I have been looking at clutches for my 3800 N/A swap and was wondering, what is better? What are the advantages/ disadvantages of a sprung hub and vice versa..

quote Originally posted by ProNUNICAN: I have been looking at clutches for my 3800 N/A swap and was wondering, what is better? What are the advantages/ disadvantages of a sprung hub and vice versa..

Just my opinion, but you only need the solid hub if you pushing engine to max with respect to Torque/HP. For a 3800 N/A I think you'd better better off with the sprung hub.

If I could offer an opinion:
Unless you plan on turbo'ing the motor, go as close to OEM as you can. I run the HD clutch kit from the fiero store with amazing results on my 3800NA. Works great, clamps hard enough for a 4.9 (several people running them with 270 ft. lb. motors), and engages really nicely for street driving. I've also run mine at the strip several times. I just swapped my transmissions after 2000 miles on the clutch, and it was nice and clean in the bell housing still.

FWIW, there is a good reason OEM's use sprung hubs or dual mass flywheels for NVH, and unless you're over the limit of what they can handle it's a good idea to copy the people that spend millions on research.

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Build thread for my 88 + 3800NA swap

Alright thanks. I was leaning more toward the sprung hub anyways, I just wasn't entirely sure if there were significant differences between the two. Now I am planning to throw a turbo on it later on, so I guess I should go to a solid hub when I pull the motor for putting in some forged rods & pistons... Also while looking at different clutches, I noticed that there are ones constructed with three, four or six pucks. What would be the application for such a clutch?

I went with the unsprung spec stage 4 and have regretted the combo. At some point when the car is inside for the winter I will be replacing the clutch with a more forgiving clutch. The way the car behaves right now really isn't that much fun to drive.

With a solid hub, the clutch will not be as forgiving. The phrase "piss or get off the pot" comes to mind. However, the solid hub weighs less, which could be beneficial to a racing engine.

edit to add: The "puck" style clutch discs are typically only used on race cars. The fewer pucks it has, the more harsh clutch engagement will be. And less pucks also means shorter clutch life.

To sum it up, unless your Fiero is a race car, it would be wise to use a full-face clutch disc with a sprung hub. Or if you're going for a street/strip application, then a 6-puck disc with a sprung hub (or full-face with solid hub) might do the trick.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 08-01-2013).]

Thanks for the input guys. This is going to help me out a lot with my swap.