You do you, he does him, I do me, we do us. And we LOVE drama. And daylight savings time.
@DannyP said "Where have all the tinkerers gone? It's a ghost-town around here."
I've been thinking about that too. I'm currently on a tinkering break, but my fingers are starting to get that itch again (another rash?). Not sure when, but I know I'll have to get back into it.
Bonus project. I think I finally got my oil leak fixed. I thought a rubber strainer gasket would do it. Nope.
What finally did it was new strainer nuts. The old ones have a little casting mark across the sealing face. They are almost invisible. Greg sent me some smooth ones a while back. I tried those and it seems like it worked. Crazy that a tiny scored line could leak like that, even with a fresh rubber gasket!
I am on to my next projects already as partially reported elsewhere on the board --upgrading heads and clutch. Pat Downs recommended dual spring heads when I asked him about installing Dellortos and A-1 Sidewinder exhaust. I will be buying a set of AA heads from him.
Also, the stock clutch now slips, so he recommended Kennedy Stage 1. I'll do that now too.
I am running the Sachs HD in my Spyder(and in another Spyder I built the motor on) and they do not slip with near 200 hp, but are light on the foot like stock.
A Kennedy Stage 1 isn't really any heavier than stock for your foot, but I hear Stage 2 certainly is!
I run a Stage 2 and I've got fake knees. Man up, ya wuss. 
Dude, that's harsh! Just kidding, don't care. I LIKE my stock, OE knees!
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I started with a Kennedy Stage 2 on my new build and had some issues, mainly chatter, even when the Bowden tube was set up right.
We swapped in a Stage 1, with a new Kush-Lok disk, and all was good. The chatter was probably fixed by the Kush-Lok, but we'll never know.
Yeah, you can live with the pressure of the Stage 2, but shouldn't need to unless you're a drag racer – or Stan. It's not your friend in traffic, but there's another thing to consider.
It's been rumored our cars can snap clutch cables occasionally, or have those little welded cable guides inside the tunnel break loose. For some, either job will bring joy to the heart or brighten an otherwise cloudy day. Another chance to spend some quality time with the car, out in the garage.
For me, not so much though. I'd rather be out driving. The Stage 1 should make that cable last a lot longer. (And if you haven't already, check out the clutch pedal mod that replaces the old steel cable hook with a roller bearing.)
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Thank you @Sacto Mitch That is helpful. My "real" Porsche has a very heavy clutch. It never really bothered me much. In traffic, it's a bit of an annoyance, but I can deal.
I'm more worried about breaking cables, etc. I had that problem with my old '63 bus. Complete drag. Broken down on the side of the freeway, climbing under, replacing cables. One time it was with the wicked mother in law and the kids in the car. Ugh. Thankfully, she has gone to the other side, so no such risk now, but I don't want to deal with breakdowns that are so easily avoidable.
I talked further to Pat Downs and he thought the Stage 1 would solve the problems. Will the Kennedy Stage 1 "kit" have a Kush-Lok disk, or will whatever Kennedy supplies be good enough?
@Sacto Mitch posted:Yeah, you can live with the pressure of the Stage 2, but shouldn't need to unless you're a drag racer – or Stan.
We long ago established that I'm an ape.
But I'm not JUST an ape, I'm an ape with ideas!, which makes me doubly dangerous and will likely keep me gainfully employed long past my original retirement plan. This is because ideas are where money goes to die.
As it regards a pressure plate -- I'm not running a Stage 2 just to prove I can. I'm as refined and sophisticated as the next busted up, white-trash, hick-town, aging boy-racer wannabe, and I'd enjoy a nice delicate clutch just like Hollywood Mitch (picture below), if for no other reason than I'd like to know how it feels to appear super-suave and debonair as I glide through the switchbacks, rather than driving like I'm raging against the machine with ham-fisted inputs.
Anyway, here's my way of looking at it with my primitive pea-sized brain:
When you get your engine built (if it's a quality build) you also get it balanced. The pressure plate is a part of the rotating assembly that gets balanced along with the rest of the bottom end.
LI-Rick and I had this discussion a month or so ago-- it's apparently not a matter of balancing a pressure plate in isolation, the pressure plate is balanced in conjunction with all the rest. The net effect is that if you eat yours, or burn it, or warp it, or decide it's too much or too little -- you're just SOL unless you want to pull the entire engine apart and get a NEW pressure plate balanced along with the rest of it.
That's nuts and nobody does it. Your engine is only REALLY balanced the one time -- when it's built, with the pressure plate you hope is perfect for the application.
... so choose wisely.
My life has been lived mostly as a series of over-reactions to mistakes, shortcomings, or poor decisions I've made in the past. The reason I went with a Stage 2 is that I've had Stage 1s slip, and so (rightly or not) the Kennedy Stage 1 was filed in the "poor decision" part of my brain I try to avoid like it's on fire.
And so, in the spirit of "more is more", I run more pressure plate than I'm supposed to need. Personally, I'd rather not think, "yeah, that'll probably be enough" and then find out it wasn't and then be SOL until the next motor.
That's my reason, and a man's got to have his reasons. You do you. I'll be over here with my belt and suspenders and my Stage 2 clutch. Fixing a broken clutch cable is a lot easier than rebalancing an engine.
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Jake Raby used to suggest having 2 pressure plates balanced when doing the original balance job, just in case. Just saying.
@LI-Rick posted:Jake Raby used to suggest having 2 pressure plates balanced when doing the original balance job, just in case. Just saying.
Excellent advice in hindsight (being 20/20 as it is).
