Clutch upgrade question

[SoguRacing]

Hey guys. I dont think this has been covered before but i was wondering when you're supposed to upgrade to a new clutch. I'm looking to make 300 to 330hp on my sr and currently have an ACT stage 1 clutch capable of handling 367lb-ft of torque. Is there a rule of thumb that once you pass a certain percent of the max amount of torque your clutch is capable of handling that you upgrade to the next step? I dont want to over do it on the cost of the clutch and I still want to have street drivability. any input would help thanks.

[idahotuner]

sounds like the clutch you have now will work fine for your setup.

[Ben G]

you are going to be under it arnt you?

[cotbu]

If I were you, I'd think about how old the clutch is... and if i would be replacing it myself.
I had and RPS max street clutch, 3 years of DD weekend Fun and normal BSing(burnouts etc.) Clutch just started to slip 2days from it's 3rd birthday, I was only making 310hp and 305tq. If your clutch is new you'll be fine, or if you have a multitude of mile on it, replace it.
I replaced my rps max with an exedy stage 2 thick and I hate the pedal feel. I was thinking of using the rps pressure plate, but I did the swap myself and rather not drop the tranny, with the engine still in the car again.

[SoguRacing]

thanks guy, the clutch disk is a little short of half it's life. Maybe i'll just get another disc while i'm at it. also, can i just throw the 6 puck disc in there in place of the street strip disc?

[cotbu]

Yes, but you should resurface flywheel and pressure plate. Also you might void your warranty.

[SoguRacing]

Yes, but you should resurface flywheel and pressure plate. Also you might void your warranty.

yes to which question i asked?

[SoSideways]

yes to which question i asked?

Here's what he was talking about:

also, can i just throw the 6 puck disc in there in place of the street strip disc?

Yes, but you should resurface flywheel and pressure plate. Also you might void your warranty.

Just know that while the torque holding capacity will go up, by going to a 6-puck disc, the engagement will be a bit more harsh (ie. grabs harder upon clutch slip), so bring your RPMs up a little more when you go to slip the clutch :)

[SoguRacing]

cool. so the 2 disks are interchangeable with the ACT assemblies? just want to make sure i'm getting my thought across. thanks for the input.

[SoSideways]

cool. so the 2 disks are interchangeable with the ACT assemblies? just want to make sure i'm getting my thought across. thanks for the input.

All the discs are interchangeable with all the pressure plates, unless you have a multiplate assembly that's designed to work as 1 unit, but those usually come with the flywheel.

If you actually look at Exedy's non-USA websites, you'll see that they actually sell everything separately, and that's pretty much how every other clutch company sells their clutches, as far as like a "stage 1" or "stage 2" clutch go (basically meaning non-badass clutches like the Exedy Hyper Single or the ORC Super Single, or the HKS units... you get my point).

If you think about it, the pressure plate bolts to the flywheel, and the clutch disk is really only "held on" by the splines in the transmission's input shaft as far as the center goes, and clamped by the pressure plate. It doesn't bolt to the pressure plate or anything, so that's why they're interchangeable.

Edit:

As a matter of fact, the ACT HDSS kit versus the HD6 or whatever it's called, is the clutch disc itself. They both use the HD pressure plate. Just that the HDSS comes with the full faced organic disc called the "street disc", and the HD6 comes with the 6-puck disc.

[SoguRacing]

Thanks man! Perfect explanation. That's what I was looking for.

[Ninjabread]

street / strip is fine if you just daily and screw around a bit, but mine was slipping trying to do 3rd gear clutch kicks, and I only have like 280hp. The clutch was brand new this summer.

[SoguRacing]

street / strip is fine if you just daily and screw around a bit, but mine was slipping trying to do 3rd gear clutch kicks, and I only have like 280hp. The clutch was brand new this summer.

yea, that's what i'm worried about. I'll need a clutch disc soon so i figure to just upgrade to a 6 puck to be on the safe side. the engine and trans is already out so it's just a quick drop in with new TOB.

[Ninjabread]

I'm a bit skeptical about those act clutches, I don't know what I'm going to do either.

1- get act 6 puck unsprung
2 - sell act /fidanza and buy blitz single

[SoguRacing]

what makes you skeptical? my ACT has been great.

[Ninjabread]

Well lets just say that over the winter the car is getting some slight power upgrades, should be making 380ps at the wheels, so im sorta doubtfull that it will hold for long, I'm pretty aggressive with the clutch on the track.

[SoguRacing]

so just swapping to the 6 puck sprung/unsprung disc should do the job yea?

[Ninjabread]

I guess we will see, its definitly the cheapest option.

[SoguRacing]

that's what I was thinking. That's why I was going with that option.

[SoSideways]

Well, here are some facts that I've gathered for the last 2 years during my time with Cox Imports, and we carried Exedy and ACT stuff, and sold plenty.

1) Most Evo owners that have the money bought the Exedy twin plate for their Evos. It will pretty much hold over 400 hp to all 4 wheels.

2) The other popular clutch that sold to them was the ACT HDG6 clutch, which was the Heavy Duty pressure plate with a 6-puck sprung disc.

3) The guys that were making some decent numbers and didn't have the money to buy the Exedy twin plate bought the ACT XTG6 for street driving, which is their Xtreme pressure plate with the 6-puck sprung disc.


Now, I didn't hear of any failure from those guys, and you all know that the 4G63 can put down some impressive numbers. Not to mention they're AWD and the car itself is kinda heavy, so with all those things in mind, during a hard drag launch, it should be pretty much equivalent to a 3rd gear clutch kick for us, but again, I didn't hear anyone having problems at that time.

I haven't kept up with their scene, so I don't really have any updates about those guys that bought clutches from me, and now that we're no longer Cox Import and not selling parts anymore.

One thing I can say though, is that, ACT achieves the torque holding capacity by going with a pretty high clamping force on their pressure places, which puts stress on the thrust bearings on the crank, so it's really a trade off between "cheaping out" by going with an ACT up front, and possibly having to deal with, what's essentially "crank walk", or ponying up and buying a nice clutch up front and not having to deal with crank walk.

Now, the ACT HD pressure plate shouldn't have that problem, and the OP shouldn't have that problem with a new sprung/non-sprung 6-puck disc on his HD disc, but if he still cannot put that power down, then the only other option at that point is to upgrade the pressure plate, which is a step closer to the crank walk bit.

I think the highest clamp rate pressure plate from ACT is the MAXX plates, which is 1 step above the Xtreme.

By the way, I'm not trying to scare you or anything, I just want you to know some stuff about clutches so you could make an informed decision about where to spend your money on, because the money that you are going to spend on the 6-puck disc, could be spent towards a new clutch if you so choose to, ya know?

Good luck!

[SoguRacing]

awesome! thanks again. I think I'm going with the ACT sprung 6 puck as I am not going to be making over 400hp any time soon. thanks for the info.