360 Manual conversion in Switzerland and clutch plates

I personally wouldn't bother with an aftermarket clutch. I've heard mixed reviews on them. Also, why would you change your clutch, briefly drive it as F1, and then pull everything apart again? If you are going to do a manual conversion, you might as well do it the proper way when everything is apart.

 

I thought about going aftermarket with my clutch too and then decided not to. The factory clutch feels great and it made for the car's power. I really don't think anything more is even needed.

Also, when you do your conversion, do it right and change the TO bearing to the manual version. Just fix your clutch when you do the conversion.

 

I would just do it all properly the first time with an oem clutch. While you can use a separate resevoir with F1 fluid, to me it's cutting corners, but in the end it is your car and up to you.

I would advise against doing things based upon what youtubers do with these cars. At best, they are typically inexperienced with this platform. At worst, they have no idea what they are talking about. Plus a lot of the parts they recommend are because they got youtuber discounts from the company supplying them for their advertisement. Not saying that is always the case, but more often than not.

 

I *just* completed my manual conversion today and drove my car around. I did all of the work myself using the Dr. S kit and opted to keep the F1 release bearing and clutch and use the F1 fluid and F1 master cylinder for now.

The F1 clutch feels and works great, it feels just like any other clutch.

However, when I do eventually have to replace the clutch, then I will replace the special master cylinder and F1 clutch with the normal OEM style parts and get rid of the F1 fluid bits.
But for now, the ease of not having to drop the trans for the swap and spend all that extra money--and the ability to change it later when I have to change the clutch anyway make it a no-brainer.

The only issue I see is that the F1 fluid you need to use with the conversion (Pentosyn CHF11S). It's working temperature range is "-40°C to over 130°C" aka -40 to 266 F

That is a little worrisome for when I am going to track the car that the fluid might not keep up with the heat. For reference, the brake fluid (and clutch fluid) I usually use is Motul RBF600 which can handle close to 600 degrees F.

 

The seals are different. That's the difference between the TO bearings.

 

The seals are most definitely not the same. The interior seals of the throwout bearing need to be changed along with the seals behind the pipe to the throwout bearing. Be weary, some suppliers have the wrong part listed for the pipe seals for the manual cars for whatever reason. At least Eurospares did. Not sure if they fixed it after i corrected them. I found that out when the seals gave out the day before the FCA annual and had the pull the transmission during the event to fix it.
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Yes. That is actually what some shops do.

 

Amen.

I assume you're referring to the difference between 121813 and 166432 (tiny o-rings behind the flange) ? Identical size o-ring, but absolutely not identical in use.

 

That is correct. They look the exact same too.

 

Hi @Joe90 congratulations on deciding to convert your car to manual!

No issues with driving converted cars in Switzerland, check the website of our Swiss distributor https://www.cambiomanuale.ch/ for more information about Cambio Manuale (Dr S) kits in Switzerland. We have many kits installed there.

@aventari (above) has also used our kit.

We have pioneered the conversions using the F1 fluid as clutch fluid with plenty of cars driving trouble free on many continents for a few years now. Both street cars and pure race track cars like Challenge. The key is to use proper seals, proper materials and installation to do the conversion, so I would advise not to experiment but to only go with a proven and well tested solution here (I'm not aware of any other vendors being successful with this approach).

Of course if you are not sure or if you prefer brake fluid for clutch fluid by all means go ahead with it - this is the default in our kits (F1 it optional).

 

Hi George, do you actually provide installation in Switzerland as well for the 6 speed manual comversion?

 

Hi Jay

Thank you for your interest. Cambio Manuale LLC does not provide installations anywhere. But there are many independent shops globally, which are experienced with installations of our kits. Please use the Swiss link above to contact our representative who can connect you with local installers.