Originally posted by Superperk:
How does it hold?
To be honest I'm premature for putting this up before I even get my car back! My bad, I'll get it back tomarrow...but until I get it broke in, that's a good question. BUT, my friend's are running the same lining in their '91 300ZX TT, '91 Civic w/ '00 B20 Hybrid and built Integra trans.(Turbo soon), and a '99 'Stang GT. The hotter it gets, the better it holds. With the other side being an organic material it makes it where you can actually feather it. I can get them with a FULL ceramic clutch disc, but that is the type where it is either in or out.
This is why I bought this clutch to go into my car.
I was going to buy the unorthadox clutch, but I found that kevlar DOES NOT BITE any harder than organic material. Many will even say it doesn't bite as hard atall. It is easy on flywheels though making it where if you go through clutch disc's on a regular basis and wish to attempt to re-use your pressure plate and not resurface your flywheel, you most likely can. Kevlar will also glaze over when coming into contact with any oil contaminant of any kind (Engine oil or tranny fluid). That means NO bite and it'll just spin.
In the past I have also used the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch system and I have never been more pissed off to learn that they use PLASTIC in their clutch face material. I ended up cooking one on my Eclipse GSX after a 1K break in period. It took about less than a month to kiss that one.
I'm getting these custom clutch disc's from a Centerforce, Clutch Master's, and an ACT dealer. I went in asking for a clutch that I can get good holding power and bite, LONG LIFE, and still have it streetable. They grabbed a clutch from each manufacturer and pointed out that NONE of them use pressure plates other than oem ones. They've ran all the parts numbers to make sure, but other than counter weights (On very few models) they only squirt them down with paint and slap a sticker on them. THEN, they got into the disc's they use. I didn't want a pucked disc, so we only spoke about all the full faced or staggerd faced types. They showed that the Clutch Master's is a kevlar/organic blend which shares the undesireable affects of 100% kevlar and oil products. Still a decent clutch, but not for the price. Centerforce......(hahahahahahah), that crap is a PLASTIC blend with organic material! JUNK! ACT clutches I actually liked, but the price was way up there too. (I don't even think they offer a clutch for a Contour.)
After talking extensivly to these guys, I had to think a bit. I took a week and went back and dove back into it with the idea, "Money is no object....I want the best clutch for my car that will last." (I went through clutches in my ol' '96 Eclipse GSX too many times)
So What you would get is up to you, but I chose to get ceramic on the flywheel side and organic material that is backed by metal (better than stock, I'll find out for sure why) on the pressure plate side. If you'd want a full ceramic clutch, I can get them that way. This is based on a Luk Gold series clutch. They drill out the rivits and replace the oem lining with the lining types I have described.
Again I should wait until I get my car back and see how well it works in the SVT platform. But so far, all my friends have run these in most of their cars and they seem to be better than anything I have seen. But, we'll see how well my SVT handels this.
Is there anyone that would be interested in this type of clutch system (Other than myself) if all goes well? Look at my car as the R&D!