Need Street Rod Clutch Advice

[JGK95]

Hydraulic or Mechanical. Discuss.

2004 Viper Trans to a Chevy Small block 355 ci.

Engine by blueprint over at Jegs.

Blueprint Engines BP3830CTC - Blueprint Engines SB-Chevy 383ci/ 405HP/ 440TQ - JEGS

Who's Clutch and what kind??

Thanks,

Jay K.

[Monzsta]

Depends on the bellhousing, bud. Are you using an adapter plate or a genuine T-56 bellhousing?

[Monzsta]

Here's the clutch I used. But using my car's stock bellhousing limited me to a 10.5" clutch.
Real light pedal, easy to drive. Survives moderate/hard abuse well. I have over 50 6500 rpm drag strip clutch drops on slicks with it and countless street beatings. I did overheat it a few times and it did slip, but once I let it cool down it was fine.

http://www.need-4-speed.com/centerforce.htm

DF161057 10.5" Dual Friction Clutch Disc & Pressure Plate(26-Spline) $389.99

[JGK95]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Originally Posted by Monzsta

Depends on the bellhousing, bud. Are you using an adapter plate or a genuine T-56 bellhousing?

Great question! How does a T56 bell housing help / hinder the driveline characteristics?

[Monzsta]

MODULAR BELL HOUSING

vs an adapter plate and conventional flywheel, not much. The Modular bellhousings take all the guesswork out of the proper depth of the shaft. You just center it, bolt it up and rock on.

I put my tranny in back in 2000, before the T-56 "craze" hit, so I was forced to make my own plate, and learned the hard way about centering the trans to the engine, shaft depth, ect. ect.

I lopped off 1/2" off the pilot snout, milled off 3/8" from the front transmission plate, (later found to be unnecessary) had a bronze pilot bearing machined to .750" id and a few other pain in the ass things to get it to work.

Now you can buy the plates, Here's an article.
Chevrolet 305 ci Engine Build - Tech Article - Chevy High Performance Magazine

[Monzsta]

In retrospect, I would have definately went with a hydraulic "slip-on" throwout bearing assy. I didn't even look to see if the Viper's own throwout bearing would have worked, that could have saved me a bunch of trouble.

[JGK95]

On the phone with Jegs.com right now learning.



Jay K.

[JGK95]

Monzsta,

Here's what I've got from Jegs online assembled.

Jay,

Here’s a brief re-cap of what we discussed on the phone tonight:

673-8710-16 McLeod Modular Bellhousing

183-700102 Centerforce Flywheel

183-CFT361675 Centerforce Pressure Plate

183-384161 Centerforce Clutch Disc

798-78130 Ram Hydraulic Throwout Bearing**



** The very helpful guy at Jegs.com mentioned that this is the proper size to fit the collar on the trans, but didn't have a way of checking to make 100% sure of this.


They really know their stuff and are very helpful. The guy I spoke to was a big time fan of drag racing, so I knew I was talking to the right person!!



What do you guys think of that Centerline clutch? Is Mcleod a better clutch than Centerline?

Thanks,

Jay K.