i just swapped to a dual friction and its the best clutch i had in my car for sure,nice pedal feel and good engagment..
Best High-po Tranny?
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I know I've said this many times and I am beating a dead horse, but my DF almost made 2 passes. It completely came apart on the second pass. When I called Centerforce to complain they said the DF is for stock cars only and should never be used on a modified car. I don't argue with their advice anymore.
Kurt
Kurt
Wow, talk about flakes! Their website advertises the clutch to be for street and mild strip applications. Weird..
I did some digging and they're "supposedly" rated for 600tq and have been beaten on pretty hard by the termi guys.. any chance you got a lemon?
Even if that is the case, thats no excuse for the lack of accountability and customer service on their part.
Cool. Nice to meet you Chris. I'm also a Chris. I appreciate your perspective, and I definitely don't have any experience with the modified T5s. So, it's nice to have your point of view. Welcome to Stangnet! 
I loved my CF in my MR2. At the time I was very bitter about dropping over $300 on a clutch that blew up almost immediately. Their customer service was down right rude to me. They blamed me for the friction material coming right off the disc. My first SPEC 3 popped a rivet in the disc. When I called SPEC, Paul admitted they had made the disc too weak, they had since doubled the number of rivets on that disc, and sent me a new disc no questions asked. Customer service makes all the difference. I have had bad luck with Mcleod service too. They bad mouth every other clutch company over the phone and belittle you for asking questions. I can't say for sure that SPEC makes the best clutches, but when we have a question or a problem, it's handled immediately with respect and support. We are now a SPEC dealer, and that's what goes in almost all of our customer's cars. When you are running a business, you just don't have time for bad customer service. 10 years later I have cooled down on the issue. I can't argue with how nice the CF is on the street. It is by far the smoothest engaging and easiest on the foot of all the clutches I have ever owned. However, if you are going to bolt slicks to your car and do 6000 rpm launches at the track like I was, I would pass on the CF. I've done countless launches on my SPEC clutches without any problem. My last SPEC 3 I did so many hard launches on the input shaft sheered right off the transmission, and the clutch came out looking brand new.
Kurt
Kurt
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Kurt, I'm sure you new what you were doing, but I had a similar experience burning off the friction material on a spec because I didn't break it in properly and let my dumb-ass buddy "try" to do a burnout without a line lock. He couldn't figure out how to lightly press the brake and break the rear wheels at the same time. So instead, he smashed the brake, eased out of the clutch, and managed a nice smoky burnout without any of that smoke coming from the rear tires.
That sucks. I had literally only had this clutch in for the 500 brake in miles where I drove it very lightly. I took it right to the track after braking it in, and did straight up 2nd gear burnouts dropping the clutch with a line lock. On the second launch, which is almost a clutch drop, the clutch disk came out the side of the bellhousing in a cloud of dust. I've done this same procedure with the SPEC 3 about 100 times, and never had a problem. The best part about the SPEC is I can have the disc rebuilt for about $100, where with the CF you are out another $300. I just don't think the CF makes for a good track clutch. I have heard that if you run a King Cobra pressure plate with the DF disk it is 100 times better. The pressure plate that comes with the CF is a stock pressure plate. I've never personally run that combination.
Kurt
Kurt
I may have to try this. My engine combo makes a quite a bit of torque. I've run the DF Center Force because I like how the clutch feels. At the same time though, I've also eaten through three of the clutches in a span of time that I thought was way too short ESPECIALLY for a clutch that is described over and over to be good for what... 600 ft/lbs?
I don't think so.I was leaning toward the McCleod multi-disk setup but I may try this instead.
How was holding power and longevity with your setup? What kind of power (and traction) were you putting to it?
Not much. 320 rwhp, 340 lbs-ft on drag radials. I went something like 20k miles on it before I swapped it out for the Spec stage III and went twin turbo. Nothing ever went wrong with the clutch though. I just decided to upgrade.
I've been hesitant to try the Spec 3. Seems like there's more griping about chatter and cable tension than I was willing to invest in. When I came across the chance to test drive one, I got in and said, "Oh lawd this thing is heavy" only to find out that the cable the dude was running was garbage (literally... burned through the cable shielding on the header).
So I still don't really have a first hand [foot] on the Spec 3.
Cable makes a huge difference. I recollect a bit of chatter too, but not too bad with a sensitive foot. I almost sold the car at one point because of the pedal effort required. I then changed the quadrant, cable, and firewall mount just to give it one last shot and it started shifting like a dream. Never had a problem since, although the place I had the motor built lost the '95 clutch cable I modded to fit. They gave me a steeda in it's place though. So we called it even.
Just changing the quadrant, cable, and firewall adj. made the pedal effort softer and reduced chatter? I have the stage 2 Spec and don't notice chatter, except for in reverse (it's horrid, I avoid reverse if possible). Myself, personally, I prefer to reverse into parking spaces, garage, etc. Come to think of it I don't have the firewall adjuster hooked up, never have. I was told it wasn't good to use... any help is appreciated.
This is all good stuff. It's hard to tell sometimes who's complaining because they didn't complete the supporting mods and who's actually gotten hold of an item that just doesn't work well for their application.
The Cobra pressure plate has less pedal effort than the stock one in my opinion. running that with the DF disk has been done for a long time. I would definitely go with that setup over the multi-disk from Mcleod; they have a history of binding.
The SPEC 3 is a multi-pick clutch. Anything with a multi-puck setup is going to be a little grabby. You get used to it. If you really don't want a grabby clutch then upgrade to a + which has a full face disk.
Kurt
The SPEC 3 is a multi-pick clutch. Anything with a multi-puck setup is going to be a little grabby. You get used to it. If you really don't want a grabby clutch then upgrade to a + which has a full face disk.
Kurt
I think that this is what I'm going to try next. I don't DD the thing anymore so a little more or less pedal isn't really an issue these days.
A LOT of extra effort would be though.
I need something that's not going to end up doing the 4th gear slip within a year of me banging on it.
A LOT of extra effort would be though.
I need something that's not going to end up doing the 4th gear slip within a year of me banging on it.
Yes, I left that out. I don't DD my Mustang either, but with the + model there is a lot of pedal effort compared to the SPEC 3.
Kurt
Kurt
