An update on my RLR REV6 clutch with pictures

[dragvw2180]

  Before anyone starts I talked with Ron and ran the pictures past him before I posted this. I have been running the REV6 awhile now and have been extremely satisfied with its performance. I sold my race car but retained the engine and transmission for my new " Street " car . Since alot of you do not know me I am going to give you a quick rundown on the engine . I have a 2387 Turbo engine , 044 heads that Dave Kawell put some love into , small Kawell cam comparable to a FK10, and an old turbo older than alot of guys on here but the combo puts out 366rwhp and incredable torque . Before installing the REV6 I was breaking type 1 trannies like potato chips , after about 50 plus passes I just checked my tranny and the R/P looks like it did when Todd Howard ( Mega Machine) and I put it together. I have done MANY 1.35 60 fts with no burnouts . I know everyone has already seen this video but I am going to use it as an example of how much I abused the clutch,mine was the red car,

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FJZrEFElU24" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/FJZrEFElU24</a>
   
Now that that is out of the way here is what I found when I tore it down,
This is a how it looked when I recieved it from Ron,


A terrible picture of the flywheel, notice the machine marks where he surfaced it still present ,


the clutch disc flywheel side , again look at the machine marks ,


First floater flywheel side,



Other side of floater,


Outer disc flywheel side,


the other side,


The outer floater and clutch cover,



     Saying I was suprised was a large understatement , I really expected everything to be scored and needing replacement. I measured it all out and the wear was so little that Ron told me to just glass bead the discs and put it back together. If anyone out there is running a type 1 tranny and producing enough torque to need it, I would tell you that my REV6 paid for itself the first season , let alone the work of rebuilding the tranny every race. Again I am NOT in any way associated with RLR just a happy old man who wanted to pass on what I found to someone else who may be having the problems I had with breakage and a cure for it. I almost forgot, I had either removed or disabled and sold all clutch management systems since installing the REV6 setup, they were no longer needed .Mike McCarthy

[TexasTom]

Excellent review and vital information, Mike ... Thanks!
TxT

[dragvw2180]

 Hey Tom, Thanks for the kind words . I hope some of the other people who have this setup chime in here and give us some of their feedback too . Mike McCarthy

[Andy Sykes]

that's good for me to know in got one on my Pauter motor

[dannyboy]

what sort of hp would this setup be needed over a rlr black magic disc and a stage 1 or 2?

[Ragtop]

I run the Rev 6 as well. I am really satisfied with it's performance.

[dragvw2180]

 Hey Ragtop , wade on in here and tell me what you have experianced and what kind of proceedure you stage your car with. Any problems you have had or suggestions using it.
 Dannyboy  I do not think there is a HP where it would be needed , Ron makes a single and double setup . If your car 60fts excellent and you are NOT breaking your tranny you probably do not need it . There are alot of high HP cars out there who have clutch setups with CM systems that work perfectly and may or may not gain anything by changing , but I just did not have the money to keep trying to figure it out and rebuilding my tranny every race. I am scared to actually figure how much money I spent on parts and machine work to fix what I broke previously every race , let alone the disapointment over working so hard with so little progress. I just wanted to race not become an engineer . LOL  , I was real happy with my  full pan 366rwhp car running 6.30s and not breaking. Mike McCarthy

[Bernard Newbury]

I have to agree with Mike. I ran the Rev 6 twin disc all last season and it cured all my clutch problems. I was breaking discs, pressure plates so many times I used to carry spares and change the disc or pressure plate
 between runs.

