How to Save The Clutch
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Evolving Member
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 140
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From: Walnut Creek, CA
How to Save The Clutch
FIRST- ask any audi awd owner that drives their car like most of us do how long their clutch lasts, probably not even as long to be honest...... my buddy smoked his clutches within 15k on his a4 and s4
I have had two other awd mitsus before this evo, 92 galant vr-4, and 98 elcipse gsx, running the galant at 18psi, and the eclipse as high as 26psi (everyday at 23psi), i went through a ****load of clutches.... here is what we learned to do after going through about 4 clutches in 2 years:
option 1- wait a decent ammount of time between launches, if you launch hard once, especially if you smell it, don't do it again for a good 30minutes+ to be safe... once the disc heats up, its real easy to shred into "kitty hair" as road race engineering calls it...
option2- get an act 2600lb clutch and build up your left calf muscle, its the only clutch along with some clutch master clutches i never used that last longer than 10k miles, period. I honesty cant very well remember it slipping once, maybe if you launch at 7000rpms and dont dump but slip it, the clutch is a beast... I used the centerforce dual friction ball bearing in the eclipse first (i heard they came out wiht dfx and it might be good), i slipped the centerforce in about 6k miles, but it lasted about 10k for what i needed it to before i would get beaten by integras off the line because it was slipping so bad...
point is, if they are making a streetable clutch, its gonna get toasted... its not like you guys are just puttering stop light to stop light, mitsu did not put a racing clutch in this car, they found the best all around, and to be honest i get off the line great, undefeated through first gear so far, against must. gts, z28's,srt-4's, wrx's, bmw m3, etc... and i launch at about 4500rpms and just dont let it drop past 3700 or so to keep the torque up, thats all you need for anything less an ss/vette/or cobra... for those cars... well decide if its worth it.... but put in an act 2600 if you decide it is and you bet wrong ;-)
I have had two other awd mitsus before this evo, 92 galant vr-4, and 98 elcipse gsx, running the galant at 18psi, and the eclipse as high as 26psi (everyday at 23psi), i went through a ****load of clutches.... here is what we learned to do after going through about 4 clutches in 2 years:
option 1- wait a decent ammount of time between launches, if you launch hard once, especially if you smell it, don't do it again for a good 30minutes+ to be safe... once the disc heats up, its real easy to shred into "kitty hair" as road race engineering calls it...
option2- get an act 2600lb clutch and build up your left calf muscle, its the only clutch along with some clutch master clutches i never used that last longer than 10k miles, period. I honesty cant very well remember it slipping once, maybe if you launch at 7000rpms and dont dump but slip it, the clutch is a beast... I used the centerforce dual friction ball bearing in the eclipse first (i heard they came out wiht dfx and it might be good), i slipped the centerforce in about 6k miles, but it lasted about 10k for what i needed it to before i would get beaten by integras off the line because it was slipping so bad...
point is, if they are making a streetable clutch, its gonna get toasted... its not like you guys are just puttering stop light to stop light, mitsu did not put a racing clutch in this car, they found the best all around, and to be honest i get off the line great, undefeated through first gear so far, against must. gts, z28's,srt-4's, wrx's, bmw m3, etc... and i launch at about 4500rpms and just dont let it drop past 3700 or so to keep the torque up, thats all you need for anything less an ss/vette/or cobra... for those cars... well decide if its worth it.... but put in an act 2600 if you decide it is and you bet wrong ;-)
