New clutch arrived already - South Bend Clutch

[Jason84NA2T]

Talk about a fast turnaround. These guys built me a custom clutch and got it to my door in a little over 48 hours. I'm told I will be completely satisfied with it, and if not to simply give them a call.



SBC's own sintered iron full face "FE" series 240mm disc with sprung hub (250mm will be available in a month or so)
"SS" series modified pressure plate.
650+lb/ft torque capacity (250mm disc should be over 700 with same clamp load)
Pedal should be about like a ACT HD pressure plate.
New lining for the fidanza flywheel in there too.

It came with everything a clutch kit should; a quality koyo throwout bearing, alignment tool, pilot bushing.

Supposedly this should outclass every other single disc clutch on the market, yet still be street drivable, have three times or more the lifespan of a copper-ceramic 6 puck, more torque capacity and better engagement. I'll be finding out if this is all true. I hope to have time to install it in the next couple weeks.

I will be giving this thing a complete and thorough review as I beat the snot out of it. If it's everything they say it is, I will be recommending them in the future.

[Chris86NA2T]

please update when you get it installed.. care to reveal the price?

[cheezmonta]

This has me VERY interested! :shock:

Cuz I'm not crazy about the ACT 6-puck's solid hub or short life at all...
It was simply the best I could afford at the moment.

Hmm... I smell a possible group buy brewing in the future!

[G-E]

I talked to nisstex myself, they're looking into an upgrade as well they aren't a clutch mfgr just a nissan shop that deals with z's.... but they deal with all the names too, good chance they can come up with something

but damn that is quick .... 2 days for a custom job, they have no idea how much business they'll get out of it too haha

I think dan will have to go into some distribution agreement hehe

[Steve88t]

/me is feeling a little funny in the pants.

That looks pimp. If they cant get it right, big money time. :wink:

[z-flash]

what do you have planned for the stub axles? You going to try the modern motorsports route ?

[2+2turbo]

sexxxy , i will be in the market for a new clutch pretty soon , if the price is right then i wont go six puck....

[Jason84NA2T]

cheezmonta wrote: This has me VERY interested! :shock:

Cuz I'm not crazy about the ACT 6-puck's solid hub or short life at all...
It was simply the best I could afford at the moment.

Hmm... I smell a possible group buy brewing in the future!
Yeah, the ACT 6 puck is alright. It's about the best bang/buck in a clutch but has some big drawbacks. If you drive mostly city, you're lucky to get 8-10K miles out of them. The engagement and chatter is annoying on mine, as is the fact that it's now slipping when I cranked the boost on race gas.

A group buy could be put thgether, because at the $550 list price this unit is not quite as cheap as most people want.

I'm still somewhat skeptical that it will be everything I want it to be, so I'm not going to promote anything until I'm 100% satisfied.

Chris86NA2T wrote: please update when you get it installed.. care to reveal the price?

Will do. He knocked a little off as an incentive to get me to try his product over the competition. They are very confident in their products! After chatting on the phone for an hour and doing some internet research I determined they are a very reliable company that stands by their product; exactly what I wanted. They make clutches for everything, and have a HUGE name in the supra and cummins performance groups.

z-flash wrote: what do you have planned for the stub axles? You going to try the modern motorsports route ?

The one that broke had quite a few hard launches on it, so I think I'll stick with stock for now. For the price of the MM units I think I could probably buy a whole multi-link rear.

[Ken in AZ]

Glad to see you made the decision....sounds every bit of what everyone else who has dealt with SBC says.

Great Product, Fast turnaround, Excellent customer service

can't wait to hear the results

Let us know if it has the "cricket chirp" other sintered iron discs have

I loved my SPEC stage 5 except for that chirp, it got really anoying sometimes. It made everone wonder what was wrong with my car. but the real die hard racers knew that noise and gave me a nod with a little smirk when pulling out of a parking lot.

[roastin300]

You will love it! My buddies MX3 has a tiny 220mm or 230mm clutch disc and he is putting around 450HP to the crank. I got a custom clutch setup made with organic on one side of the disc and "feramic" yes not ceramic but "Feramic", its a new type of material they are using. Anyways the damn thing holds and engages almost as smoothly as stock and pedal pressure is only a little stiffer than stock. I was getting ready to give them a call and have a custom one made too. Please let me know how it works. Also what did you pay for the kit?

[roastin300]

Im sorry, this clutch is on my friends car, not mine, so "he got a custom clutch setup made" not me, i am planning on it in the near future though

[Jason84NA2T]

Yeah, the disc is marketed as "feramic" by SBC/DXD racing. I know it's their own design that they have made in germany just for them, that's why you supposedly can't compare it to other sintered iron discs on the market. It's actually still a sintered iron based lining on the disc. I think the name seems quite clever "fe" (iron) ramic (ceramic)?

Better engagement, more holding capacity, longer lifespan... guess I'll find out of all this is true. I have to remain at least somewhat skeptical...

[G-E]

you can bake metals into ceramic, one of the processes they do for high strength (anti-shatter) tiles is bake aluminum into the top layer like a glaze

[BLOZ UP]

hmm ~700 ft.lbs. is about what I need....

[Jason84NA2T]

BLOZ UP wrote: hmm ~700 ft.lbs. is about what I need....

They now have the 250mm discs available so you may want to look for a 250mm flywheel (I have a few, or buy a fidanza) and use that for the slightly higher holding capacity with the same clamp load.