clutch upgrade....
the trailgear 1600lb clutch I put in last year has been slipping for awhile now, so after alot of research and balking @ the price of upgraded "performance" clutches I decided to go with a 5VZ-FE factory upgrade clutch....this will make clutch #4
.... to make it work I'm having a new late 22re flywheel machined to fit the 10" 5VZ clutch disc.... pressure plate already bolts to the flywheel fine (I used a 5VZ plate in my first "clutch experiment").... the new adaptation involves completely machining off the 9.25" clutch step and remachining the step for a 10" disc...also going with a .025 step instead of the factory .020.... the flywheel is also being remachined to fit the VW crank (new holes, center bore) ....here's a list of my clutch "experiments" :
#1 Used 5VZ-FE pressure plate on late 22re flywheel (9.25) sandwiching a 228mm "clutchnet" organic disc.... chattered like a naked hawaiian on the south pole....but never slipped one time....always had a good pedal and solid grip....when I removed the clutch all the springs in the disc were shattered
#2 (just because I had it on hand) brand new ACME flywheel for early 22re (8 7/8" clutch) with a brand new exedy clutch and pressure plate ....as soon as I hit 6lbs of boost I blew the clutch away.... babied it home and parked it until clutch
#3
....brand new 9 1/4 trailgear 1600lb clutch on a brand new late 22re flywheel freshly machined for the VW application....this clutch held up great for about four months until the winsboro GTG last summer and it saw 20lbs of boost from one of Jeff's tunes....slipped badly and I had to baby it to keep the slipping at bay....after the initial slipping run I swapped back out for a stock ECM ....all was good until I loaded one of VWmikel's tunes....when the torque ramps up @ around 1800 rpm the clutch will slip badly unless I tiptoe past the rise....
#4 (and hopefully final)...stock late 22re flywheel being machined for 10" disc with a .025" step....CTX-107 aisin pressure plate for a 5VZ-FE squeezin on a DTX-136 aisin 5VZ disc....both of these items are supposedly part of a tsb upgrade for late tacomas with slipping clutches .... hope to post positive findings within a week or two....
...my biggest reasons for going with a "stock" clutch are:
*pedal pressure (i wanted stock or near stock feel)
*pressure on the thrust...I'm really concerned that a high tension spring will eat up my thrust bearing especially during trail use where lots of clutch action can take it's toll
*chatter....seems like everyone is jumping on the puckwagon and I just don't dig the harshness of a multipuck clutch
*cost vs benefit.... alot of reading has revealed that sometimes you don't get what you pay for in a performance pressure plate....lots of "upgraded" plates are merely repainted heavy duty stock pieces marketed as performance....add a dual friction or puck clutch and you have a "high performance" (stock) clutch at a high performance price....
