Clutches, their limits, and the options?

[Tommo]

Hello,

Been to york drags today with my hobo polo turbo, only managed 15.58 @ 90mph, with 2.4 60 ft.

My problem was the clutch slipped its arse off. Im still on the 180mm clutch that you get in a normal polo, and on the road it had been fine. But today at the drags, with a burnout, and plenty of clutch slip setting off, by the time I got to 4th gear the clutch was slipping its arse off. Obviously I called it a do at that to avoid maximum friction plate/flywheel destruction.

Now I have a standard 200mm clutch from a GT/G40, and I was wondering what sort of power you can run through these without problems, bearing in mind it will be seeing plenty of stick.

I can have the friction plate organically lined for £20, but im not sure If its an uprated pressure plate that I will need, and if anyone has tried skimming where the pressure plate sits on the flywheel to get a bit more out of the standard one?

I appreciate that you can probably buy a clutch from germany for a fair bit of cash that is unbustable, but £150+ for a clutch seems outragous to me.

Thanks in advance...

Tommo

[Andy]

200mm G40 clutch is okay with around 150lb/ft, but much more (or frequent drag use) and people go for an organic or paddle item with uprated pressure plate.

Could always make your own uprated pressure plate using a standard item.

[hayesey]

there's a company somewhere near leeds called CG Motorsport or something who do a paddle clutch for cheaper than most places.  Not sure how much abuse people have given them or if they also do an uprated cover plate (although I'd have thought it'd be necessary with a paddle anyway). 

A lot of people have used the Helix paddle clutch and uprated cover plate, including myself.  but they aren't cheap, the full kit is about £300.  They do take a lot of abuse though, me & yoof have used them on track and yoof has put 225bhp through his on a drag strip with drag slicks on the car with no issues.  So it's prob safe to assume that they'll withstand anything you can throw at them with the 1300 engine.  Also, once you bought the initial kit, getting the paddle plate re-sintered is actually pretty cheap at about £60 a time by sending it back to Helix.

[Tommo]

Thanks, its great to hear from people who have used stuff in anger.

I have heard of people making their own uprated pressure plates by drilling the rivets out and re riveting with stiffer/double springs. I may well look into this as an option.

Im sure that £300 for a Helix (dont they make stationary?  ) kit is pretty good value as far as clutches go, considering you can probably pay £80 for a new standard one. But its more than I am willing to spend on my poor polo.

I will look into CG motorsport, im in huddersfield so it might be worth a trip over.

[lance]

helix are best but as said expencive i used to run a CG paddle i snapped the centre out of it so sent it back to them and they uprated it more and sent it back to me for free so cant really say anything bad about them. think its about £180 for a clutch from them 01132426359 is their number.

[hayesey]

does the CG paddle come with an uprated cover plate lance?

tommo - are you coming to tatton park this weekend?  I wouldn't mind a look at your car as it sounds very interesting.  Lots of people have talked about doing similar carb'd turbo conversions before but I've never actually seen one get to the point of actually working.  Dan Knight said to me that he was impressed with it when you went round to his.

[Dan]

I opted for a Helix organic, will be able to report when it's all up and running. it's worth noting the release bearings are better from VW, much heavier duty. So I'd go helix / or try CG with a VW release bearing.

[Tommo]

Excellent, All sounds like good advice. The more I think about it the more I am thinking about visiting CG M, but as ever I will explore every other cheap solution first!

Hayesey, I wasnt planning on going to tatton, although I know a few of my mates are. I might go yet, we shall see. But my car is just thrown together for the time being, no point fine tuning anything until I have a lump in it that I am going to use for the forseeable future. Running it on the AAU engine was always just a bit of fun to see what you could do without so much as lifting the rocker cover, and as the clutch now slips a bit there is no point taking it any further.

I have a GT cam and am supposedly picking up an ABD soon. It will run strong 13's without spending much more cash, I will see to that haha, with glass windows and a full interior!

Just out of curiosity what 60 ft times have people done? 

[Nick_S]

I've used a CG motorsport 4 fin paddle clutch kit on my 1.5 and not had any problems so far. Looked pretty much the same as the Helix to me, but didn't notice if the pressure plate had uprated parts on. Its an LUK marked pressure plate and release bearing, with custom friction plate made in the back of the shop. CG will also re-line the friction pads when they wear out, if a full clutch kit is not needed.

Deffo worth getting a VW release bearing though. Look much more robust than the LUK ones i've seen with the Helix and CG kit. Here is pic of a OE vw one courtesey of spaniel.

[hayesey]

hmm, I'd suspect that cover plate is just a replacement one then.  I guess you pays your money and makes you choices!  I suspect the main reason for the large difference in price is due to the helix one coming with an uprated pressure plate.

[Nick_S]

Aye, proof of the pudding will be in the eating as they say. Might end up being more friendly for daily driving, certainly not the harsh on/off biting i thought it would be for a 4 fin paddle set up.

[lance]

my presure plate was uprated too from cg, it had extra springs riverted in i was running about 170 lbft and never slipped once. as i said only thing that went wrong was the rivets snapped as it had 6 holding it together once i got it back from them it had 12 in!

am sure the plate was anodised blue,


anyway tommo i have a used 3 paddle plate from cg motorsport if you give me a few quid for postage ill send you it and you can make your own presure plate or summat, it still has plenty life left in it.

[Nick_S]

The chap there did seem pretty clued up when i dropped into collect mine. IIRC he runs a Skyline at the pod fairly regularly. The first i ordered got lost by the courier, but i got another without hassle.

[lance]

an yea nick your very right about the thrust bearing, i used an luk one and it started to rattle 2 week later!

[Nick_S]

Did you ask for a 3 fin paddle Lance?
My CG 4 fin looked identical to the Helix one when i compared it with Curries Helix at the time.