Killed a Spec 3+ in under a year

[Nazman]

I had the same stuff happen to my SPEC 3+ I was running.

Is not SPECS fault, since every time you do a burn out WITHOUT a line lock you put SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much strees on the disk/flywheel thats insane. The heat generated is beyond what the material can take, and fuzes to the FW.

If you go more than once per month to the drags then I highly recomend a line lock. If you want to do rolling burnouts and put on the show then you got to pay the price and you just did.

The stage 3+ is a great clutch, but as any clutch they hate heat!

My .02

Naz

 

[Nazman]

I have heard good things about RAM clutches, and of course the twin disks.

I hear they are nice units. Specially thier all out race systems. After my SPEC 3+ fuzed to my Fidenza friction disk I tried a McLeod 800 Series "strip/street" set up. This is thier higher end before going either dual disk or sinter iron.

The cluch was a beauty to drive. Driveability was stock like and hold it good but only lasted 10 passes at the track. This was launching at 6800RPMs Nitrous lunches on slicks. The cluch actually desintegrated and all, and I mean all of the friction surface as gone. I only had the bare metalic backing of the cluch. :rockon: When I dropped the tranny, it looked like a chicken exploted inside the bellhousing and there were lots and lots of "fether like" stuff from the organic/kevlar material. Funny!

Now, I have been running a Clutch Masters FX450 "High Rev" clutch. This is a 6 puck style, and holds like a MF but on traffic...it sucks!

Naz

 

[69Mach1351w]

Nazman thanks for the input. The decision on clutches will be made soon, but Ill say now that the Steel flywheel is ordered. People seem to like them alot again over aluminum, and being only 9lbs heavier its not a huge loss.

I know the price is paid for show, but it was late at night, only me in the car at the end of a road.

I just hope with all the money and revised parts this thing will hold up. Putting the trans in 4 times and taking it down 3 kind of sucked.

 

[SicStang03]

will a steel fly wheel not help out in hot situations like this??

 

[03yllwguy]

I have a resurfaced stock alum. f/w, and the 26 spline i/s. I hate my dfx because regardless of if it's warmed up or cold, the clutch chatters to the point it violently shakes the car. In reverse, the car is friggin rediculous. I daily drive mine in traffic and can't stand the chatter. I don't drag the car, so longevity hasn't been an issue at the year mark. Yes, maybe it's the f/w, but I would not spend the $$ to try it out again with a diff f/w. And yes, the break in time was followed to a T. Just my experience, trying to help a brotha out.

 

[69Mach1351w]

Just my experience, trying to help a brotha out.

this is exactly what im asking for here, help and recommendation.


Although I didnt have bad chatter with the Spec setup, there still was some.

Chatter for the price of a long enough lasting clutch is worth it to me. Maybe it wont be as bad with the steel fly.

Many people have reported a similar problem with the spec's due to the alignment of the bellhousing. They called it the indexing of the bell housing. Im going to perform a search here to see what i can dig up. If anyone knows how to perform this and feels like typing it up here we all could benefit.

 

[jm@ReischePerf]

Honestly if I was you I would stick with a stock clutch if you can't afford a twin disc. At the power level you're running you should get decent service life out of it. The single disc setups just seem like there are too many compromises involved and I have read complaints and/or premature failures of every model/brand.

 

[ViciousJay]

try a steel flywheel... never had a n issue... much easiter to slip, hold higher int he RPMs and well its cooler :coolman:

 

[04torchred]

20,000-25,000 kms on my spec 3+ with daily powershifts, stop and go traffic, and a few burnouts. No problems with mine so far. How often have you been checking your adjustment and what sort of free play did you have at the TOB?

 

[svtnos1011]

im still on my stock clutch and gone over 40 passes easily if not more and have 40k miles on it. stock pullied/eaton car and ive gone 11.97 w/ the stocker:shrug:

 

[69Mach1351w]

20,000-25,000 kms on my spec 3+ with daily powershifts, stop and go traffic, and a few burnouts. No problems with mine so far. How often have you been checking your adjustment and what sort of free play did you have at the TOB?

to check the free play I popped off the dust cover/ clutch fork cover and made sure it was withing 1/8th of an inch from the fingers to the TOB. To adjust this i had installed a Fiore firewall adjuster and quadrant.

Well the DFX + steel fly + new TOB and clutch fork are in order. This weekend will be judgement day on the chatter issues!

