-8 seconds over 7000rpm with a slipping clutch. My 60ft was about 7sec.

My question is how much damage did I do to the clutch? I'm assuming the engine will be fine, but the clutch may look like a piece of burnt toast. It smelled of burnt cluch the day after but has since gone away. I'm not hard on the car at all and have only raced in 3-4 times from a dig.

I know the clutch is fragile but has anyone had this situation arise and could tell me what this will do to the clutch life? Time for more launch practice I guess...

 

Oh, but before that I toasted a built Honda Civic (no interior and one seat) and a 430whp Integra with a H22A swap and 14psi of boost (and he had VHT of all things). So I'm compotent, it was just a really bad launch.

 

With butter bump.

 

so do you mean you took out your restrictor pill?

 

No, it's still in place I just gave the car too much clutch too fast (read: almost full dump) and the clutch gave up the ghost and just spun. It feels fine now, but I'm a tid worried.

 

try to go in 5th gear at 3000rpm and floor it when you hit full boost if the rpms go up and then down you have a damged clutch if nothing happens and keeps reving normal then your clutch is fine but beware if you burn the stock clutch to much it wont last a bit!
i have 12000miles onmy car with serious agressive driving and my stock clutch is about to go but it aint slipping yet it just doesnt grab as before the clutch pedal feels weak when driving but its normal i want to see how much it lasts before i change it.

 

As compotent as you are, launching like that will do a number on your clutch life.

Scorke

 

I'm hardly proud of the launch, I just want to gauge the damage. Thanks for the testing tip!

 

its very difficult to tell how much damage you did, in my case ive burn my clutch about 6 times and it smelled really bad 2 of the times the burnt smell lasted about 2-3days,another friend of mine toasted his clutch making 3 launches and that was it he smoked his stock clutch with only 2500miles on his car so it all depends, very hard to say how much damage was done

 

That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. Slipping the clutch from a normal stop for 7 seconds while feathering the throttle is hard on the clutch. Slipping it for 7 seconds at 7000rpm at WOT is abusive.

You probably wore the equivalant of at least 20K miles off of it in that 7 seconds. The smell you experienced is from the melting of the resins that hold the friction material together. The surfaces are most likely warped like crazy, but it will still work. You may have to adjust the rod at the master cylinder in order to make up for the warpage and to get it to still shift correctly.

 

Once that thing heats up to that degree it wont grab as well. Once it cools down it will be abit better, but you most likely glazed the flywheel and that means it will never be nearly as good as it was when it was stock. New clutch time.

 

so you say you've toasted two other clutches prior to the EVO and it seems like you're bragging about it, yet say you are competent?

I don't get it.... you need a new clutch, just a matter of time. Maybe not today, but soon. Buy one now, so that when the one you "toasted" totally gives it up, you'll be ready to replace it. But bouncing off the rev limiter in first, slipping the clutch like mad, and then grabbing another gear because it didn't bite is not competence.

 

I didn't toast the clutches in those cars, I beat them through the 1/4 mile.

 

It smelled a little bit the day after with normal driving, but now it works fine. I don't think I warped anything because disengagement is smooth and shifting is still precise and "grabby." I may not have been above 7k for as long as I thought, but I have a log of the run in the G-Tech. I'll look and post when I get home.