Review: Mcleod Dual Friction Clutch

This is the single dual friction disk, not the infamous Mcleod twin disk

Has anyone tried this clutch?

I bought this clutch, along with an Anderson Hi Rev PP, Ford TOB, and Al flywheel from Promotion. A guy there named Walt seemed very experienced and knowledgeable, and recommended the combo to me for my power level and application. By the way, I'm making 440-470 rwhp (depending on which tune I use), and I drag race with 28" slicks and 2nd gear burnouts.

I used to have a SPEC 3 clutch, which grabbed great at the track –in fact, it took anything you threw at it. But the driveability with the SPEC 3 was terrible, due to the on/off nature of the clutch. With the Mcleod, the driveability is amazing. The pedal pressure is so light, the first time I pushed down on it to start the engine, my left foot almost went through the floor. I think its lighter than stock. The clutch slips out so nicely and gradually, I don't mind stop/go, bumper/bumper traffic anymore. I actually like driving the car again.
I gave the clutch a nice 500 mile break-in (with the help of my 50 mile commute from Baltimore to DC every day). I was ready to start abusing the clutch, so I did a few tests before taking it to the track:

The first thing I tried was punching the gas from a 1st gear roll, about 10-15 mph. Tires spun throughout 1st (normal). I then shifted at ~ 6000 rpms. When I got into 2nd gear, the clutch slipped very bad. I shut down, and smelled burning clutch. I never experienced that with the SPEC 3. In fact, I don’t think I experienced that with the King Cobra clutch I had in there before the SPEC 3.

How is this clutch going to handle 2nd gear burnouts?

TEST 2: I had a wet ground (rain) and street tires -should be easy getting the tires going in these conditions. I engaged the line lock, reved it up, and dumped the clutch. The clutch slipped badly -it didn't grab at all, all rpms, no mph. So I shut down immediately. Again I smelled burning clutch.

On several other occasions (on dry ground), I tried punching the gas from a roll in 2nd, 3rd 4th gears. In these tests, the clutch always grabbed well. But from time to time, I would detect a faint smell of burning clutch.

By the way, I have my cable adjusted such that the clutch engages at the midpoint of the pedal travel –half way between fully depressed and fully released.
So before I badmouth this clutch, go back to an on/off clutch, and return to hating to drive my car, is it possible that the shop that installed it could have screwed something up in the install?

Also, I'd like to hear anyone else's impression of this clutch...

(Sorry for the novel)

Update: Cable tension was set too tight, that's why the clutch was slipping so badly. I feel kind of stupid for trusting the shop to have properly adjusted the cable.



After properly adjusting it, I did my 2nd gear burnout test again (its still raining here). The clutch slipped for about a half second, then grabbed and the tires spun. A big improvement over yesterday, where my tires didn't move. But I still smelled a little clutch burn from the slipping.


So hopefully, problem solved. I just hope the new disk isn't messed up from all that slipping due to the misadjusted cable.

Walt at Promotion recommended 500 miles, which is what I did. Also, those 500 miles were mostly heavy stop and go traffic, not 5th gear highway cruises.