Just thought I'd post a review of my new clutch. First a little history on my car, it's a '86 camaro that had the bad 2.8 pulled in favor of a 3.4. I decided to go with a spec clutch instead of a standard replacement mainly because when I first got my camaro the clutch was slipping in it, and the spec pressure plate has a higher clamping force than stock. I got my car pretty soon after the previous owner had installed the 3.4; he had also installed a new clutch at the time. Anytime I got down on it, the clutch would start slipping. As it turns out I think this was due to some other issues I was unaware of.

The review
I decided to go with a stage 1 clutch from spec. I had originally hoped to install a stage 2, not for the amazing power my motor puts out(lol) but the longevity. My finances didn't cooperate so I went with a stage 1. Once I had gotten it installed I off the bat noticed alot of vibration. I cannot blame all of that on the clutch; I installed all new polyurethane bushings around the transmission at the same time so that may have also been a factor. Also the exhaust pipe had become slightly bent while we where working on the car and it was vibrating against the floorboard. This only last for about the first week, for about the first 200 miles. After the break in period, all of these issues disappeared. The clutch is awesome now! I love it. All of the vibration I was worried about has disappeared and it now has excellent street manners, similar to my old clutch. It is a bit more "grabby" than my previous one, its a little harder to feather than the old one. It has not slipped at all and I believe it should outlast the previous clutch.(I did "extensive testing" at full throttle, and a few burnouts to verify this The only negative comment I can make about the spec clutch was that it came with the incorrect pilot bushing for my car. This may be because I ordered a clutch for a 2.8 and my motor is a 3.4, maybe they are different?

Mistakes I made
1) No matter what your father tells you and how close it looks, it is impossible to remove the transmission with the shifter still attached. In retrospect this seems pretty stupid, in my defense I can only say that it seemed it would be easier to remove once the transmission was out of the car.(I was trying not to have to remove most of the console inside)

2) Read the removal steps in your haynes manual before attempting to remove the transmission to avoid mistake 1.

3)No matter what advanced auto or napa tells you, they do not carry a rubber seal that will fit your oil pan. In their system it says it will, but it won't fit. You will have to use a 2 piece cork and rubber one.(My old oil pan was damaged, so i decided to replace it while I had the transmission out of the car)

4)The spring clip on the clutch fork goes underneath the lip on the throwout bearing. When we removed my trans the throwout bearing fell out so we didn't see how it went and the haynes manual isn't very clear. If not for this forum I'd be driving around with it installed incorrectly. Luckily I caught this mistake before I drove the car and caused potential damage.

5)Order a new cam seal. You have to special order it at the dealer they aren't available at the parts store.

6)The parts store do not carry the mount for the torque arm and it is expensive at the dealer. I ordered a 1 piece bushing from jegs for about $16. You will have to drill the old bushing out of the mount, but its easy.

Sorry for the long post. I'm hoping this may help someone in the future. Before I found this forum I was really only able to find reviews of spec clutches in import cars, and most of the review seemed to be that specs quality was hit or miss. I wasn't able to find anything specific to our application. I can honestly say that I thought the quality was great and I am very happy with my purchase. It locks up hard when I shifting quick but is great for a daily driver.

 

A very informative and interesting post. Thanks.