how to properly break in a new clutch and flywheel

[sumoboi7]

just as the title says. im unsure of how to do this. the paper that came with the clutch says 500 stop and go miles and my friend who is very knowledgeable in cars says i have to get it in gear and take it to high rpms slowly and let it come down a couple of times. oh ya and this is a spec stage 1 clutch and act streetlite flywheel on a sr. any opinions would be great. so far i haven't pushed it over 3500 rpms and drove it normally without abusing it at all. thanks for any help.

[highly responsive]

good question, because we are getting ready to swap my clutch out in the next hour or so.

[sumoboi7]

gl with that. hope all goes well.

[Jordn]

My SPEC Stage 3 was run in for approx 60 miles on the road, onto a trailer and then clutch kicked in 3rd gear at a competition - that bedded her in real good:D

[sumoboi7]

haha. so just take it eassy for a bit n then run it hard? i just got my clutch back on thursday and have been driving nicely. my frens want me to go touge with t hem tonight and said what i said above. i dont know if i should go. i dont wanna risk fucking it up. maybe ill drive a shit load of stop and go 2m.

[kandyflip445]

Uh, I went easy on mine for like 200 miles then I went to an autox. lol

[sumoboi7]

hows it holdin up so far? how many miles have u put on it?

[ZX88]

im also interested in this i heard take it easy for the first 500miles.

[burnsauto]

two theories.

some like a hard break in, right off the bat

some like a soft one

personally, im a fan of the soft break in, especially if the flywheel has been resurfaced/new one installed. You need time to build up material on the flywheel again. This will help it grab better and prevent slipping/burning up the clutch disk prematurely.

[Rnz520]

on my spec stage 3 I took it to the track and beat on it in the first 100 miles or so. so far so good.

[Phlip]

I did a 500 mile breakin, kept the car under 4000 RPM, drove the long way through the city to Winston Salem and back, then up the highway to Raleigh and back...
I was ALWAYS told 500 miles without beating on it.

[ZX88]

so can it be 500miles highway or does it have to be stop and go traffic/city driving.

[SexPanda]

just a second...

this is on the local forums... good info imo.

417racing.com • View topic - How to break in a New engine (http://www.417racing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8405)

thats for a new engine. Clutch- dont romp on it, keep the revs under 3500 or so, shift gingerly, all that for about 500 miles or so.

I thought the engine was what you were breaking in. oops.

[Phlip]

so can it be 500miles highway or does it have to be stop and go traffic/city driving.
I mixed it... Greensboro to Winston Salem NC is 45ish miles on the highway, through the cities it is 75 easy... I came home, drove around town for a little while and then went to Raleigh, where I drove around some more. You would need to be shifting or you accomplish nothing.
Gas was also about $1.50 less than it is right now, so the 2 tanks it took me to do this was less painful.

[SixSpeedSleuth]

I just installed an ACT Extreme Pressure plate with a 6 puck sprung clutch. An actual rep from ACT told me to take the car out, do a long second gear slip. Come back and let the car cool, take it out and do another second gear clutch slip. Let it cool and, voila, a broken in clutch. So, that's what I did:naughty:.

Also, fwiw, I've broken in two Exedy Stage II's. The first one I babied for 500 miles and everynow and then it would slip like hell. The second one, I drove hard right away, and I had less slippage out of the second clutch. This is coming from a FIRM believer of long clutch break-in. Now, I'm not so sure.

[s14sr_pwr]

i put a toda light weight flywheel with an exedy stg. 2 3 puck, i drove easy for about 150-200 miles then it went on the track. since then i have put around 400 more miles on it and its great. still grabs very hard.

[turtl631]

I believe that the more streetable clutches require a longer, gentler break-in period, whereas clutches with more aggressive materials do better with a few hard slips and then a short cooldown. The idea is just to mate the surfaces together well...I'm guessing if you overdo it with the stock-like organic clutches, you just overheat the sections that are actually making significant contact with the flywheel, and then they're screwed up.

[nismo 240sx]

hey well my dad has been doing tranys for the past 21 years and he said it really doesnt matter how u drive it.

