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My car is mostly stock (exhaust/cai) and is staying that way. What cheaper options are out there? Aside from the ls7 (too heavy). I'm thinking ls6 but want to make sure I get all the parts I need. So part numbers are helpful.
Put the LS6 clutch in with the LS6 slave cylinder and remote bleeder in a stock engine..good up to 400 RWHP. When you have it apart, also replace the torque tube coupler with either a GM one or a German made BMW one. 97-00 use the 10mm coupler and the 01-04 use the 12mm one. If you go with the LS7 flywheel you will also need the 11" flywheel....the LS7 system weighs almost 10 lbs more than the LS6.
LS6 clutch will be more than enough. Make sure that you add a remote bleeder, replace the slave, throwout bearing and the PILOT BEARING!
Also you need to make sure that you take into consideration the HOT BALANCE that was done to your car at assembly. If you have any additional weights/pins in the outer ring of the flywheel, you should have the pressure plate / flywheel assy MATCHED BALANCED to the old one.
You have to MATCH MARK the old pressure plate to the old FW and the old flywheel to the crank shaft and reinstall the new stuff that was match balanced in the same orientation.
If you have offset balance pins installed and don't take care to get the new parts balanced correctly, you could end up with unwanted vibrations in the 1500/3000 RPM range.
Yes, disassemble and inspect the TT internals and if the couplers are dry rotted/cracked, change them.
I'd change the couplers even if they looked perfect. I installed 6 Shooters years ago and still vibration free after beating on it at dragstrips and road tracks along with long road trips. I made a rotating jig and indexed them with a dial indicator to make sure they were perfectly aligned before I tightened them down.
How is it going into 1ST at a stop? Grind any or hard to get in gear? If so, now would be the time to upgrade the internals of the transmission also. A bad clutch that drags tends to eat up the blockers especially in 1ST.
My car is hopped up to 514HP at the crank, and I put in an LS7 clutch.
IMHO, it makes the car A LOT easier to drive. The LS7 clutch is a huge improvement and worth every penny and pound.
If you remove the OLD clutch pressure plate, flywheel assembly and you DONT MATCH BALANCE the NEW pressure plate and flywheel to the the OLD one, you risk the chance of having unwanted vibrations.
Some people roll the dice and never have an issue.
Some people roll the dice and have to pull it all apart and start over. If you didnt save the old properly indexed stuff, YOUR SCREWED! You have to find some company to dynamically balance your rotating assy or expierment..
Anyone who had vibration issues after installing new clutch without match balancing agree with this document?
Yes, many people have had new vibrations when not match balancing the new stuff to the original. And many people have put in new stuff right out of the box and been fine. It is a crap shoot. The only way to make sure you do not have new vibrations is to MATCH what you take out. If it doesn't have vibrations from the factory, it won't have new vibrations if you match that factory balance.
Read the above manual wording carefully. It says in those two outlined sentences to not transfer or install BALANCE WEIGHTS. Why? because just transferring the weights is a poor way to try to match the factory balance. transferring weights DOES NOT take into account the potential DIFFERENT starting imbalance of the new flywheel (due to balance tolerances) and it completely ignores the effects of the pressure plate, which has even HIGHER beginning balance tolerances. Earlier language used to say to transfer the weights when replacing the flywheel and clutch. Most dealership techs ignored it, or just didn't do it, and many clutch jobs resulted in new vibrations. When dealership techs DID follow it and transfer weights, sometimes it was OK, sometimes it too resulted in new vibrations, for the reasons I said above.
FACT: The only way to keep and maintain the stock total engine balance, as a result of the GM hot balance procedure that every single manual transmission corvette has gone through since 1997, is to have your new FW/PP assembly match the original FW/PP assembly, if it is to be going back on your STOCK engine. Transferring the weights only is NOT the way to do this. So the language changed.
Of course, the manual doesn't illustrate a proper way to match balance, in this instance, GM decided to PUNT!
The hot balance was only done to minimize NVH. If you don't mind the possibility of new vibrations, don't worry about it.
My car is mostly stock (exhaust/cai) and is staying that way. What cheaper options are out there? Aside from the ls7 (too heavy). I'm thinking ls6 but want to make sure I get all the parts I need. So part numbers are helpful.
So your car is stock and you are worrying about weight? the LS7 clutch is the best bang for the buck, out there and Gene Cully will set you up with an aluminum flywheel if you want so you have to baby every rolling start with your stock C5. You'll need new hydraulics, both master and slave to do the job right, but you mentioned you are interested in cheap... so Good Luck with that...
Bill aka ET
98 corvette clutch replacement
