Race clutch

[greendart408]

I know the answer but would like to hear some opinions from racers on their opinions. Car in question, think day 2 old school build. Car combo, 69 340 swinger stock weight, 340ci, 13.39comp, ported w2s, strip dom, .641 solid roller, scatter shield, ram rod etc etc. 4.88 gear, 28 tall tire. Standard 1st gear 69 833 non slick or face plated. Shift at 7 plus, has a borg and beck organic clutch as that’s what I had to get it going. It seized the input in the pilot bushing as it wasn’t a good bronze unit. Was in the crank when I got it. Anyhow as I have it apart to fix that the clutch is pretty fragged from the 12 or 13 passes I have on it. I’m hard on it and am mechanically slipping it out to keep the motor in the proper rpm to 60ft decent. The disk is obviously not thrilled with it.
What clutch combo would you run that can take some high rpm off the line abuse and not need replaced every 20 passes and that’s not 2500 plus dollars. Prolly no such thing but thought I would get you racers that do this’s opinion on the subject at hand.
Also maybe 10 street miles per yr and a clutch that won’t need driven for 500 miles to make happy as that would take me 20yrs to make happen.
Lets hear it from you racers…..

 

[jimjimjimmy]

@Newbomb Turk

 

[Newbomb Turk]

I know the answer but would like to hear some opinions from racers on their opinions. Car in question, think day 2 old school build. Car combo, 69 340 swinger stock weight, 340ci, 13.39comp, ported w2s, strip dom, .641 solid roller, scatter shield, ram rod etc etc. 4.88 gear, 28 tall tire. Standard 1st gear 69 833 non slick or face plated. Shift at 7 plus, has a borg and beck organic clutch as that’s what I had to get it going. It seized the input in the pilot bushing as it wasn’t a good bronze unit. Was in the crank when I got it. Anyhow as I have it apart to fix that the clutch is pretty fragged from the 12 or 13 passes I have on it. I’m hard on it and am mechanically slipping it out to keep the motor in the proper rpm to 60ft decent. The disk is obviously not thrilled with it.
What clutch combo would you run that can take some high rpm off the line abuse and not need replaced every 20 passes and that’s not 2500 plus dollars. Prolly no such thing but thought I would get you racers that do this’s opinion on the subject at hand.
Also maybe 10 street miles per yr and a clutch that won’t need driven for 500 miles to make happy as that would take me 20yrs to make happen.
Lets hear it from you racers…..

Exactly what pressure plate do you have? The Borg & Beck/Long cover is the easiest to shift but a B&B will certainly work.

If you don’t want to spend 2200 plus on a clutch (I would call Rob Youngblood at Advanced Clutches before I did anything else because he may change your mind) use what you have.

I would stay with the organic disc and get the plate pressure to 2200-2400 pounds and send it.

IMO an aluminum flywheel is a MUST. You don’t need all that extra rotational inertia of the steel wheel.

Ultimately a clutch from someone like Rob will be quicker and faster than anything else out there. And it’s far more tunable than what you have.

I should say this. If you don’t have a window in your bell housing I’d get one in it. Otherwise you really have limited options for tuning.

When I was racing I ended up with a B&B/Long cover from McLeod and I used a sintered iron disc. I started out with 1000 pounds of pressure. I’d put 10-12 passes on it and then I’d pull the clutch and drop it down to about 800 pounds. After another 10-12 passes I’d pull the clutch again and drop it down to about 660 pounds. Then I’d get another 120-125 passes out of the disc.

You can do that if you don’t mind pulling the can all the time. I could get the clutch out in my car in about 40 minutes.

 

[greendart408]

I don’t know exactly what the pressure plate is. Was allegedly called a borg warner power brute clutch from the 70s is all I know. I haven’t been able to wrangle up any info on it using that info tho. It honestly works great just isn’t lasting as long as I would like. I would like to stay along the lines of what I’ve got as this car is my 30yrs of using up my old race car parts stash lol. Rob will be my 1st call as my buddy has one of his clutches in his scamp with my old w5 motor. Works great, just trying to keep the cost down with this particular car if possible. The pressure plate needs re machined imop too now it looks like. I wonder if Rob would do that and set the pressures up. I will have to call him. Also a non issue for me to install window if need be. An organic will need to be broken in tho is my only downfall to that. I agree it would be faster with one of his adj clutches. This thing is kind of a pooch to me imop and it’s all in the clutch/ 60ft tuning. Thanks for your response

 

[Newbomb Turk]

I don’t know exactly what the pressure plate is. Was allegedly called a borg warner power brute clutch from the 70s is all I know. I haven’t been able to wrangle up any info on it using that info tho. It honestly works great just isn’t lasting as long as I would like. I would like to stay along the lines of what I’ve got as this car is my 30yrs of using up my old race car parts stash lol. Rob will be my 1st call as my buddy has one of his clutches in his scamp with my old w5 motor. Works great, just trying to keep the cost down with this particular car if possible. The pressure plate needs re machined imop too now it looks like. I wonder if Rob would do that and set the pressures up. I will have to call him. Also a non issue for me to install window if need be. An organic will need to be broken in tho is my only downfall to that. I agree it would be faster with one of his adj clutches. This thing is kind of a pooch to me imop and it’s all in the clutch/ 60ft tuning. Thanks for your response

I’d call Rob and tell him what you just posted. Im sure he can get you going with what you have and not spend a ton of money.

I have a buddy who raced stick cars. Today he has a power glide so in one of his marriages he lost his ball’s but Thats a different discussion.

Anyway, he always used an organic disc and very low plate pressure. I met him in 1980ish and I was running 3200 pounds and he was running 2000ish.

He also had three discs. One in the car, one on the shelf rebuilt and ready to go and a third being rebuilt. Of course, that was when you could get a disc rebuilt. Today you’d probably just buy new discs and skip the freight and other nonsense.

To that end, he would replace the disc every 75-100 runs. And he never broke parts. And it was reliable.

But, I will say this. That was in the early 1980’s and he and I we a damn lot younger then. That kind of labor today would make me run an automatic.

You can make what you have work. Thats not a bad thing. I will suggest again if you don’t have an aluminum flywheel that you front for one of those. It’s just easier on parts and it opens up your tuning window a bit.

 

[greendart408]

Thank you for your insight, I will call Him. I have a w8,f2 procharged auto, 69 swinger race car that sits in the garage. I like to play with the sticks now. Way more fun