Next motor, I'll balance a Sachs, a Stage 1, a Stage 2, and a Ron Lummus multi-disc set-up.
That'll do it.
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@Teammccalla , you can see that others here know a lot more about clutches than I do. (We Hollywood types care mostly about shifting effortlessly without appearing to break a sweat.) So, I don't know what Kennedy supplies in kits (or if there are 'kits' per se). I do know their pressure plates were sort of industry standard for many years and were used with a wide variety of disks with success.
Lately, though, folklore has it they're 'not the same anymore' (but, what is?), so maybe what to choose is a good discussion point.
I do know that I found a way to quickly destroy the first Stage 1 we installed. I read all the folklore about adjusting pedal freeplay posted here and on most VW sites, climbed under, and started spinning the big adjuster thumbscrew until I had just exactly one half inch of freeplay at the end of the pedal. I drove happily like that for about a month until one day I declutched and found myself with only about half a clutch still working.
It turns out that if you install a standard VW pedal assembly in some of our cars, you can keep pressing the pedal at the bottom of the stroke until it stretches the pressure plate springs way past the point that God or Kennedy ever intended.
On my next Stage 1, we may have installed a plain old Kennedy or a Sachs disk, I can't remember. Still no chatter. I ended up putting a physical stop under the pedal to limit travel and have been clutching and declutching ever since without incident.
Well, until today, when I got called out for being a wuss with a Stage 1.
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I think somebody is cornfused
I am the one with the so-called wimpy leg.
The Sachs 200 HD is pretty light on the foot, but she holds tight. The key seems to be 5/8" master/7/8" slave. And yes, I bent the fingers on my Kennedy due to over-extension, which is the why of the Sachs. And no, I didn't re-balance the crank/flywheel/pressure plate. I just bolted the new clutch on. I didn't notice any difference in power, smoothness, or vibration. If I remove it, I'll mark it so it can go back on the same way. From what I've read, Sachs does a better job these days at making things balanced than Kennedy.
Put me in the wimpy leg class as well. I found that a 100mm clutch release arm gave me less of a pain in traffic, better breath, and I was the belle of the debutante ball. You may have to search to find one:
Hey -- if y'all want to run your cute little pressure plates, who am I to cast stones?
Here on the SOC, we're open-minded and accepting of a multiplicity of orientations and identifications, including "wuss". If you want to get in touch with your feminine side, then you absolutely should and I shouldn't stand in your way. It's a big tent.
I was just having a personal reaction to the "Stage 2 is just so heavy" complaint. Since I'm a member of the patriarchy with all the toxic masculinity that entails, I didn't fully appreciate the difficulty some folks may have leg-pressing the 35 lbs or so it takes to push a Stage 2 all by oneself!
Especially with all the traffic we encounter, since we're all on a daily commute in heavy traffic in our clown-cars. Week in and week out, we grind through stop-and-go traffic -- because this is what we bought these cars to do. Regardless, it may be just too much for you, and I should have been more sensitive to that. I don't know how hard it is for you, and I won't judge.
You should definitely do you. 
OK, @Stan Galat. I’ll bite. What is the actual benefit of a heavier pressure plate than is required? I guess on a borderline application, you are assured of good performance.
I need to make a decision on clutch. Opinions requested…
I don’t have a guess at HP or torque. Guesses?
I will have:
A-1 sidewinder
Dellorto 45 DLRAs
”Mild” VMC cam
94mm cylinders And Mahle Motorsports 94mm piston kit
1.25 Rocker arm kit with swivel ball adjusting screws
Custom Pat Downs heads. AA 500 series cylinder heads with 40x35.5 stainless valves, D port intake, dual valve springs, chromoly retainers, 94mm bore
IDF port matched manifolds to cylinder heads done by Pat
Chromoly .035 wall push rods, racing push rod tubes, push rod tube seal kit
So guesses on HP and clurch recommendation?
I've had my last response all typed out for several days, wondering if it was going to be understood as a joke or not, since I consider Mike, Danny, and Mitch (the prime advocates for the Stage 1) to be my friends. Judging from the response, it was a swing and a miss. It was funny to me but not to anybody else. Ah well, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I amuse myself, and that's got to be enough.
Regarding the pressure plate, I think it depends on the clutch disc. There are grabby discs that don't need as much pressure plate to hold and spongy discs that need more. The downside to the grabby discs is that they can chatter and tear up the flywheel and or pressure plate surface. I ran a "Copperhead" disc for a few years, with conventional clutch material on the flywheel side and copper pucks on the pressure plate side. It was supposed to provide the best of both worlds with a nice, light clutch pedal, but it never lived up to the billing.
I've always had more luck with a heavier PP and a conventional clutch than with a light PP and a fancy disc. I'd love nothing more than for that to work, but I've tried several flavors and brands and never felt the love. I've also never felt like a Stage 2 was all that heavy, but I live in a small town with a dozen stoplights in total.
Everybody has an opinion. I guarantee Pat has one too. I'd follow his recommendation. I'm learning the limits of my "ideas" of late.
There's no way I could venture a guess on the torque or HP on your revised engine. I don't know the cam specs and I don't know what the heads flow.
No, actually. It made me chuckle. I would go into why I am not doing the bottom end but not on the board.
I definitely do me, as you know! Thank you again for your help. Much appreciated.
@Stan Galat posted:.I've always had more luck with a heavier PP and a conventional clutch than with a light PP and a fancy disc.
I just figured your perspective was tinged by early, intense, exposure to muscle car era Firebirds!