 

[Jerryk]

I've got a DFX disk (26 spline) never installed I'll sell cheap if you want to try it out, I heard too much crap to bother putting it in my car. I have a Centerforce LM w/ the standard Centerforce DF pressure plate and a SPEC flywheel. I had SPEC 3i and hated it and it gave up the ghost at the track. The CF LM for under 600rwhp is the way to go IMO. It will slip some at the track (both on the launch and each powershift) so you won't attain ultimate ET (1.65 60' on slicks being the best) but it recovers from the abuse and stink and holds great on the street with great pedal feel and zero chatter. I ran the LM @ 500rwhp and abused the piss out of it every chance I got always powershifting. T56 took a dump, the clutch didn't. I resurfaced the PP and put a new LM disk on just because the trans was apart and now I'm at 600rwhp and its still holding but its also holding on for dear life and I have no expectations of its longevity if I take it to the track. So far on the street its holding w/ Hoosier 315's and 3.73 gears in a full weight 03'.

 

[BigMase363]

bump for my best friend needing advice, he needs advice not criticism DFX and any other clutch your gonna get mixed reviews on anything but you always need to do it for yourself and see what happens with your own clutch, like that dude who has the 600+ hp and still hasnt had prob. with his clutch, your 1 in a million and lucky as balls, hopefully this DFX is gonna hold up if not I WILL pay for a new clutch buddy :beer::rockon:

 

[IronTerp]

bump for my best friend needing advice, he needs advice not criticism DFX and any other clutch your gonna get mixed reviews on anything but you always need to do it for yourself and see what happens with your own clutch, like that dude who has the 600+ hp and still hasnt had prob. with his clutch, your 1 in a million and lucky as balls, hopefully this DFX is gonna hold up if not I WILL pay for a new clutch buddy :beer::rockon:

I haven't really seen the criticism here.....But plenty of advice. There is tons of clutch information on this board as it's such an important factor with these high torque, heavy cars of ours. While the DFX has been a reasonably popular clutch with the Terminator fellas, it also has a fairly common failure rate that SHOULD be taken into consideration. Do a search on the subject. Can see why there would be a hesitation to go back to Spec because of the failure, but if you tore up a 3+, I'd be very HESITANT to put a DFX in there.. May want to consider one of the Ram kits.

 

[Crazy1]

Am I the only one that thinks that wear looks odd? Its contact patch where its hot is very thin like the clutch was only enguaging in a small area on that clutch which would definitly explain its look. Could be that flywheel surface was not flat, clutch disc was not flat, or the pressure plate was not flat. Could also be the pressure plate was not on there even.

I think it looks very odd, and would definitely give spec a call and shoot them the pictures.
B

 

[IronTerp]

Am I the only one that thinks that wear looks odd? Its contact patch where its hot is very thin like the clutch was only enguaging in a small area on that clutch which would definitly explain its look. Could be that flywheel surface was not flat, clutch disc was not flat, or the pressure plate was not flat. Could also be the pressure plate was not on there even.

I think it looks very odd, and would definitely give spec a call and shoot them the pictures.
B

Yeah, that strip down the center is rather odd. But I'd expect an issue at the top or bottom of the metal contact area is it was an issue of being warped or crooked installation. Down the center would indicate more of an issue with the materials?

 

[69Mach1351w]

In regards to the wear patch. I have no idea either. I would think they were flat, the flywheel was new from fidanza, and the PP and clutch were new from spec. Maybe it was more of a material issue as Iron Terp has said.

Thanks for the help and recommendation guys. Ill try to post the results here once the install and everything is finished.

 

[03yellow]

didnt care for my spec 3 lasted 6 months of (chatter)
My DFX fell apart after 3 months

Running a Ram for over 1yr now ...love it

 

[03yellow]

The pucks on the dfx will not last very long... a very cheap set up /grabby/ chatter/I would try to get a Ram clutch or at the least get the dual frictionclutch. If you were my best friend (or my worst enemy)I would never let you put the DFX in your car. When we took out the DFX after 3 months at HPP we all had a good laugh at the poor quality of the puck set up.
HPP is recomends the RAM....I see why now.

Pleas dont put the DFX in your Cobra!!

to check the free play I popped off the dust cover/ clutch fork cover and made sure it was withing 1/8th of an inch from the fingers to the TOB. To adjust this i had installed a Fiore firewall adjuster and quadrant.

Well the DFX + steel fly + new TOB and clutch fork are in order. This weekend will be judgement day on the chatter issues!

 

[69Mach1351w]

well shit, the DFX is in. Of course i wont know anything until after i break it in. It actually feels great, and is much lighter on the pedal effort than the spec. Well, in all honesty, not much lighter, but a noticeable difference.

Install took maybe 2.5 - 3 hours. Due to the occasional beer break/ union break.

This is the setup for now:
Centerforce DFX + pressure plate
Zoom steel flywheel
Heavy duty TOB (dont know the brand)
TSB front trans case from ford ($300+ !!!!)
New clutch fork
Fiore firewall + quadrant.
Stock clutch cable
GM syncromesh fluid.

As of now....
It shifts much, much smoother. Also with the spec 3+ the firewall adjuster was damn near impossible to twist. With the DFX its effortless and very adjustable! So thats a plus at this time.

Ill see how it is after 500 miles!