Hello Everyone,

I am having to have my transmission dropped for some warranty work and I was thinking I would go ahead and replace the original OEM clutch since it would already be easy to get to.
I have a 2011 GS with only 16k miles on it, but I know this car has been driven hard by previous owners and I figured if I replaced my current clutch with a new OEM clutch, I would only really be out of pocket the new parts

My question is since I plan on replacing the clutch anyways, is it worth going ahead and getting a stronger aftermarket clutch to make it more compatible with future power mods?
Right now Im just on headers, tune, and street tires, so the oem clutch is plenty, but I do go to occasional autocross and drag events. If I end up going the forced induction route down the road, it would be nice to not have to drop everything out of the car for a higher strength clutch again.
Ive seen the LS7 clutch that my car should come with is pretty good up to the 600-650whp range for street driving, but if I continue to do some occasional competitive driving events, I didnt want it to be a bottleneck.

Also, I think my current flywheel is probably fine and can be resurfaced if needed, but if I go with an aftermarket clutch and pressure plate, is the factory flywheel going to be compatible/worth keeping?

Any opinions and advice would be great. Thanks!

 

are you speaking of road course competitive events, or drag racing? makes a big difference on clutch selection. For sure add a remote bleeder, regardless of clutch selection

 

This car is actually my daily driver, but about once a month at the most I will participate in short course autox events and/or drag racing. I dont take my car out on full tracks or run it hard for long periods of time right now. I would classify my driving as 90-95% street, 5-10% autox/strip. I would prefer the clutch still be basically an oem/street+ clutch thats still very dailyable but still strong enough to take more power and abuse if needed.

 

I personally would never replace the stock clutch with another stock clutch, especially if you’re going to drag race and even more so if you’ll be on a drag radial or slick. Even the ls7 clutch is garbage on the drag strip. If you want something stronger that doesn’t kill your left leg, go with a twin disc clutch. Monster has a good line of clutches along with McLeod. Keep the stock master cylinder if you want to keep pedal pressure light, and definitely have them install a remote bleeder while they’re in there. I had a spec twin on my bolt on c5 and it took everything I could throw at it, it also had nice light pedal. Only downside to that clutch was it grabbed really hard and it was extremely hard to slip it drag racing.

 

I'm replacing my 80k 08 stock clutch with a Monster LT1-s twin disc, remote bleeder, bearing w/ billet support and a lightened flywheel. I also do 90/10 street/track. Mostly road course tracks. After years of research on this forum, most everyone seems to love this clutch for sub 700 whp.

 

I am leaning towards the Monster Twin Disc as well, but I had a couple questions since their site offers so amny options:

1. considering my car is such low mileage, do you think its worth replacing the salve cylinder? I feel like I should go ahead and do the release bearing support, but is it worth another 300$ for a new slave while it is off the car?
2. Everyone says to go ahead and do the remote bleeder, but is this simply a better substitute to bleeding via the ranger method? Or is this something that will also be required for the clutch install?

 

I would do everything while you're in there. Rear main, throwout bearing, slave cylinder, remote bleeder etc. A remote bleeder is the only real way to clean the clutch(brake) fluid. The ranger method doesnt help a whole lot, I don't care what anyone says about how clean their fluid is. The only way to do it correctly is drop the drivetrain, or have a remote bleeder.

 

whatever clutch you choose, make sure you measure the air gap. numbers are for reference only, yours may not be the same.

 

I ran quite a few supercharged miles on the stock clutch. I wouldn't touch it even if it's handy. It's a wear item. Upgrade it when it wears out.

 

I am getting a steal on the labor at a reputable shop so I decided to pay up for a Monster S Twin Disc after reading up on people's experiences. Does anyone here have any personal experience with this specific clutch (gear noise, clutch pedal stiffness, handling of boosted engines, etc...)?

 

Well it looks like Monster did some renaming of their clutches so I think I have the same clutch if yours is the 700 RWHP/RWTQ clutch. If so it used to be called the LT1-S. I have this in my 2011 GS.

My GS is supercharged with an E-force making 520 to the wheels. This clutch is excellent and holds the power no problem. It is actually a stock C7 clutch that Monster modified to fit the C6.

If I ever decide to go with a cam upgrade in the future, the clutch still has plenty of capacity.

It is very similar to stock in regard to pedal effort; not much heavier than the stock C6 clutch if at all.

There is a small amount of gear clatter/rollover at idle but only and idle and only when the pedal is not pushed in. Really very minor.

There is no break in period with this clutch which is nice. Once its installed, you can let it rip right away.

The engagement window of this clutch is narrower and near to the end of the pedal travel so it takes a little bit more finer control for a smooth let out. But you adjust to it very fast.

One thing I would recommend with this clutch is to purchase and install an ECS Clutch Stop. The clutch will fully disengage at about 1/2 of the total travel of the pedal. With the stop, you can dial in exactly to the point where it is fully disengaged without having to push the pedal all the way to the floor. It will make for faster shifting and put less stress on the clutch pressure plate spring.

Don't worry, you will like this clutch.

 

Thanks for the writeup. This is all what I gathered too, but I figure the more input the better. I see Monster LT1 mentioned a lot, but I believe they did change their names since I dont see those on their site anymore. The S Twin Disc is the one rated for 700/700 so should be the same. I want to leave room for a super charger and a cam, which could be close to 600whp so this should be plenty, especially on harder launches. Thanks again for the feedback!

 

oh, also, I like the idea of the clutch stop. I might drive around on the new clutch for a while and see what I think, but I like knowing I have the option.

 

Lingenfelter clutch stop

I’ve been using the Lingenfelter clutch stop for awhile now. Works great and it’s 1/3rd the price of the ECS unit.

 

Ya the ECS one look like it was 100$. It looks a lot beefier than the one you posted here, but I cant imagine that matters much on a part like this. If it works, it works.

 

Looks can be deceiving.

The ECS is held on by 2 set screws that pinches the pedal.






The Lingenfelter has a larger bolt that goes through the pedal and into the clutch stop block.

 

Thanks for the comparison.
It does say on the product page that installing this will require a clutch pedal travel learn procedure after install. Did you end up doing this? Im not familiar with this procedure so I'm wondering if its not as important as just manually adjusting the stop screw to where the clutch is still fully disengaging properly.

 

It will depend on the car. I run a Tick master cylinder so I dont need as long of a pedal travel so where my pedal stop was set, I did require a relearn. Any shop/dealer with a tech 2 or similar can do it. Just plug it in and there’s a option for the clutch position zeroing as it wont be labeled exactly “clutch relearn”

 

Gotcha. Ill see how it feels when I get the car back and if I think it would benefit from the stop, I'll talk to the tech about it. Probably going to be a couple weeks before the clutch comes in and everything gets installed. Ill report back when its all done.

 

Mines a ’09 so my clutch switch is a rotary sensor so the clutch switch stop adjustment on the ECS wouldnt do anything for me. I think it was either ’08 or ’09 when they switched. If you have to older microswitch, the ECS version would be the one you want to ensure you can engage and disengage the clutch switch.

Just saw your profile. So assuming it’s going on your 2011, the ECS clutch switch adjustment will be a useless feature. Keep in mind the ECS requires you to cut off the tab on the pedal, so you wont be able to install the Lingenfelter if you decide to switch because that’s where it mounta. You may still need to go to a dealer/shop to relearn your clutch position depending on how much adjustment you’re making.