It is to protect from overextending the pressure plate with the hydraulic throw-out bearing. It is a must for longevity.

I had a Tilton triple carbon in a Supra. Loved the feel, the pedal pressure, the shifts, everything. Right up until I realized it needed to be dropped and measured frequently and re-shimmed every 1500-2000 miles, and needed to go back to Tilton around 5k miles in.

Street driving and stop/go traffic where have to slip the clutch to get moving repeatedly is where the Tilton wears out.. Had I been only tracking the car it would've lasted an eternity. I was told by Tilton this is normal, this clutch is not meant for street use.

I loved the perfomance of that clutch so much that even with that experience in my Supra I still nearly bought another one for my Porsche. There's nothing like it.

 

Yes that ^. I have heard wildly varying stories of longevity before having to shim the Tilton though. I'm hoping to get more life out of it than 2000 miles before having to shim.

I didn't think I was going to like the clutch stop but actually I do. The pedal just doesn't go down as far. As for being "like stock" I was referring to it being smooth, and a large enough engagement window that you can roll out smoothly with very little effort.

I've had an Exedy twin ceremetallic, a bunch of various organic single disc clutches, and this one. It's actually easier to drive this than the stock clutch as the pedal engagement is more consistent -- although you can "solve" that with the BBi slave for $1200 on other clutches.

Edit: One thing to mention is that I'm running the heavy flywheel on the Tilton. It requires a lot less RPM and slipping to get going than the lightweight flywheel setup. I'm not really sure how much wear a slight slip from 800rpm to get going really is. Guess I'm going to find out .

 

I had the lightweight flywheel option.. that did contribute to the accelerated wear. Not sure how much.

Tilton clutch is a dream to drive. It is impossible to make anyone a believer in that aspect until they experience it. And how it revs so fast...... oh how it revs

 

I am very curious how long it will last for you, as I was thinking of getting one. I have two friends with Supras here local and they both told me exact same thing as what SeattleTurbo posted ...... 1500 miles for a check/reshim. Porsches don't have the inspection window that can be used for this like Supras do. When my car is in operational state I like to drive it pretty much all the time and I just put 2000 miles on it in a month this spring.

 

If those Supra guys are able to fit the wear-measuring device Tilton includes in that inspection hole, I am amazed. I still had to drop my trans to get accurate measurements.

I am the same as you. I fell in love with driving my old car as much as I could once I had the Tilton in, and that ended up being exactly what killed it. I went through all 3 shims in one spring/summer/fall, then it is back to Tilton for a rebuild at ~$1000. Great clutch, amazing. Not for street cars. Hopefully rix proves me wrong because I'd love another one. For now, I am happy to have the newest version of ERP going in (once I can stop driving the car enough to do it).

I wouldn't trust that alone, and would never recommend anyone use a Tilton carbon without a mechanical pedal stop that can be easily adjusted as the clutch wears. Even Tilton will tell you this. The amount the hydraulic release bearing moves changes as the clutch wears and what was ok before is now overstroking after some wear occurs and that is pretty much instant death. A friend installed one in a Viper with a Tilton master cylinder and no pedal stop and the clutch last less than 2k miles before it was slipping so bad he couldn't even drive the car. Only 2 trips to drag strip for testing. Required a full rebuild that was like 2/3 of the original price of the clutch. This kind of wear is installer/user error, but to me it proves a need for a mechanical stop that can be easily adjusted.

Anyway enough clutch talk let's see more build pics

 

Wasn't the clutch the single most expensive part of this build though? Kind of important to discuss. Do it wrong and you hate your car but I guess it is what it is and we'll know with time how it stands the test of time if rix puts on enough mileage on it

And agreed, back to build updates!

 

Let us know how you are enjoying it as I have the older revision and even though I have gotten use to driving it now, it still is not the best to enjoy the car for day to day or just cruising.


Thxs!


Bobby Ali


ba

 

Love this thread. Incredible information here. Thanks for taking the time to provide so much detail.

 

Working on some more info. Going to be hitting the dyno (again) later this month in hopes of making some pulls in full anger now that things are sorted out.

 

i was merely adding that there are other options. also wasnt referring to the carbon clutch but rather the cerramettalic clutch . there are about a half dozen of these setups on the street and working with no issues

 

Well, no one else was discussing the cerametallic- all discussion was relating to the Tilton carbon since that is what rix is using, what I have used, and what prodigy was referencing. Perhaps make that clear in your post so someone doesn't go and try to run a carbon Tilton without the pedal stop. In the setup manual directly from Tilton, it stressed the importance of using a stop when setting up the carbon clutch. I trust the clutch manufacturer more than I trust some unproven alternative by a 3rd party, especially if all examples of this slave cylinder aren't even on the same clutch being talked about here. Comparing the carbon clutch and the cerametallic is apples and oranges. What goes for one does not necessarily go for the other.

 

If you launch though hard a cerametallic clutch is a very bad idea. Those weld to the flywheel. I've had it happen and since then only stick to carbon multi plate clutches

 

Now that you mention this... Very true. I had this happen with a twin plate cerametallic clutch that I ran in my Supra prior to the Tilton... actually this is why I went to Tilton. It fused together after slipping from high rpm launch and would not allow me to shift into any gear. I had to turn the car off to get it into gear to get back to pits and when diagnosed the problem dump the fix was to dump the clutch multiple times from high rpm to get the thing unfused then let it cool off to drive home.

I completely forgot about this issue. Good point.

 

was it a tilton twin?
so this wasnt a tilton but some other clutch? what was the torque level at when you launched it?

 

No the one I seized up was not a Tilton... Hopefully tech has evolved since then to keep this from happening on new setups. This was many years/cars ago, hard to remember the exact specs of the car at that exact time... either a Giken or Blitz twin plate clutch. 600-700 wheel torque on that set up? Launched without antilag, may have had a 2-step. I think BFG drag radials. Launch around 4800-5000 with slip to keep from bogging, shift to 2nd felt a little funny, 3rd gear locked out. Couldn't change into gears without shutting off the car, and in gear with the clutch pedal pressed in, the clutch did not disengage and the car would creep forward with the pedal pressed all the way down. Unseized it and went back again a week or 2 later to test and tune night thinking maybe it was a fluke and the same thing happened again. Took it all out went with carbon.

edit: now that Im thinking about it, I think I only started having issues after I went to drag radials and started to do burnouts to heat the tires before launch. Heat build up in clutch at burnout and then on launch was too much for it.

If people are interested perhaps we should all start a new thread to not clog rix's build to talk clutch materials and pro/cons...