Ok, so I just totally exploded my Exedy Racing clutch. I tracked it 3 times, and that was the end of it. I did put about 100,000km on it, but after the 3rd track day it shattered. A spring was about the come out, metal pieces broke off, and it was rubbing on the pressure plate causing a groove about 1/8 - 3/16" deep (NOT GOOD!).
So I did my research and bought a Competition Clutch - Stage 3. And damn this is a nice clutch!!!! looks much beefier! It has steel straps holding the crimped metal tabs where the spring is placed so those tabs won't end away and let the spring pop out. Something that the Exedy and OEM clutch does not have. Also the throwout bearing looks nicer. Everything just look like it's better quality. For the flywheel, this time i replaced the steel insert on the Fidanze flywheel. So the 20 or so bolts had to be removed to get the new one on. The replaceable friction surface came with new hardware and loctite. It took about 1.5hrs to get the old friction surface off since the old bolts were almost welded on together. I actully had to drill some of them out. Drilling too deep wasn't an issue because I was only drilling into the old friction surface which was getting thrown away anyways. The new friction surface went on without a problem with the new hardware. 7ft-lbs was all each bolt took. since there's no press fit, and it's centered by the chamfered bolt patturn, I had them all hand tight, then torqued to 10 in-lbs in a criss-cross paturn to try and get it centered as best as possible since I was concerned about the balancing. I guess fidanza balenced the components indivituly, but not as an assy. So I wasn't going to make the flywheel any worse by not balencing it afterwards. Really that should be done for best results, but I'm sure it's ok not too since no one ever does. If i was building a high reving motor, then I would balance it for sure.
Ok, so the flywheels went on, and the clutch disk and pressure plate went on smooth too. and the tranny went in like butter and 3 hours later to car was back off the jack stands ready for a drive. My impressions,,,, WOW I LOVE THIS CLUTCH!!! Smooth as silk! no chatter at all. I'm still in the 500mile breakin period so I'm not beating on it. but it grabs quickly, but not like an on/off switch. so less grabby than a ceramic 6 puck, and much less than a twin disk. but more then the Exedy Racing. And because of this, it has great modulation to let you slip the clutch. Anyone can drive this car and seam like they've driven it for 10 years. It's that smooth and easy to drive. I let the clutch out a hair quicker a few days ago and I spun he wheels in the rain. So this clutch will grab real when I start testing it more. Oh - pedal effort... It's heavy! hevier then the stock clutch (of course) and Exedy Racing by a fair bit. I'm in Europe right now and I'm driving a Seat Leon, and the clutch pedal is SO SOFT! I was shocked after driving the Prelude with the comp clutch for a week. I feel like I can blow on the clutch and have it go in. Anyways, it's still streetable in my mind, but I've found myself talking my foot off the clutch and going into nutral at stop lights, where I'd never do this before.
Overall I'll give it a 10/10. Smooth, lots of bit, good quality, and apears to be made pretty heavy duty. We'll see after my first track day at Gingerman on April 30th. (PM me if you want to go!) or go to
www.3ballsracing.com for more details!
Glad to hear the Stage 3 is such a nice clutch, I was wondering how good it was! I run a CC Stage 4 6 puck cerametallic sprung clutch with a CC Ultralightweight flywheel and I'm very happy with the setup, although I'm sure yours engages more smoothly than mine.
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