Key Questions to Ask When Ordering Clutch Plate

08 Apr.,2024

 

Stock plate and puck disk is awesome. You get the additional grip, and the ability to slip without burning up a disk like you can with fiber, but you have quick engagement unlike aftermarket pressure plares that tend to have the motion ratios all screwed up and you have to put your left foot through the front bumper to shift.

I've also run 225mm pressure plate/flywheel with 215mm disk on an RX-7 when my friend kept ordering eBay clutch parts for an '83 engine and they kept sending '79-82 clutch parts. One of my used pressure plates saved the day.

Flywheels

The final step in deciding your clutch and flywheel set-up is what type of flywheel to run with the different clutches. Let’s start by discussing the weight of the stock RSX Type S flywheel, it is approximately 16 pounds. There’s only one reason stock flywheels are heavy, and that’s because car engineers design them to be that way. Car manufacturers want manual transmission vehicles to have a consistent and easy driving feel when stock. Increasing performance of an engine by lightening or reducing rotating mass is a relatively simple process, but there are trade-offs. Aftermarket clutch manufacturers usually produce two types of flywheels: lightweight and ultra lightweight. The lightweight flywheels produced for the K series come in at a modest 11.5 pounds which frees up approximately 4.5 pounds and adds a little bit of top end horsepower but still maintains the lower end drivability. This is our most highly recommend flywheel weight because it doesn’t completely sacrifice the comfort of a stock weight flywheel but allows for better engine response and top end horse power. The ultra-lightweight flywheels come in at 8 pounds and are made by a few manufacturers, these are approximately half of the weight of a stock flywheel. You will notice increase engine response and a moderate horsepower gain on the top end. With so much reduced weight in the clutch assembly drivability in stop and go traffic becomes an issue. The reduced mass requires more rpm to get the car moving as the clutch drags on the flywheel harder, because of the reduced weight. Another side effect of a lighter flywheel is commonly referred to as clutch chatter. It’s a sharp vibration in the clutch assembly that transfers as noise through the chassis and feels like something is vibrating loose. Clutch chatter can also be caused by increased pressure plate clamp loads and clutch discs used in the clutch kits, and is not always a result of the flywheel you have selected.

Key Questions to Ask When Ordering Clutch Plate

How to Choose a Clutch