Inital Impressions of TU Ultimate 4-puck Feramic Race Clutch Kit

[Ondonti]

For me, getting rid of the Fidanza flywheel was also a great choice. Too bad I put it into my daily. I am removing it now since I had to take the transmission out. Time to throw a junk t3 stock flywheel in there. The Fidanza insert material does not jive with clutch discs and one little overheat toasts it as far as drivability goes. One little overheat could be a small hill with an awesome person 1" from your bumper
One of Cindy's lightened flywheels would probably be much nicer for anyone looking at a stock style setup.

I don't expect my solid 3 puck to behave like a stock clutch but it is cool how hard you can feel it clamp yet it doesn't freak out when slipped. I do blame it for broken axles (since I don't have a driver mod). The moment you stop slipping, it locks up. Which means starting driving it again after 3 years has caused me to squeal the tires even in grandma mode.

Are these heavy clutch high rpm shifts that people are complaining about WOT shifts or lift shifts (fast/medium/slow). One problem I have with my 3 puck is that my engagement window is a bit large possibly from the spring assembly stretching out before the clutch actually starts disengaging. I blame the pressure plate for that. My stock plate 4 puck disengages with very little movement so with my foot used to driving that car, I have had problems using a clutch where I need to put it near the floor.

[turbovanman²]

For me, getting rid of the Fidanza flywheel was also a great choice. Too bad I put it into my daily. I am removing it now since I had to take the transmission out. Time to throw a junk t3 stock flywheel in there. .

Why a TIII flywheel? harder to find when its the same as a turbo 8 bolt flywheel except with notch's.

[Shadow]

Are these heavy clutch high rpm shifts that people are complaining about WOT shifts or lift shifts (fast/medium/slow).

I never WOT shifted that disc. Just with regular "fast" lift shifts I would feel the rough engagement, like the cable was pulling past a knuckle that was impeding it.

[Vigo]

Why a TIII flywheel? harder to find when its the same as a turbo 8 bolt flywheel except with notch's.

Pretty sure he just had it sitting around and figured it wasnt worth the effort to try and sell it and then buy a regular flywheel. Is there a market for tIII flywheels?

[Ondonti]

Pretty sure he just had it sitting around and figured it wasnt worth the effort to try and sell it and then buy a regular flywheel. Is there a market for tIII flywheels?

I guess not.

The temperature failure points of the feramic being a lot higher seems like a good investment. Less likely to fail in those situations where you might need to abuse it.
What exactly is the price difference?

[csxtra]

The temperature failure points of the feramic being a lot higher seems like a good investment. Less likely to fail in those situations where you might need to abuse it.
What exactly is the price difference?

I'm sure it will vary by clutch manufacturer, number of pucks, surface area of pucks, mark-up, etc. But on the TU 4 puck, it was $175 extra for the Feramic pucks over the Ceramic.

[turbovanman²]

Pretty sure he just had it sitting around and figured it wasnt worth the effort to try and sell it and then buy a regular flywheel. Is there a market for tIII flywheels?

TIII flywheels aren't exactly growing on tree's, worth a few bucks more than a regular as a regular one won't work on a real TIII and machining a stock flywheel to work probably isn't worth the cost.

[Chris W]

TIII flywheels aren't exactly growing on tree's, worth a few bucks more than a regular as a regular one won't work on a real TIII and machining a stock flywheel to work probably isn't worth the cost.

We have been machining TIII notches into 8-V flywheels for some time now for our lightened versions. It's not that difficult once the program is written and it's all set up.

Chris-TU

[turbovanman²]

We have been machining TIII notches into 8-V flywheels for some time now for our lightened versions. It's not that difficult once the program is written and it's all set up.

Chris-TU

Well there you go then,

[GLHNSLHT2]

How heavy is the stage 5 disc? That IS the sintered disc correct? (unsprung)

You May loose some holding power going from a higher friction (sintered Iron) to a slightly lower (ceramic/semi-metalic) material, but it wouldn't be much.

After everything I've learned, I would run the Superclamp + 3 or 4 puck (or even 6 if it was light enough) Solid hub disc before running any disc over 3lbs + HD PP for shifting above 7000rpm.

Trany Has to live First or your just shooting yourself in the foot IMO.

Weighed it on my doctors scale, just a hair over 4lbs but under 4.25lbs. Yes it's the sintered iron un sprung model. Here's an image:




I'm concerned with holding power because it's going to be behind a 2.5 16v Masi. But I'm starting the rev limiter at 7200rpms and I love to shift fast too.

- - - Updated - - -

For me, getting rid of the Fidanza flywheel was also a great choice. Too bad I put it into my daily. I am removing it now since I had to take the transmission out. Time to throw a junk t3 stock flywheel in there. The Fidanza insert material does not jive with clutch discs and one little overheat toasts it as far as drivability goes. One little overheat could be a small hill with an awesome person 1" from your bumper
One of Cindy's lightened flywheels would probably be much nicer for anyone looking at a stock style setup.

