so im new to all this and have a vette as a weekend car and im wondering how strong the bottomend is and what some things to watch out for is..i need a clutch and i plan on doin heads and cams soon and hopefully a aps or sts twin turbo kit. what are some tq numbers i should be expecting and what are some clutchs i should look at...thanks in advanced!

 

Post in the FI/Nitrous section.

 

My stock bottom end lasted to 97k miles with the heads, cam, bolt ons and tune. (390 rwhp and 378rwtq). The bottom end is decent, but the top of the tree is only as strong as its trunk.

I drive my car hard and it took a good beating for about 5 years. Now I have a forged bottom end and the thing runs like a champ. (428rwhp and 408rwtq).

Watch out for over revving (bouncing off the rev limiter) too often with the stock top end. I had floated valves with my stock top end twice. Mostly drivers error. The second time was due to the clutch sticking to the floor when trying to engage 3rd and I cracked a piston. Both times racing.

As for clutches, I have struck out three times in this area. First I had replaced the stock with the C5-Z06 clutch, that lasted 25k after the stock clutch pooped out at 47k. Then I did the heads, cam and bolt ons, and that put an end to the C5Z06 clutch pretty quickly. I replaced that with the LUK Stage 2 clutch which lasted me about 12k and started to stick to the floor, so I replaced it with the C6-Z06 Clutch... and that is what I'm running now. This clutch is terrible! After about 500 miles it started going soft (common hatred for this clutch with C6-Z06 hard driving owners) when shifting over 6500 rpms. This continues to happen when driving hard and now after about 12k miles, its sticking on hard drives just like the failures before it. I hear many mixed words, feedback and opinions about the Textralia's and other performance clutches but I'm thinking of going Tex 0Z700, the next time around. I figure maybe if I invest the money I will see better results. $500 clutches are exactly that.

If your planning to go FI or TT in the future, you may want to get the forged bottom end out of the way early. Sure many folks will say "I have had a supercharger or nitrous on my stock bottom end with no problems" They are also the same fellas that run 11's or 12's in the 1/4....the same as guys like me, with naturally aspirated engines. I never met anyone with a TT without a forged bottom end.

If you plan on driving it hard, your going to end up breaking it harder.

If you plan on keeping it for a long time, do it right.

Good luck!

 

damnnn gotta get a new motor huh hmmmm what kind of built motors are there??

 

Maybe tomorrow, I'm watching the Olympics.

You live in CA, talk to Andy at A&A in Oxnard. Great guy. When I lived in SoCal I got my car tuned by Charlie when he was their. Great tuner and a great guy also.

If your interested in getting a custom exhaust and your close to Northridge, Jimmy the owner of Royal Muffler knows his stuff and does great work. Tell him Johnny, Patricks freind with the black C5 coupe... that he smacked his head working on, sent you.

 

You probably would have had 20 responses by now in the FI/Nitrous forum.