[dragvw2180]

 Thanks Bernard, I am happy to have somene besides me willing to tell their experiances. Are you doing burnouts with your car or not ? Have you had to make any changes ? If you have any insights or advice for someone thinking of stepping up to a Rev6, what would they be ? I really would like to get everyone who has one to tell us their stories so we all can learn. If we could reduce drive train breakage to something bearable and actually concentrate on driving rather than repairing our cars,  life would be alot more fun. Mike McCarthy

[Bernard Newbury]

Thanks Bernard, I am happy to have somene besides me willing to tell their experiances. Are you doing burnouts with your car or not ? Have you had to make any changes ? If you have any insights or advice for someone thinking of stepping up to a Rev6, what would they be ? I really would like to get everyone who has one to tell us their stories so we all can learn. If we could reduce drive train breakage to something bearable and actually concentrate on driving rather than repairing our cars,  life would be alot more fun. Mike McCarthy

My car is a heavy car and I launch and drive hard with no respect for the transmission (ask Pete at Cogbox) and it has held up. Just blast the discs. I bought the twin set up with a new RLR flywheel and then had it lightened. I do a burn out and run regular mid to low 1.3 60fts and I think this could and will be improved. The only thing I did after running it was remove 1 shim.

[Ragtop]

The only differece I can think of compared to using a regular clutch setup is that it takes 1-2 seconds longer before the tires breakloose in the burnout. I´ve run 1.28 at best but I know cars that have done 1.20s.

[dragvw2180]

 Damn that flywheel is VW porn !!!!!!!!!!!  Almost makes me wish mine was a flanged crank instead of wedgemated unit.  I am putting my old race engine and transmission from the Pro Outlaw car into my new full bodied car with a few changes ( NOS and Dellorto sidedraft from Kawell ) and look forward to going to the track and trying it out . When you guys do your burnouts can you feel your clutch tighten up noticeably , I may have to do some hard burnouts and just try it when I get it back together . Thanks for talking about you experiances and feel free to add anything that might enlighten, entertain, or help everyone else .  I hate all the secrecy that alot of racers have, I know people who are extremely competitive want to keep any performance advantage they have a secret and I understand that , but I always have believed I had more fun beating someone who was evenly matched with me and just plain out drove them or was beaten by someone else who was on their game , thats fun . Allowing people to spend all their funds replacing broken parts and knowing that it could be prevented without telling them is just plain sad. I know how it is when I look at spending money on parts , and remember thinking that I couldn't afford to spend that much . I added up the money I spent on broken parts and it made me sick , like I said the RLR6 paid for itself after three races for me . Thank you again to the guys who are giving everyone some insights and experiances with the RLR6. Mike McCarthy

[NoBars]

How will it work on the street do you think?

[dragvw2180]

 I expect it to be like driving a 4 puck on the street but I will let everyone know after I drive mine awhile if you are interested . I had heard that some of the ASA guys were running one but they have been silent about it , shhhh don't tell anyone it may be a secret, LOL  Mike McCarthy

[Bernard Newbury]

How will it work on the street do you think?

When the Black Magic was introduced people used to say they could not be used on the street, but hey how many street cars have them now 

[dragvw2180]

 Hey Bernard , Good point. What does your clutch pedal pressure feel like ?   On the guys who are running this clutch setup and flanged cranks without the center main conversion have you seen any differance on the main bearing wear? I know on my car the pedal " feels " like a stock clutch setup which should lessen thrust wear. Mike McCarthy

[Bernard Newbury]

Hey Bernard , Good point. What does your clutch pedal pressure feel like ?   On the guys who are running this clutch setup and flanged cranks without the center main conversion have you seen any differance on the main bearing wear? I know on my car the pedal " feels " like a stock clutch setup which should lessen thrust wear. Mike McCarthy

I have a hydraulic clutch so it is very easy.  I did have the centre main thrust conversion and the bearings seemed ok. It does not matter at the moment as at the last event a couple of weeks ago a roller lifter let go and detonated the case plus a few other bits so its now back to building a new engine but at least I had sorted my clutch issues  

[dragvw2180]

 Damn Bernard I really hate to hear that .  If you need any help locating any parts let me know , anything I can do to help. Was it your lifter bore breaking the cause or something else ?  I was at a friends shop not long ago  ( Todd Howard/ Mega machine ) and checked out his roller conversion , just impressive setup.  I am a pauper and run a Kawell flat tappet cam , but again I am a little guy compared to you . Mike McCarthy

