All I can say is WOW! Thanks Ryan!

My car just hit 53K on the odometer...around 50K, I noticed my clutch starting to slip in 5th and 6th gears as I rolled on the boost from 3500rpm's or so...

Two weeks ago, that slight slippage turned into a smelly slip going up the Pali one day on my way to work...

I Contacted Ryan at Vakamon and he reviewed my mods and recommended that because it was my daily driver I should go with the Exedy Organic Stg1 clutch and ACT Streetlite flywheel. The Exedy clutch is good with my mods, holding 30%-40% more than my stock STI clutch did...

Pedal feel is a tad firmer than my stock sti clutch...right now, I am in the process of breaking it in...I didn't have any trouble adjusting to the new clutch as some reviewers had mentioned...pretty much the same.

It is a bit grabby right now with a slight shudder on take off and when I shift down...but already, since yesterday, this shudder has decreased by quite a bit. I can tell this clutch grabs much better than my sti clutch already. I am hoping that it will last longer than 50K miles...

The lightened flywheel feels really nice. I would have gone with the ACT Prolite but because I had already installed the Cobb lighened pulley, it would have been too light...

I believe the Streetlite is about 13.8lbs and the Prolite 9.8lbs or so...the Cobb Pulley really dropped the rotational mass quite a bit...

Overall I am very happy with this combo...+1 for Ryan!

 

Yeah... better to have Ryan working on your car.

Yes, it is not recommend to have light flywheel (too light) if you do the pulley mod already.

 

clutch gone in 4th and 5th gear too. want to go with act and gruppe-s flywheel
and prolly change the clutch line to s/s too. call me brent.

 

also, has anyone heard of spec clutches??

 

That is the setup I want to get, where did you order the combo from? I was looking at Z-1 performance cause its about 640 for both through them.

 

I had a bad experience in the past ordering a CenterForce clutch from a vendor and having it installed at a separate facility from where it was bought...

To make a long story short...after the installation, my truck made a squeaking sound...the installation tech blamed Centerforce, Centerforce blamed the tech...I was stuck in the middle...I had to pay for two installs and after 6 months of constant calling, Centerforce finally admitted to a faulty clutch...the price of the clutch was refunded...but not the installations...that was a costly clutch job (Anchorage Alaska)

Moral to this story, although you may think you are paying more locally, go to a shop where you can buy your products and have it installed all in the same place...you are more apt to get better service should problems occur...this is why I go to Ryan at Vakamon...he takes personal pride in everything he does...

 

^^ I totally agree Ryan and the whole shop at Vakamon has done wonders to my car and you are right, if they can get the parts it probably is better to just go through them fully.

 

So the clutch finally started to feel normal this weekend...

The pedal pressure is still just a tad firm, don't think this will change much. The shudder on the other hand has reduced quite a bit...

I experienced quite a bit of shudder on take-offs and downshifts after getting the clutch/flywheel installed. This Saturday, I had to slip the clutch a bit to get up an incline (yeah...it still smells putrid!) Anyhow, maybe that is what it needed because now, my takeoffs are much smoother...reverse still shudders though, so I am sure it still needs to be broken in...

With the lightened flywheel, you do need to feather the throttle more to get your car going...the momentum of the heavier flywheel is just not there to ease the car out anymore...getting use to this though...almost seems natural now...

I'm still stalling the car when I am not paying attention though...doh!

 

love that setup. got the WRX set. Clutch judder was totally eliminated. Very happy with it.

 

No matter how well you get used to it, when you don't pay attention.. it kicks ya in the butt!

 

and it is embarrasing...

 

embarassing is an understatement.. I've been there. All it takes it once. haha.

 

good info brent...i was debating weather to just go with the stock wrx set again or upgrade to stage 1...i'll have to ponder this one for a lil while..

+1

 

Brent you have a PM...

 

i went down to vakamon to talk more about clutches and what was very recommended for my car and such. i mentioned like i wanted a street/race clutch to handle up to 350hp on my wrx. he recommended exedy. he however mentioned that every wrx tranny that broke and that they had repaired, all had act clutches (not recommended for wrx's).