Hi all

choosing a clutch kit is absolutely doing my head in. especially if you live in Australia (like I do).

im building a turbo 1.8 with a goal of around 300whp.

being in Australia means my kit choices are limited to the local market (exedy and xtreme) and ebay.

ultimately I want an FM2 kit with the lightest flywheel, but they dont ship to Australia :(

I have a small list of wants:
* ultra light flywheel
* not too heavy pedal (heavier than stock is fine)
* be able to slip the clutch (would like the wife to drive it every now and then so i guess a full face sprung is what i need).


So my choices are

Competition Clutch Stage 3. I've not read a single review about this kit! Stage 2 i feel is too soft and stage 4 is too bitey (6 puck).

ACT ZM2-XTSS. This was my number one choice until I read how heavy the clutch pedal is. Of course its all just words and unfortunately there is no one I know in Australia that has this setup for me to test out.

If i had to pick between light pedal with a savage engagement or a heavy pedal and a more sedate engagement, I would go with the heavier pedal.

there are a couple of local choices which I might explore, but I'd like to see if their are any proven off the shelf solutions which are available to me.

One more question, the XTD Prolite Flywheel. Are they ok? They seem awfully cheap and I know of some people in Aus that have had stupid luck with their clutches, but no real comments about their flywheel.

thanks for reading

PS: FM, send me a Happy Meal to Australia please!!!

 

XTD- no, no nonononon... no
CC- meh

Having said that I have the XT pressure plate, but the 1.6. Not sure how different they are between the 1.6 and 1.8, but pedal effort is minimal over stock. My daily Subaru stock clutch still takes more effort. Its really not hard, at all. Yes more than stock, but stock was so light sometimes I thought it was broken.

 

I run ebay XTD lightweight flywheel, no problems.

 

I daily drive an ACT XT pressure plate in urban traffic. People who say it's too heavy are weaklings.

 

how would you describe the XT pressure plate, err, pressure?

is it just difficult (or harder) to push down, or does it also want to spring back with a vengence?

ive had heavier clutches before on other cars. most just required extra force to push down, but were linear on uptake.

ive driven some cars where the clutch was slightly harder to push down, but wanted to spring back twice as hard. this is kinda what i dont want!

does changing CMC's help at all or is a regular thing thats done?

 

I assume cmc = master? Not something I've seen done often, the slaves are weak and would probably 'splode every other month instead of every six...


You might ask someone on the forum to relay you a new FM2 if that's what you really want. If you grab the flywheel elsewhere maybe it wouldn't suck too hard on shipping.

 

thanks. yeah, clutch master cylinder.

i've ping FM an email to see how much lube ill need for the international shipping

 

Itll suck really hard on shipping. Aus is not cheap, just sent a few things there that were half the size of a clutch and weighed less, and came out to $100.

Im ok with the cheap FWs- F1, XTD, etc. I was just talking about thier discs and PPs.

I recall the XT plate being pretty linear.

 

Also, would it help if I told you my 115lb wife has no issues with it? I asked her if she thought the clutch pedal was stiff when i first got it, and her response was something like "what are you talking about".

 

yeah

im leaning more to the ACT side if the Happy Meal stuff doesnt come through.

heard really nothing but good things about them



I've heard some horror stories about the XTD clutches, but nothing really on their flywheels.

Have heard some bad stuff about the F1 flywheels however.

 

My gf said the same thing about the twin disc though...pretty sure I've said this before, but what your SO says about your clutch/suspension says more about her/him than the part

 

100lb women can drive the XTSS just fine. It's not a heavy clutch pedal at all. It just doesn't flop around like the stock ones. It feels right. You can actually feel the clutch in a way the stock clutch doesn't allow.