[Bernard Newbury]

Damn Bernard I really hate to hear that .  If you need any help locating any parts let me know , anything I can do to help. Was it your lifter bore breaking the cause or something else ?  I was at a friends shop not long ago  ( Todd Howard/ Mega machine ) and checked out his roller conversion , just impressive setup.  I am a pauper and run a Kawell flat tappet cam , but again I am a little guy compared to you . Mike McCarthy

Thanks for the offer Mike. You are not a little guy as when I go to the track with the V8's I think I am a little guy!!    I think it was case fatigue and the lifter bore gave. The lifter put a hole in the case but the parachute mount would not let the lifter out so it went on a rampage round the case. 

[dragvw2180]

 Thanks Bernard,  If you get a chance check out Mega Machines website and look at his roller lifter bore setup he installs, very clean and extremely strong. The case I saw was a pentroof aluminum case that he machines out the old and installs a heavier lifter bore assembly. If you look closely at the picture of the case on his website you can see it pretty good.      http://www.megamachineinc.com/      I hope this helps a little bit.   Mike McCarthy

[Shag55]

Why did you have your flywheel lightened Bernie?

[Bernard Newbury]

Why did you have your flywheel lightened Bernie?

I had it machined over here. The reason I had it done was to get the RLR assembly weight as close as I could to the flywheel and clutch assembly that I had been running as I knew that would work and not bog. The assembly I was running had been lightened a bit as you can see in the picture.

[58vw]

thank you for all the info...awesome stuff...

[jersey joe]

Mike, I run a Rev 6 on the street. I did a lot of initial testing on it for Ron and shared a lot of feedback with him. The machine work done on your current clutch setup is the same as mine. I had a difficult time getting the dual disk setup to fit in the bell housing since I don't have a motor plate on my car. I have been in touch with Bernard also since he ran into the same issue and told him what I did. Ron liked the idea and I'm pretty sure it is standard on his wedge mate style dual disk settups now. It's no secret and I'm the only one running it in ASA at the moment.
I didn't have luck with the single disk on the spray. It let loose in third gear. The dual disk works great and I ran my personal best ET with it.
On the street it is like a stock clutch with very little pedal effort. I have definitely beat it up with my current HP and weight of my car.
Here is a video of a pass with it when I was testing with it for Ron.
If anyone has any questions about the clutch feel free to ask or call me because I have quite a bit of notes and data that I gained with it. Ron is a stand up guy and puts out a quality product.

http://youtu.be/TTd7aLOg7CE

[dragvw2180]

 Hey Joe, Thank you for giving your feedback , this was exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this. There are so many guys out there that can benefit from this setup and hopefully reduce their breakage if only they were informed about it. I knew you had one , and had hoped you would give everyone your feedback also , thanks again . Like you I do not run a motorplate but I didn't have any clearance issues with my Autocraft case,  but if I remember correctly you are running one also and did . I completely agree about everything you had to say about RLR, he is one of the best people I ever worked with, a stand up guy .I am NOT going to make "DRAGNITE " afterall , the street car just went onto the back burner for now .    I  bought my wife Sue a motorhome to replace our camper , thats my story and I am sticking to it , LOL.   Mike McCarthy

[JamieL]

http://youtu.be/TTd7aLOg7CE

Nice launch!

what rpm was that at on the 2-step?

[jersey joe]

6400

The car is 2015lbs with me. It went 10.47 @ 129.57 on that pass.

[germanvador]

what is the price of REV6 , impossible to see on the RLR website.

thanks

[Bernard Newbury]

I am glad some one mentioned Autocraft case as that is my new case. I had to gain .160" depth which I did by machining various surfaces.  .080" has been machined from the flywheel face, .080" from the floater plate, 040" from the crank bolt recess, .040" from the top hat of the 1st clutch disc (nearest flywheel), .040" from the crank bolt length and .030" from the crank bolt head, and a total of .160" from the posts. Mine came with a new flywheel and was about $1430.00