AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

My car has not been driven in several years. The clutch has been a slight issue since day one in that it won't hold under certain conditions. Well I got the car started to bring it to my parent's house for storage (selling house) this weekend. Shortly before arriving I felt obliged to do a burnout. Stopped, revved it and dumped it in first spinning spinning spinning, banged second spinning spinning......wait, those tires aren't spinning in 2nd..... I'm slipping the **** out of the clutch.

I've had a Monster stage 3 in the garage for years now. And I don't think i'm going to use it. I've had my doubts, but after pulling my car in and out of my hilly driveway while maneuvering around all of the **** that's outside because of the move I know that I'm not going to like a light switch type clutch. I've driven a 500 plus rwhp car before with one and while it's fun, it just doesn't suit my driving style and will get old quick. Not to mention taking off from a light when there is a cop nearby. And I don't have a ton of power.

My favorite clutch was a cheapy aftermarket performance clutch that I had in my 5.0 Mustang. It was a little bit grabby at first but broke in quickly and nicely. If shifted hard you could feel how tight it was, and downshifting quickly into 3rd and 2nd coming off of the highway would cause the car to do a little *** wiggle that gave my headliner reaching wood. I just slapped that clutch on, didn't even touch the flywheel and it was great.

So I know all of the "standard" options discussed here. But anybody have any recommendations for a budget clutch just to slap on? I'm likely going to sell the car and would like to actually enjoy it for a bit before I do. I'm not gonna put a new flywheel on or have mine resurfaced. I'm just gonna slap it on and go. I also have a tick master that I'm not going to use. And the slave is probably fine with the 30K mile the car has. No LS7 setup (the "budget" route", just a quick and dirty like you know you like it.

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

I'll respond myself since I found the file for my old car while packing.

First of all - what was in the file. Receipts of course aaaaaand, a picture of my then 19 year old GF in lingerie. So that was a pleasant surprise. Her rack was legendary. Still is. And very cute. Anyway, turns out it was a spec stage 1 and I DID have my flywheel resurfaced for the grand total of 35 bucks.

I imagine, and have seen a little bit, that spec gets a bad rap here. Well 18 - 20 years ago I was pretty happy with it. That was in a car down 50hp that weighed a few hundred pounds less. Might be enough to take that just a little bit of edge off, which I liked. Who knows. I was a fan of it being grabby when you wanted it to and easy to slip when you wanted as well. Might be a $300 experiment unless anyone cares to convince me to put the Monster in it. Makes me wonder what kind of driving style the two PO's had. My 5.0 factory clutch lasted well over 150K miles. And my T5 never had an issue with the additional 25K I put on it still after the clutch. Bone stock with stock, cut shifter. Now I have another v8 pony car whos clutch has been on it's way out since the high 20K's. Did somebody run slicks on this thing or did they frequently do the magic trick my ex wife showed me in her Mazda years ago - "Look, I can stay on this hill without going forward or backward without using the brake at all". "Yeah, dont ever do that again". But even that thing went close to 200K on the stock clutch.

THANKS GM!!! THANKS FOR THE TWINKIE DICK CLUTCH YOU PUT IN THESE THINGS TO TRY AND SAVE REAR END MADE OUT OF GLASS ******!

BTW, my slow speed parking lot, driveway, manuevering style is to blip the throttle a few times while letting the clutch just start to grab to either get me or keep me going. My style is different with my new Jeep and I hate it. Jeep doesnt have the throttle response to do the same thing. I just think I'd hate the Monster. Even though I've wanted it for 7 or so years now.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

I'll let others comment on what could be options for slap and go clutches with the existing flywheel and pressure plate, but (at a minimum) I would replace the release bearing. The slave is a simple device and the seals that fail are on that release bearing. (I just had one fail on me and it has been hell.) It's a cheap and easy thing to do.

BALLSS

OP, if its all about being down & dirty and low cost than just get a new organic clutch disc, have the FW resurfaced and hit the PP with some emery cloth. McLeod would be one source to look at

Given your recent clutch dump that resulted in clutch spin vs tire spin you have well glazed the current disc and likely hot spotted the PP & FW

The organic disc will be the most forgiving in terms of street manners but not having the holding capacity of a DF type disc. Your Spec 1 was just a full face stock type organic disc replacement clutch

CattleAc

iTrader: (7)

Clutch...yada, yada, yada...

That's all I heard after I read this...