[s13boy89]

with puck clutches you drive them hard for install. with the organic, you have to drive easy for 500 miles

[CrimsonRockett]

Exedy Stg 2 with Fidanza flywheel.

I broke mine in by driving 500 miles.

Soft driving. Never passed 3500rpm.

No downshifting.

Now, beat on it like no tomorrow.

Love it.

[DriftMUH]

personally i had to put 700 miles on it keeping it under 3k rpm, i know thats really babying it but i didnt want to risk anything.. thats what it said to do on the package the clutch came in, may be different for urs tho

[S14DB]

2 methods:

500~1000miles on the street. No Highway, all city miles. Coast down in gear clutch engaged, basically engine braking till the car almost stalls. you can brake normally just don't push in the clutch till you get to the stop. Ideal for street clutches. Exposes to many heat cycles. allows the friction material to transfer to the flywheel and dipharm evenly with low chance for glazing.

Dyno break in. Is more for ceramic and sintered iron clutches. Bring the engine up to speed then let it coast down under load. Usually do half max rpm for a few runs then let cool. Then do full pulls with coast down and let cool. Then good to go. Takes skill to do right. High chance to glaze a street type clutch and heat check/warp with a puck style. I do not recommend trying at home. Only a dyno operator that has experience with the method.

[sumoboi7]

cool. so since i have a organic spec stage 1 clutch ithe quickest way to break it in is 250 to 500 miles of easy driving. ive got about 50 miles on it so far so as long as i engage saoftly i can push the gas a little as long as it doesnt slip?

[bigOdom1]

500~1000miles on the street. No Highway, all city miles. Coast down in gear clutch engaged, basically engine braking till the car almost stalls. you can brake normally just don't push in the clutch till you get to the stop. Ideal for street clutches. Exposes to many heat cycles. allows the friction material to transfer to the flywheel and dipharm evenly with low chance for glazing.



all you need to know can be gathered from this

[Leetheslacker]

IIRC its something like.

organic clutch go easy on it.
carbon clutch likes it rough.

or the other way around. one of those. yeah.

[S14DB]

IIRC its something like.

organic clutch go easy on it.
carbon clutch likes it rough.

or the other way around. one of those. yeah.

Organic, Break in easy, shift easy
Kevlar, Break in easy(pure Kevlar loves to glaze during break in), Shift hard(once broken in can take a lot of heat).
Ceramic, Full face can dyno break in, Puck needs time to heat cycle the pressure plate and Flywheel or they will heat check and warp, Shift like you mean it!
Sintered Iron, Break in? What break in, Shift hard on it cause it's going to be hard back to you.

[Silverbullet]

...car under 4000 RPM....



...Never passed 3500rpm.

No downshifting....


... keeping it under 3k rpm...



I wanted to add:

I know alot of ppl say keep it under a certain RPM (say.. 3500 or 4000
RPM?). Its not so much of what RPM the car is in, but how much load your applying to it. You can be coasting at 6000RPM on a new clutch and it would be perfectly fine as long as your not giving it WOT.

The reason behind this is because you want to prevent the clutch from slipping. There is a coefficient friction force keeping the clutch disk and flywheel together. If your giving it the max torque your motor can produce, that torque could possibly (could possibly, but not toooo likely) over come the coefficient friction of the flywheel and clutch. When that happens you get a bad slip.

Down shifting is ok. It is the same as upshifting in terms of the clutch breaking in.

[highly responsive]

two theories.
personally, im a fan of the soft break in, especially if the flywheel has been resurfaced/new one installed. You need time to build up material on the flywheel again. This will help it grab better and prevent slipping/burning up the clutch disk prematurely.

what about when the flywheel was NOT resurfaced? lets just say during our little exercise yesterday, flywheel removal was not an option. the flywheel was smooth where the clutch disk made contact, there were no grooves or dives at all, and there was no transition from where the disk made contact to the open area... smooth as silk. i drove my clutch for about 3 miles to make sure it was working fine, not going over 3k rpm. in my case, what kind of break-in would you recommend for me?

edit:
forgot to mention im KAE and used the exedy oem clutch. the disk was kinda fuzzy feeling, so i guess that means its organic, right?