I don't expect my solid 3 puck to behave like a stock clutch but it is cool how hard you can feel it clamp yet it doesn't freak out when slipped. I do blame it for broken axles (since I don't have a driver mod). The moment you stop slipping, it locks up. Which means starting driving it again after 3 years has caused me to squeal the tires even in grandma mode.

Are these heavy clutch high rpm shifts that people are complaining about WOT shifts or lift shifts (fast/medium/slow). One problem I have with my 3 puck is that my engagement window is a bit large possibly from the spring assembly stretching out before the clutch actually starts disengaging. I blame the pressure plate for that. My stock plate 4 puck disengages with very little movement so with my foot used to driving that car, I have had problems using a clutch where I need to put it near the floor.

Not making the same power yet but I was doing 2nd gear burnouts at the track with my Fidanza and Spec Stage 3 in my daytona (3120lbs) and when I took it apart to build this new motor the clutch showed very little sign of wear. And the insert on the Fidanza looked almost brand new. For the amount of miles I put on that combo I would think it would of shown a lot more. I was very pleased with it and won't run a stock flywheel again if I can help it. Love that when you engage the starter with the Fidanza and the UDP the car sounds like a machine gun vs the slow wrrr wrrr wrrr of my Automatic 2.2 or even a stock flywheel and crank pulley car.

[Vigo]

doing 2nd gear burnouts at the track with my Fidanza and Spec Stage 3 in my daytona

What type of disc was that one?

[GLHNSLHT2]

What type of disc was that one?

their 6 puck sprung hub. http://www.specclutch.com/products

[iTurbo]

I noticed that just switching to the Nippondenso starter vs the Bosch most of our cars came with that it sounded like a machine gun starting up. Made the car sound much more like a modern car starting up.

I have a TU aluminum flywheel for the TIII which has a nickel coating on the outside perimeter which should enable the crank position sensor to 'see' it, but I'm wondering if anybody else out there has used one with good results? I may be the guinea pig for this one for all I know. If all else fails, I suppose I can swap to the lightened steel version with the TIII cutouts for the sensor Chris described.....but I hope I don't go through all the trouble of installation just to find it won't even start.

[Ondonti]

Reaper1 drove my 3 puck solid a few days ago and he seemed to like it. I am hoping to see if my already glazed 4 puck behaves better with a stock flywheel. Sanded all surfaces hoping to give it its best chance to function. The rivits are all red and blue and green and purple colored along with some other things. HOT. That may have happened while towing from a stop up a hill. I wonder how feramic would have handled that.

[slasky]

I have used the TU 4 puck ceramic with the blue plate for years. It is very streetable and handles 4500 rpm clutch dumps on slicks at the track. When I pulled it last year there was no real wear on the clutch, flywheel, or pressure plate.

[Reaper1]

Brent's 3-puck drove a lot nicer than I expected. Yes, it was very grabby, but in all I found it wasn't really all that bad. I think with a little time I could drive it easily anywhere. I'd certainly want to trade the pressure plate, though! It's nowhere near as bad as my old DDPP was, but with the release point being so close to the floor and it being a fairly stiff pedal, I'd much rather have a well sorted single plate with modded fulcrums.

In the end, for its intended purpose, the 3-puck wasn't nearly the "totally unstreetable on-off switch" that most think it would be. I really have no issue with it at all!

[Vigo]

Ive found the difference in engagement between 6puck and 4puck ceramic discs to be nil, or not consistent enough to even support the generalizations people make about pucks being any nicer or easier to drive and less being 'worse'. I've honestly found that motor mounts kind of make or brake the driveability of a 'grabby' clutch in these cars and with good mounts id expect a 3 puck to be better to drive in real life than most people's 4 and 6 pucks actually are if they have looser mounts. There are probably lots of people out there who have a 6 puck thinking "maybe i can live with this but i'd never put a 3 puck in" when in reality it would probably drive BETTER if you put good mounts in at the same time.

[Ondonti]

Brent's 3-puck drove a lot nicer than I expected. Yes, it was very grabby, but in all I found it wasn't really all that bad. I think with a little time I could drive it easily anywhere. I'd certainly want to trade the pressure plate, though! It's nowhere near as bad as my old DDPP was, but with the release point being so close to the floor and it being a fairly stiff pedal, I'd much rather have a well sorted single plate with modded fulcrums.

In the end, for its intended purpose, the 3-puck wasn't nearly the "totally unstreetable on-off switch" that most think it would be. I really have no issue with it at all!

I think I will reclock the clutch arm and get that cable adjuster changed a bit. Tough plates make the adjuster stretch out all the way until it binds then it presses the fingers on the plate. I think when my plate was new it was pulling the adjuster all the way till bindup when just sitting still. Hard to remember. I bet I am barely getting the clutch to disengage right now with it at the floor. It used to be near the top of the pedal stroke that it released. I probably didn't think out the extended clutch release arm well enough to make sure I still had proper foot travel.

Based upon some things I have learned recently, I don't think that clutch above will have any problems shifting at very high rpms with proper clutch disengagement and driving.