my clutch took a crap
 

At 118,000 miles on my ride my clutch is shot. I was planning on going with a ford racing heavy duty one. My car is near stock and will stay this way. Any imput would be great. I was told the h-pipe must be dropped to do this task. I'm going to install an off road one while my tranny is down. Should i get aluminum or stainless steel. Is aluminum way lighter than the stainless steal? What should i check while my trans is off the car besides the mounts and the rear main seal? Thank you for any information!

get a copper off road H-pipe, j/k I don't know of any stainless steel H-pipes. Any H-pipe out of a performance shop will do. And yes you do need to drop the H-pipe for a clutch change. Check your O2 sensors and I would recommend changing the clutch quadrant to an aluminum one (vs. your stock plastic) and getting a heavy duty clutch cable, oh, and a firewall adjuster would save you lots of time down the road. I guess if you rarely race then I would just change the clutch disk, pressure plate, and throwout bearing.

Look at the Star Performance Enginered Clutch (SPEC) Stage I, it is similar to a KC but is said to hold up better and it's cheaper. The kit comes with TOB, disc, PP and pilot tool. I would also get a good clutch quadrant and adjustable cable. Get a nice Aluminized H-Pipe or get the Mac which is HTS coated.

www.specpwr.com

Call and ask for David Norton:)

You'll want to do the pilot bearing, rear seal and on the tranny do the front bearing retainer (get a steel one), don't forget to resurface the flywheel as well.

The preceeding posts are all good advice.

I would just add that at 118,000 miles on the car my recommendation would be to replace the flywheel as a matter of both safety (they crack from metal fatigue) and to ensure that you don't encounter problems with vibration after the new clutch is in (I've seen it happen).

A new stock cast-iron flywheel runs about $100.
Steel is $225. and recommended but on a stock engine, not really raced, the iron flywheel will do as the original one has lasted 118,000 miles.

Replace that rear main seal as they always leak.