[bigOdom1]

then you made a huge mistake. always resurface the flywheel

[S14DB]

what about when the flywheel was NOT resurfaced? lets just say during our little exercise yesterday, flywheel removal was not an option. the flywheel was smooth where the clutch disk made contact, there were no grooves or dives at all, and there was no transition from where the disk made contact to the open area... smooth as silk. i drove my clutch for about 3 miles to make sure it was working fine, not going over 3k rpm. in my case, what kind of break-in would you recommend for me?

edit:
forgot to mention im KAE and used the exedy oem clutch. the disk was kinda fuzzy feeling, so i guess that means its organic, right?

Did you at least clean it with brake cleaner and get most of the old matererial off? I hope the new and old clutch is the same material.

You still have to break in the Clutch disc and heat cycle the new pressure plate. Clutch disk will still have to deposit some material on the flywheel.

standard 500miles.

[ericcastro]

Like everyone stated. Its 500 miles.

Last month at the track, my clutch went,
Replaced it right there on the spot in 3 or 4 hours.
Replaced with OEM autozone clutch.
Didnt replace flywheel, didnt even rough with sand paper.
couldnt get the tiny throw out bearing out, but replaced everything else.

Drove down to the bathrooms and back to make sure nothing was binding.

Went right back out with the next run group and was clutch kicking the shit out of that guy ever since.

Its also my DD. :)

[bigOdom1]

some people have great success like that most dont id always break it in

[highly responsive]

Did you at least clean it with brake cleaner and get most of the old matererial off? I hope the new and old clutch is the same material.

You still have to break in the Clutch disc and heat cycle the new pressure plate. Clutch disk will still have to deposit some material on the flywheel.

standard 500miles.

no... we didnt use brake cleaner... we just took the old clutch off, and put the new one on. surprisingly, the old clutch was also an exedy clutch. had 4 springs on it, so i can only assume it was also an oem clutch.

guess ill go put 500 miles on it now. havent driven up to tonopah in a while.

[highly responsive]

Like everyone stated. Its 500 miles.

Last month at the track, my clutch went,
Replaced it right there on the spot in 3 or 4 hours.
Replaced with OEM autozone clutch.
Didnt replace flywheel, didnt even rough with sand paper.
couldnt get the tiny throw out bearing out, but replaced everything else.

Drove down to the bathrooms and back to make sure nothing was binding.

Went right back out with the next run group and was clutch kicking the shit out of that guy ever since.

Its also my DD. :)

you sir, are badass. props for not only doing your clutch on the fucking track, BUT THEN PROCEEDING TO PUT AN AUTOZONE CLUTCH IN THAT BITCH. i like how you say 500 miles too, and then clutch kick the fuck out of it immediately. posi rep for you, my man.

[ericcastro]

^lol.

Well there is the right way,

And the "Its the begining of a 2 day drift event with a comp for $1000" way ;)

[Phlip]

I wanted to add:

I know alot of ppl say keep it under a certain RPM (say.. 3500 or 4000
RPM?). Its not so much of what RPM the car is in, but how much load your applying to it. You can be coasting at 6000RPM on a new clutch and it would be perfectly fine as long as your not giving it WOT.

The reason behind this is because you want to prevent the clutch from slipping. There is a coefficient friction force keeping the clutch disk and flywheel together. If your giving it the max torque your motor can produce, that torque could possibly (could possibly, but not toooo likely) over come the coefficient friction of the flywheel and clutch. When that happens you get a bad slip.

Down shifting is ok. It is the same as upshifting in terms of the clutch breaking in.
My thing was basically that you DO NOT need to go beyond that (3.5-4k) to comfortably achieve ANY legal speed, even if merging onto a 70MPH interstate highway... Basically, it was to say "don't beat on it," which has been supported by other posts in this thread.

[sumoboi7]

awesome. ive been taking it easy and everyonce in a while put it to approx half throttle to get to higher rpoms and then coasted down to lower rpms. i was told to do that by one of my frens. i also am making sure it doesnt slip. it still chatters tho. engagement is alot different from stock so im still getting used to it. been driving it as much as possible to break that bitch in so i can start clutch kicking and gettin my tires spinning. i miss the feeling of my turbo spooling and pushing me back into my seat.