i'm going to order a spec clutch today, cannot decide between stage 2 or stage 3,,obviously stage 3 is going to be a little better, but the design of the stage 3 is alot different than what came with our cars from the factory
stage 2 cluthes from spec are round like the gm ones,,will this affect performance, or milage ? what is the difference?

stage 2:
http://www.specclutch.com/img/stage2.gif

stage 3:
http://www.specclutch.com/img/stage3.gif

 

The stage 2 should be fine if you dont plan on a power adder . I have the 3 and it grabs like heck......my car is not a daily driver so its not a problem....even though I consider it very drivable
,I wouldnt want to drive it everyday in rush hour traffic.

 

well i'm putting heads/cam and all that other stuff on my car as we speak, so if the "475 tq" rating on the stage 2 is enough, but i mean for another 50$ or so right now, i'd rather spend that than have to worry about it down the road, its just that clutch design that gives me 2nd thoughts....i was just curious what the advantage is between the cross design vs the usual circle design

 

You should do a search on this topic.. also this would see better responses in the drivetrain forum I think.

Anyways, I had the old design stage III and it exploded on me. The old design is not so different from the new.. it had a segmented disk though the segments were close together and resembled a circle (just with 4 cuts through it).. the new design is more of a cross. Well I think the new design would be prone to the same failure as the old one. On the old one (mine) one of the segments just flew off and cracked the bellhousing and then became lodged in between the pressure plate and bellhousing (not a good day for me). This wasn't at the strip either.. in fact that car had never been to the track with that clutch and hadn't even seen hardly any city miles - I drive 80% interstate (back and forth from school). I'd say any segmented design is prone to this type of failure where one of the ends develops a stress fracture and is then thrown off during a hard engagement (one of the three remaining segments on mine had a stress facture BTW so it was probably gonna go soon too). I think part of the failure is also due to the small springs used on the Stage III.. if you get a better picture you'll see what I mean. Others on this forum have complained about spring failure on the new designed stage III.. I recall somone saying the springs used on the stage III are made for a 4 cylinder engine

Point is, I'd strongly suggest you stay away from the Stage III.. I replaced mine with a stage II and I love it.. it has the same beefy springs as the stocker and is a full disk so I am confident that it will not explode. It holds well though I haven't had it to the track to really beat on it. It also drives like a stocker.. real smooth, no chatter or anything.. and it's slippable. I hear the new stage III is more driveable than the old but man my old one was a b!tch to drive... like a light switch on or off.

Definately go stage II

 

I use the stage 3. I have had all of the spec clutches, STG 1,2,&3 and I like the 3 the best. It's more grabby, but not un "streetable". Just do it right, resurface the fly wheel (or get the fidanza aluminum, ultra cool keep the install clean (no greasy finger prints), break the clutch in properly and your set. Power shifting is the leading cause for your clutch to "explode" in your bell housing.

 

I've have about 15k on a spec stage II with no problems. Drives pretty much like stock.

 

i've got over 40,000 miles on my stage 2

including quite a bit of clutch dumps and traction launches at the strip

 

spec stage 3 lasted 2000 miles for me.. Exploded and took out the bellhousing, oil pan, a few sensors, and part of the T56 housing.

The stick very stiff springs into a hub that is meant for lighter springs so it cracks and when it cracks teh springs will shoot out like bullets blowing everything away.

I took a ride in my friends C5 vette and it has a spec stage III in it... I have to say it grabs great and its soooo streetable... Hard to believe it was the same clutch that was in my car. I think the feel was different because we have pull style clutchs and they have push style.

My friend jason had his stage III blow up too...

Ive been running an LT4 for 2 years now.. It holds up pretty well for my heads/cams application.. Only slips after back to back runs.

 

You guys are scaring me. I have a new stg. III that I was gonna use to replace my custom clutch in my '94, and I was gonna step up to a stg. IV in my '86. My custom clutch uses a stock machined pressure plate and flywheel, and a kevlar/zinc friction surface with a disc that has bigger springs in it. Grabs pretty well, the guy said that it should hold over 400HP. Now I'm reconsidering and thinking of going up to the stg. IV and selling the III...

I have a new trans and soon a new engine and dont wanna junk them because of an inferior disk...

 

Im going with the Spec IV for my daily driver head/cam trans am which should be around 400RWHP.

 

you'll like it

 

i think in injectedss's clutch test (tested so many and compared them) that the IV was just like the III in driveability but it differed in how it was made
it had an unsprung hub or something that was different that made it a lot less likely to break than the III
i forgot to save the link so i guess just check injectedss's sig on some old posts

 

Think I will put in a RAM 6 puck I have out of the race car very similar looking and 26 spline...

 

mr_happy successfully performed CPR on this thread.. and breathed the life back into it after 6 years.. lol...

I think i've been through 2 other clutches since this..

Running the Spec stage 2 Kevlar rated for 500hp... The LT4 lasted 20k miles but car had 400hp at the fly.

 

Ive got a stock 96 Z28 with an auto zone heavy duty replacement in it. It acts just like stock but I have managed to drive through it a few times. I was looking at the spec 2.5 later on down the road. Hoping I could get more miles out of a beefier clutch.