I posted up a thread a few weeks back about replacing my phenolic plastic 4th gen slave (GM part) with a 3rd gen one. The 4th gen one that was on there was leaking, and wanted to replace it with an aluminum unit instead of plastic. But I could only find an aluminum slave for a 3rd gen, but decided not to get it cause I wasn't certain that it was going to provide enough clutch engagement/disengagement for the LT1 clutch. Moving on, I went and ordered the "AC Delco" 4th gen slave that I thought was plastic, but happened to show up aluminum. You should be able to tell from the pic that it's aluminum. Looks like a really nice casting and looks like a high quality piece. BUT, then on the instruction sheet, the first line says that "Perfection offers a One year limited warranty". Now I'm pretty sure there is a company named Perfection that makes clutch and hydraulic parts. Plus, there are numbers engraved into it that don't match the GM part numbers. Has anyone ever gotten a later model A/C delco slave in aluminum. I honestly didn't think that there was such an animal, or was there maybe a switcheroo with parts and boxes somewhere along the line?

 

nice! I say if it works USE IT!!

 

Can you post up the numbers on the unit that don't match the GM/Delco Numbers?

 

Going off the pic you posted that actually looks like the correct slave for a 4th gen. I know the line comes straight in the end on a 4th gen slave, whereas it comes in at a 90 degree angle on the 3rd gen slave. As you should already know, the 4th gen braided stainless line has the 90 degree fitting on the end of it, and that's why the port on the slave just comes straight out the end. Looks like the right part to me. Might as well try it out. I would imagine you could always send it back if they actually did give you the wrong part. If it is correct, that's great that it's aluminum!

 

Well I never got to write down the numbers on it, and it's installed now. My bad. But yeah, it did look like the correct application. I just think it might be a different part of the same app. in a different box. Oh well, I wanted aluminum anyway, so i'm using it.

 

Sweet! Yeah you basically won the lottery. Whenever you go to the parts store to get a 3rd gen slave you never know if you're gonna get one of the nice aluminum ones or the crummy plastic one. Looks like aluminum ones are gonna start showing up for the 4th gens now as well, at least through AC Delco anyways.

 

I know 2 years ago I got a 3rd gen slave from Advanced Auto and it looked just like the OEM plastic unit. I happened to notice in a post the other day someone said they could get an aluminum one from there now and I looked it up. Sure enough they had one that was aluminum but it was the only replacement one they sold... they didn't have a stock plastic oem style listed anymore. The company that made this slave cylinder was Perfection as well. So I'm thinking maybe the replacement units are beginning to be produced in an aluminum version and they are phasing out the OEM plastic style ones.

Now I'm not sure if this pertains to AC Delco or not but a lot of the parts are often produced by other company's and sold under that brand name so maybe its the same with the slave cylinder. I know I've seen a lot of GM parts that another company produced and wrapped in a GM bag and given a GM part number.

 

I'm not sure if your refering to me as far as the post about the aluminum slave from Discount, but it turns out its plastic. I bought one from them and then checked it against what they have online and its the same thing. Not sure why the website says aluminum.

 

Yeah, I think it's awesome that the aluminum ones seem to be getting more common. That's what they should've used originally in the first place! From a durability standpoint, the plastic ones are a joke compared to the aluminum ones. It's even worse when you put headers on, due to the extra heat. The 93-97 4th gen braided stainless line fits on the 3rd gen aluminum slave, so if you're running headers it works out real well to get the 3rd gen aluminum slave and use it in conjunction with the 4th gen metal line.

 

I believe it was you built91. I saw it in your T56 swap thread where you mentioned it. So it turned out to be plastic? Hmm... I was really hoping that the info on Advanced Auto's website was true and they were producing them in a newer aluminum version. I wonder if its possible that its a hit and miss on whether its aluminum or plastic with the replacements until all the plastic ones are phased out. I know the picture of the slave on there website looks different than the plastic one (doesn't have all the extra ribbing reinforcement needed for the plastic housing) but still looks like it would fit directly as a replacement. I don't know. Maybe I'll try ordering one from them online and see if it comes in as aluminum since I could probably use a new slave anyway.

 

You could try. I even got the master from that same company and its plastic as well. I was really bumbed. Plastic is for kids toys. I want metal on my car

 

I feel that the aluminum one would probably give you a stiffer feeling pedal too. Has anyone ever watched the slave when someone else was pressing the clutch pedal? You can see the ears that the bolts go through distort a good bit. Now I don't know how well the aluminum one will dissipate heat compared to the plastic one (since the plastic one in theory shouldn't absorb the heat), but I feel that it would at least be able to heat sink into the bell and you wouldn't have to worry about almost melting the whole plastic housing as I did (collectors got a little to hot).

I did happen to look at Auto Zones website as well and they sell two brands of slave cylinders: a LUK replacement one that looks just like the OEM plastic one and a Brakeware (Duralast) brand one. The Duralast one, by the picute, appears to be an aluminum one as well, but it doesn't give any info on material. I do like how it shows the bleeder screw being an actual caliper bleeder style in which you could put a hose on it to prevent brake fluid spray when bleeding the system. The OEM system is quite messy to bleed and very annoying in my opinion. Here's a picture of the Duralast one as shown from Auto Zone's website.

 

If you look at the notes on that part though it says for 6 cylinder engine.

 

That it does... but if I recall correctly there is no difference between the V6 and V8 hydraulics. I don't see why it says its for a V6 only when it should work on a V8 as well. Looking up the slave through napa and advanced produces the same part number for V6 and V8 engines so.