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Clutch for Mustang T5 Advice

LeedomtoFreedom

New member
Joined
Oct 11, 2017
Location
Ingleside
Long story short, did the t5 swap, got a clutch from clutchnet, slipped to hell so I tried to get another made, the guy from clutchnet ghosted me so I filed a case through paypal, now I'm getting a refund and I need a new clutch.

Questions

1. I have an 215mm flywheel. Is it costly to have it redrilled for a 228mm pressure plate. Is it worth it to get the extra surface. I've had this past clutch slip so I don't want another, but I'm not made of money.

2. Where's the best place to get a clutch made. I'll never use clutchnet again. I've heard good things from southbend clutch, and some mixed reviews from spec and some other places. Need some input from those who have used the companies. \

My power levels aren't crazy 200hp-300hp atm.

I know there's 100 posts about this and I've checked through most. Just need some answers.
 
I highly suggest going 228. I'm currently using the kennedy stage 2 plate with a stock ford t bird turbo clutch and it's holding burnouts and highway pulls on a 15G with cam at 15psi with no issue.

I'm hesitant to recommend the kennedy because you'll need weird spacers and stuff (not sure I have it all figured out yet tbh) but you can also use the saab pressure plate (2001/2/3 Saab 9-3 Aero). Might swap to that (I have it).

Josh's stuff is supposedly excellent as well for the 215. But it was mad expensive for my purposes.
 
I'm leaning towards southbend since I'm in Chicago, I'd be able to pick it up since I'm in a time crunch and need it quick.

I've never heard of Kennedy clutch. I've seen a lot of people do the saab pp but I don't know how much it"ll cost or how long it'll take to get that work done.
 
I mean, you order the Saab PP from wherever (eeuroparts) and that's that.

Kennedy makes PP for like VW/Porsche/Subaru conversions. JohnV swears by them since it's a "known value" PP. I went with them bc I have his flywheel and it seemed easy. I didn't have all the info and it's not really straight forward. The Saab plate has been traditionally hard to get but it's just the stock plate so... stock parts means easy. Southbend apparently does fine work... no idea personally though.
 
I've used South bend for my T5 swap, no issues with slip so far and also for my Toyota matrix twice. They know what they're doing.

ARe you on the 228 or 215?

I think one of the biggest challenges is the clutch with this swap since so many people have so many different goals... we end up with a lot of good info that isn't specific enough.
 
yeah, I don't think any sort of good pattern about what works and what doesn't work has emerged.

What I did on mine:
- JohnV billet flywheel
- Saab 9000 Aero 240mm clutch
- Spec clutch stage 2+

They put an option for a Ford T5 spline on their website: http://www.specclutch.com/cars/Saab/9000/1995/Single

It was pricey, but I'd not been all that happy with the Clutchnet setup I had prior on my stock dogdish flywheel. I figured (but never had to find out) that if one company sold the disc and the pressure plate as a set, and said it would handle XXX ft-lbs, they might be more likely to help out if it didn't.

As it turned out, no problems with it. The car has been making 300 - 350 whp (varies with the seasons and tunes) and the clutch has not been an issue in the slightest. The 240mm disc is as much (conventional single plate) disc as you can physically fit into the Volvo bellhousing, and the larger diameter means it uses less clamping force to get the torque handling, which means the clutch pedal action feels normal, not heavy at all.
 
John that's just the clutch disc though correct (on that site)? Those 240 pressure plates have been hard to come by. Heck... I ordered 2 of the Saab 228's and waited months to get them separately.
 
That's a disc and pressure plate.

IMG_9490.jpg
 
Would I kick myself in the future if I don't get my flat flywheel drilled for a 228. I've read that the difference between 215 and 228 isn't a huge difference if you're getting a quality clutch. Do I have the option to get my flat flywheel drilled for a 240mm?
 
Would I kick myself in the future if I don't get my flat flywheel drilled for a 228. I've read that the difference between 215 and 228 isn't a huge difference if you're getting a quality clutch. Do I have the option to get my flat flywheel drilled for a 240mm?

I've got a bunch of flat flywheels and have considered having them re-drilled but if the extra meat provided is negligible. I'd like to hear from others experience as well. The particular car I'm working isn't a performance build so if I can avoid a re-drill, that would be great.
 
I never even bothered going with a 215 so maybe take my info with salt but...

From what I've gathered, anyone wanting to go 215 requires doing a custom clutch to hold the power. If you go to 228 the option to have a normal amount of pedal pressure still exists and you can still use plenty of regular discs. My clutch disc is just some regular ole disc from a Ford Thunderbird 2.3 turbo. It's sprung organic. It costs like $60. Since that was my consumable, I wanted to have my options there. (I think I mentioned it but I'm on a 15G TLAO and IPD cam at 15psi) Clutch holds no problem with my Kennedy Stage 2 PP, but as I said, I don't really like it and might revert to the Saab to see if it works.

If it were me and I were doing it again, I'd be certain to get a 228/240 dual bolt pattern flywheel. There's no reason I'd bother with a 215 setup.

In fact the ONLY reason I can think of is that it's simply what you've got. But if you're going to take your flywheel to the shop to have it skimmed anyway, the extra cost of drilling it would be well worth it.
 
Update. Spoke to Dave at Southbend clutch. I specified all of the details and he said he could make a kit that could handle 375ft-lbs for around $450 using the 215mm setup. He said a similar setup for a 9" clutch would be about $400 but hold the same power. Maybe it's not worth the re-drilling. Would that kind of rating be okay for a 300-350hp car?
 
Depends on how you drive it. Does handling 375 ft/lbs mean that you have your foot off the clutch and you plant the pedal, it spools and makes 375 ft/lbs somewhere along the RPM range and doesn't slip, or you're flat-shifting at 7000 RPM and you want that clutch to grab and clamp and haul the motor back down to 4000 rpm in the next gear while it's already making 350 hp?

I may have done a bit of overkill with my clutch - Spec says 509 ft lbs, but I wanted to make sure it didn't slip on a drag strip shift.
 
Depends on how you drive it. Does handling 375 ft/lbs mean that you have your foot off the clutch and you plant the pedal, it spools and makes 375 ft/lbs somewhere along the RPM range and doesn't slip, or you're flat-shifting at 7000 RPM and you want that clutch to grab and clamp and haul the motor back down to 4000 rpm in the next gear while it's already making 350 hp?

Honestly this car is mostly just my street racer. I want to take it to some autocross in the summer but I'm not even thinking about that. I've just bought a clutch from clutchnet and after it took 3 weeks to make, it slipped, and then it took another 3 weeks for basically nothing to happen. I just want to buy a clutch and do it right this time.
 
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