BeagZ

I bought a 2000 c5 coupe has a brand new factory clutch in it with maybe 3000 miles on it. How well would this clutch hold up to heads/cam/intake. I've searched on the forums I see different reviews...

beboggled

Not for too long honestly. I'd guess 10-20K depending on how you use the car. If I were in your situation I would probably just use it until it went out and then upgrade, unless you are looking for time slips at the track.

This is assuming you're not pulling the engine now for your installs.

BeagZ

I want close to 400whp. Might just do cam and full exhaust, tune. See how it holds up

neutron82

it can technically hold into the low-mid 400's, maybe a tad more, but the more power you add the harder it becomes to shift, in my opinion mainly due to the self adjusting pressure plate... every time I would go wot I could make the 1-2 shift fine but as soon as I try for 3rd the pedal would be sunk almost to the floor and stiff and I wouldn't be able to shift to 3rd... drive normally and it was fine... at that time I had about 420rwhp... I tried everything else to solve my shifting issues and nothing worked until I swapped the clutch for an aftermarket unit

racebum

problems are 2 fold. 1 is how long and 2 is how well

if you go drag racing on the weekends you might get 10k miles out of one

BUT

it's going to get sticky and not perform under pressure. the lack of fluid/plate design of the OE clutch gets worse the more power you put to it

BeagZ

Even just with cam and headers and tune?

neutron82

in my experience yes... you can always try it out and if it gives you any trouble then you know what you have to do

racebum

yes

sadly the clutch is a bit of a weak link / safety switch in the c5. gm designed the clutch to limit drivetrain shock...which it does

but it also doesn't perform well under stress and more hp just makes it get even worse.

this is one of the few areas on the car where the c4 had something better. however, the c4 would break ujoints pretty often if you hammered on it. those halfshaft ujoints did not like being beat or wheel hopped. i'm sure GM was aware of this and didn;t want sky high warranty repairs so the clutch was designed to limit shock on the driveline

73Corvette

I'm so happy that when I crave for torque I can fire up the 427 Cubic Inch full roller... 69 SS Chevelle with a 400 turbo and 3500 stall converter. That way I don't have to trash the C5's clutch. It handles better, it has way more creature comforts, better on gas mileage, much much faster, just not as cool or quick as the Chevelle. Plus the sound of a big roller cam in a big block, with Hooker Headers and 3" side pipes is my little bit of heaven on earth.
But, a really good aftermarket clutch would be much cheaper...