All kidding aside, I think you can buy a Kevlar based organic lining Spec disc for about $150. That's not really a bargain, but better than a whole clutch kit...

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

Appreciate the feedback guys. I'll check out a release bearing.

Dont some people say that you're not supposed to be able to resurface a LS1 flywheel?

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

I saw clutch discs advertised on Summit. The ones I saw were centrforce and said they need a centerforce PP. Does anyone make a "performance" clutch disc that works with the factory PP? I'd like it to be at least a taaad snappier than the factory setp grip wise.

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

I had a monster stage 3 and hated it, it really is like a light switch, just on and off no in between. I had no issues with my ls7 clutch, it was great until it just stopped working one day (lots of miles and track passes on it). Chances are your flywheel and pressure plate that are in there have some serious heat marks/warpage after that "burnout." Luk clutches are factory replacement so that would probably be your best route.

Summitracing

The Centerforce discs do require a Centerforce PP. We do not offer an aftermarket performance disc that will work with your stock PP. We do have a replacement disc from GM Performance but it is pricey and not in stock. We understand your point of wanting to do this on the cheap but from our experience of just trying to replace the disc and nothing else it doesn't always pan out. Not re-surfacing or buying a new flywheel is just asking for chatter and poor clamping and nobody likes that. Plus we all like being out and enjoying our cars on the weekends, not working on them. You said yourself " I am thinking of selling the car and I would like to enjoy it for a bit before I do." As we see it you have a few options on how you want to go about this.

Option 1: Source a disc to work with your stock pressure plate and flywheel not changing the flywheel or having the flywheel re-surfaced and hope for the best. Plus side to this option is you could sell the Monster clutch kit and Tick master cylinder.

Option 2: You have that Monster Level 3 clutch that you have had laying around. If it is just the clutch kit itself and no flywheel you would at least need the flywheel re-surfaced or a new one. We have a Mcleod MCL-450530 if you went with a new flywheel. For added insurance it would be good idea to replace the pilot bearing ADO-CT1078 and slave/throwout bearing assembly from LUK Clutch LUK-LSC265B which is around the same price as a throwout bearing by itself. If you don't already have a clutch alignment tool they are cheap and make life a lot easier when installing a new clutch. We have the RNB-14523 from Dorman. With a little more work go ahead and install that Tick master cylinder, the clutch will be happier with it. If you decide not to use the Tick master cylinder then you could sell it.The clutch being a puck/pad style is likely to chatter some. If your ok dealing with some chatter for a bit before you sell the car then we would recommend to go this route. The plus side of this route is it will help the re-sell for someone that wants to buy this and immediately start modding the car since they will already have a clutch that will hold up to 700 whp/700 wtq.

Option 3: The LS7 route. Tried and true great clutch upgrade for these cars. We have them as a kit from LUK Clutch part number LUK-04-905 which has a 600 lbs.-ft at the flywheel torque rating.This comes with the disc, pressure plate, required flywheel when swapping onto an LS1, pilot bushing and alignment tool. This will basically have the same characteristics of your stock clutch but handle quite a bit more power. We would also recommend to install the LUK-LSC265B slave/throwout bearing unit with this as well. Again, if you have that Tick master cylinder laying around it would be smart and beneficial to the clutch performance to go ahead and install it. This LS7 clutch option will also be helpful for you to sell the car to anyone that is familiar with the 4th Gen F-body. A plus side to this option is you could sell the Monster clutch kit and the Tick master cylinder if you decided not to use it.

In the end it is your choice to go the route you want to go and you can use our recommendations as purely suggestions. Good luck with your 4th Gen.

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

Thanks Summit. The Tick master is new and I could sell it. I haven't had any be the common issues people say they have. If it ain't broke.....

Monster stage 3 and slave were in a car already for about 1000 miles. USED CLUTCH!!!!!!! Guy said his wife couldn't adust to it so it always got chattery. Disc has tons of material on it. Flywheel has a.few slight spots of bluing. I think it's fiNE. But may he hard to sell. What about using the monster FW and PP with another clutch disc. Options?

Mgill

iTrader: (4)

Call monster and see if a stage two clutch disk will work with the stage 3 pp and flywheel and if it will work see if they will sell just a stage 2 clutch disk?

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

Yeah. Thought of that as I was typing my last post. Might be a good idea.

Chris25

iTrader: (1)

Last time I called and asked Monster Clutch told me they would only do so If I sent the old one back as they dont sell the clutch's individually they only sell them as a kit.