ok new tranny

VA69Ford · Post by **VA69Ford** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:11 pm

alright i just got back from the junk yard with my new T-18 tranny, its got the bellhousing attached, so i am gonna switch out my c6 for the T-18 but the truck was originally a three on tree with a 360 engine...anyway the main question i have is what clutch should i go with keeping in mind i need everything for it, what have you guys had success with? thanks for the help

craftsman · Post by **craftsman** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:15 am

I just use the oem clutch from the parts house.

It has worked fine for me, i don't do much heavy towing thow.

Are you going to to do heavy towing?

averagef250 · Post by **averagef250** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 5:38 pm

LUK has been good to me, though I just put one of thier high zoot ones behind a 12 valve cummins that wasn't making too much power and it slipped like mad.

LUK and Valeo are good names. Zoom is junk, there other crap names too, but they escape me.

The LUK diaphragm replacement clutch id plenty strong.

averagef250 · Post by **averagef250** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:02 pm

All centerforce is is a LUK pressure plate with some cheez flyweights added to the diaphragm fingers that do nothing until higher RPM's than street motors are used at. The dual friction ones do have a pretty nice disc, but for the price of a centerforce setup you can buy a LUK and have a custom dual friction disc made by any friction supplier that will do the same thing and save you a couple hundred bucks.

Oh yeah, forgot, the biggest difference is the centerforce pressure plate is painted orange.

I had to learn a lot about clutches awhile back for a project I worked on that was limited in clutch size. I spent mucho time on the phone with both the centerforce tech department and the LUK tech guys. Once I finally got the real clutch pressures out of the centerforce guys for thier clutches and realized that they were pretty much the same as the stocker LUK ones it didn't make much sense to use them.

The other funny thing is I use a lot of clutches and my supplier only carries Valeo. The majority of Valeo clutches I buy come in a Valeo box with Valeo paperwork but are clearly stamped LUK inside. I don't know what's up with this, but they work well.

I was buying LUK from a distributor on the east coast when I first started my tranny shop. It was a mess for turnaround times on jobs, but I wanted to offer the best parts and the local LUK dist. wouldn't sell to me (wasn't big enough). I remember paying around $700 for a LUK 7.3 diesel single mass conversion rep set. I pay about $325 for the same "Valeo" setup that comes with the same exact LUK flywheel and clutch kit now.