woodsdesign

A friend of mine added a hydraulic clutch and didn't support the firewall where it mounted. It didn't take very long and the firewall fractured leaving the car stranded.

SSTGene

I know I am an SST employee however we have tons of Hydraulic clutch kits in plenty of cars with no issues. The internal bearing we use is like a new OE bearing. If properly set up it will be leak free for years and years.. Its really the only way to install with a LS3. All of our Corvette Hydraulic kits includes the firewall stiffener.

toddalin

Also need to be sure that the linkage is properly aligned and not off to the side/top/bottom.

CarCraft had two failures on their project before they traced it down to "side wear" of the hydraulic piston letting fluid seep by because their linkage was out of alignment.

daz_au

A lot of people go to hydraulic when going LS because the Z-Bar pivot ball bracket from the SBC doesn't work on the LS. I bought 2 different "LS Conversion" pivot ball brackets but neither worked on the Corvette. It took me about an hour to make something in the garage out of thick angle that did work though.

Once you are over that hurdle, with the right clutch there is absolutely nothing wrong with the mechanical linkage !

jdk971

my ls3 is mechanical. do not ask me how it was done. i did not do it. jim

jpcarter48

just put a TKO600 from AP in a 67 conv. Went with their dual-disc clutch and stock linkage. Pedal effort is less than original 390hp clutch.

Tcheairs38655

Still don't understand the necessity of the hydraulic clutch in a TKO 600 conversion for a conventional old school (non LS motor). Seems to me that besides the necessary required firewall reinforcement (C-2) that it's just a marketing hype to sell another (questionably)
required bell and whistle setup. and all of the above mentioned "glitches" must also be addressed. It's hard enough to get the Tremec into the C-2 and properly aligned (motor pull etc.) without opening an additional bucket of worms with a fancy clutch.

GearheadJoe

I completely agree that there is no need to convert to a hydraulic clutch when putting a TKO-600 into a C2 that has a stock Gen-I small block.

I kept the stock linkage when I put a TKO 600 in my C2, and there were no issues whatsoever. The clutch linkage is 100% identical to the stock setup and it works fine.

BTW, your post implies that you have to pull the engine to align the bell housing, but that is not the case. Aligning the bell housing is a tedious task, but it's only a tiny bit less tedious with the engine out of the car (I have done it both ways, so I know from experience). It would be silly to pull the engine just to align the bell housing.

Crunch527

Not silly to pull the engine...I have done several as well...just a different way to skin the cat...

Low Rider

I completely agree that there is no need to convert to a hydraulic clutch when putting a TKO-600 into a C2 that has a stock Gen-I small block.
I have a ZZ383 in my 57 with 425 h/p with the stock manual clutch (Cenrer Force) been there for 7 years with over 12K miles and no issues.....

GearheadJoe

Sorry, I guess I used the wrong word. What I'm trying to say is that pulling the engine is a lot more work.

If the *only* task at hand is to align the bell housing and install a TKO 600, there is far less effort involved to do the job with the engine in the car. For a C2 with a fixed crossmember, this assumes that you have a transmission jack and you use the sequence of steps originally described in the Keisler instructions.

Leaving the engine in the car eliminates a long list of steps that are involved with pulling the engine. Examples include removing the hood, draining coolant, removing the fan, fan shroud, radiator and front accessories such as alternator, PS pump, and A/C compressor, disconnecting the fuel line, disconnecting the starter motor, pulling the distributor, disconnecting the motor mounts, and finally, using a hoist to carefully guide the engine out without damaging anything. Then you have to repeat all of these same steps in reverse.

My first TKO-600 installation was done with the engine in the car, but later on when I was doing an engine swap I pulled the engine/trans as a unit and mounted the TKO-600 to the new engine before installing them as a unit. So, I have done this both ways. If the only task is installing the TKO-600, I think it is far less work and hassle if the engine stays in the car.

On the other hand, if you need to pull the engine anyway for other reasons, it's easier to install the TKO 600 and re-install the engine/trans as a unit.