A Clutch Odyssey
A Clutch Odyssey
I've had my Evo IX for 2 years now. I bought the car in May 09 with 25k miles, bone stock and a shot OEM clutch. Since then I have put 3 more clutches in the car and learned a lot along the way.
Short on funds after purchasing the car I put a Comp Clutches Stage 2 in it. This is a full face sprung hub clutch. I was never really happy with this clutch. Despite bleeding the slave cylinder to death and adjusting all the pedal travel I could get out of the car, it had serious lockout issues. 7k shifts almost always resulted in grind if they even went in. Then I went and did my first round of bolt-ons and went to see Mellon. Came back with 335/300 and found out the clutch was very marginal for this power level. Then in March 2010 I did my first HPDE and things changed. I left with the dreaded TCase death whine, a crappy shifting car and a new addiction.
So in goes a Shep stage 3 Tcase, a built tranny and new clutch. A local mech that knows his stuff got me a South Bend DXD 6-puck ferrametallic clutch (sprung hub). The South Bend unit was heads and tails better than the CC Stage 2 (should be at more than twice the price). This setup carried me through the rest of the summer and 6 more HPDE's. The South Bend had some chatter, but held my power pretty well. A second round of upgrades brought the car into the 370/350 range and the South bend was still doine reasonably well. Shifting above 7k wasn't locked out, but was occasionally notchy. Then in March of this year I started the track season with the NASA event at RA. And on Sunday I lost 5th gear synchro.
So out comes the tranny and Tcase. The tranny gets a refresh, fresh seals in the Tcase. And while it is all out I am going to put in a fresh clutch. My car is becoming more of a dedicated track toy every passing day. So my clutch criteria are as follows:
- Lowest possible friction disc weight on the input shaft for the best high RPM shifting and longest Synchro life.
- Push converison, I have never liked the Pull setup and I feel it can be very inconsistent.
- Did I mention high RPM shift quality?
And that's it. I don't do the drag racing thing. I want a clutch for the track. I end up rolling the dice on the Carbonetic twin.
Now I have run that clutch around 1500 miles and one track event. This clutch has almost no chatter. It is smooth like an OEM. Shift quality is great, even well above 7k. No issues at all with my current power level. you can easily and smoothly crawl around the paddock, in and out of the clutch with no chatter, no killing the engine. But it locks up nicely to deliver the power. I am left wondering why I didn't just man up and buy this clutch to begin with.
To be perfectly honest, there are a few issues that some may object to:
- I has the twin disc rattle with the pedal depressed.
- Deccel noise is a little higher than the other clutches (non sprung disc)
- You have to go through a 'heat up' procedure if you want to launch the car (drag racing) to make sure the clutch is ready for a launch.
ReaperX on here drove my car at CMP and can comment. Hopefully the info in this rambling post can be of help to a few folks out there.
Short on funds after purchasing the car I put a Comp Clutches Stage 2 in it. This is a full face sprung hub clutch. I was never really happy with this clutch. Despite bleeding the slave cylinder to death and adjusting all the pedal travel I could get out of the car, it had serious lockout issues. 7k shifts almost always resulted in grind if they even went in. Then I went and did my first round of bolt-ons and went to see Mellon. Came back with 335/300 and found out the clutch was very marginal for this power level. Then in March 2010 I did my first HPDE and things changed. I left with the dreaded TCase death whine, a crappy shifting car and a new addiction.
So in goes a Shep stage 3 Tcase, a built tranny and new clutch. A local mech that knows his stuff got me a South Bend DXD 6-puck ferrametallic clutch (sprung hub). The South Bend unit was heads and tails better than the CC Stage 2 (should be at more than twice the price). This setup carried me through the rest of the summer and 6 more HPDE's. The South Bend had some chatter, but held my power pretty well. A second round of upgrades brought the car into the 370/350 range and the South bend was still doine reasonably well. Shifting above 7k wasn't locked out, but was occasionally notchy. Then in March of this year I started the track season with the NASA event at RA. And on Sunday I lost 5th gear synchro.
So out comes the tranny and Tcase. The tranny gets a refresh, fresh seals in the Tcase. And while it is all out I am going to put in a fresh clutch. My car is becoming more of a dedicated track toy every passing day. So my clutch criteria are as follows:
- Lowest possible friction disc weight on the input shaft for the best high RPM shifting and longest Synchro life.
- Push converison, I have never liked the Pull setup and I feel it can be very inconsistent.
- Did I mention high RPM shift quality?
And that's it. I don't do the drag racing thing. I want a clutch for the track. I end up rolling the dice on the Carbonetic twin.
Now I have run that clutch around 1500 miles and one track event. This clutch has almost no chatter. It is smooth like an OEM. Shift quality is great, even well above 7k. No issues at all with my current power level. you can easily and smoothly crawl around the paddock, in and out of the clutch with no chatter, no killing the engine. But it locks up nicely to deliver the power. I am left wondering why I didn't just man up and buy this clutch to begin with.
To be perfectly honest, there are a few issues that some may object to:
- I has the twin disc rattle with the pedal depressed.
- Deccel noise is a little higher than the other clutches (non sprung disc)
- You have to go through a 'heat up' procedure if you want to launch the car (drag racing) to make sure the clutch is ready for a launch.
ReaperX on here drove my car at CMP and can comment. Hopefully the info in this rambling post can be of help to a few folks out there.
I definitely agree with you on the drivability of this clutch. I've had one in my Evo for a few years, and it's one of the better twin plates I've driven. I've actually come on rebuild for the clutch as well and comparatively isn't that expensive.
Just finsihed two more track days and there is nothing bad I can say about this clutch. If it shows decent longevity, I'll never put anything else in my Evo.