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The C4 on stands for its clutch replacement

Checking the dual-mass flywheel close up.

The clutch was bad, but the real problem was the flywheel. You can see the burn marks all over it, but that’s only part of the problem. The straightedge here should be flat across the face of the flywheel, but instead you can see a disturbing amount of light between the two surfaces. It has warped into a concave shape.

This is the clutch disc. Note how the outer edge has gotten shiny, and how the grooves have worn unevenly across the radius.

The clutch on my ‘96 LT4 has been getting progressively worse for the past few years, and now it’s gotten bad enough that I’ve decided it’s time to think seriously about how I’m going to fix it. It’ll hold for normal driving and while it’s cold, but after it has gotten warmed up it’ll slip with prodigious throttle input on the 4, 5 and 6 gears. I bet if this were an LT1 it wouldn’t even have this problem, it’s just not up to the task for a strong LT4. I bought this car at 126k and have driven it for another 30k like someone who knows how a clutch works, but it had been through a lot of previous owners and since it goes like stink I’m betting the clutch has been abused along the way. I doubt it is the original and I have no way to know what it’s been replaced with.

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