If you’re looking to add serious horsepower to your 2005-2010 Mustang, you’re going to want to upgrade the clutch. Especially if you’re planning to do any racing, as the factory clutch is barely adequate even at stock power levels. Unfortunately the Mustang clutch is designed with ease of use as the highest priority rather than power handling. That’s where the Exedy Mach 400 Stage 2 Mustang Clutch comes in. This clutch provides a significant step up in power handling while retaining excellent drivability on the street. This clutch is an excellent choice for a high horsepower daily driver or weekend warrior.
So let’s talk power handling. This clutch is designed to handle up to 510 ft/lbs of torque to the wheels. That’s well beyond what you’re likely to make with any naturally aspirated combination, so you don’t have to worry about running over the torque capacity. What about supercharged, Turbo or Nitrous? Well, the Exedy Stage 2 Clutch is still a great choice. The reality is that the stock internals on the 3V 4.6L are a little sketchy above the 500 RWHP mark, so unless you’ve upgraded the engine internals you won’t be limited by this clutch.
What makes this S197 Mustang clutch such a great choice for cars that still see plenty of street use is its near-stock pedal effort and engagement. When you drive a car with a very aggressive clutch on the street you find out very quickly how annoying it can be. Many aftermarket Mustang clutches have a very aggressive engagement that makes it easy to induce clutch chatter. This can be difficult to manage in traffic and even a little embarrassing. It’s hard to look cool while you’re cruising if it looks like you can’t even drive. The Exedy Stage 2 Mustang clutch manages to find a great balance of power handling without sacrificing much at all in terms of street manners.
Like all Exedy Clutches, the Mach 400 clutch for 2005-2010 Mustang GT is made from top quality materials. Exedy actually supplies the OEM clutches for a number of well-known car manufacturers around the world. Their factory is a top level manufacturing facility and their quality of materials is second to none. Not only do they have their own engineers designing these clutches, but they even make their own friction compounds in-house giving them ultimate control over the durability and user experience from the final product.
Installation of any Mustang clutch is a pretty advanced endeavor for those of us that aren’t professional mechanics, but it certainly can be done in your home garage if you have the right equipment and know-how. Even though this is a performance clutch, it is designed to fit the same as stock. So it’s no different to install than swapping out a stock clutch. With any clutch install you should at least resurface the OEM flywheel, or simply upgrade to an aftermarket flywheel to ensure proper clutch bedding. Many aftermarket flywheels, like the Exedy Lighweight Racing Flywheel, offer the advantage of reduced rotating weight, as well as increased durability. If you try to get a brand new clutch to bed properly on your old, probably glazed or cracked flywheel you’ll be disappointed.
Mustang clutch removal and installation involves many steps, but is fairly straightforward. The only tools you’ll need that wouldn’t be in a basic tool set are a torque wrench and a pilot bearing puller. A transmission jack is strongly recommended for this job, though a regular trolley jack can work in a pinch. Basically you just need to put the car on jack stands (or a lift if you have one), disconnect the battery and start by removing the shifter and midpipe. From there you can remove your Mustang’s driveshaft and bellhousing bolts and drop the transmission. See the attached installation document for step-by-step instructions and torque specs (CLICK HERE).
Another important installation note is that break-in is important. Just like with brake pads, a performance clutch requires bedding in before you can get the maximum grip from it. Now that you have your new Mustang clutch installed and a new or resurfaced flywheel you’re ready to drive, but to ensure proper bedding you’ll need to drive a certain way for the first 500 miles. You’ll want to try and keep your driving pretty civilized during this time and do plenty of stop and go driving. If you just head out on the highway and do a 500 mile trip, you won’t cycle the clutch nearly enough to bed in properly. If you go out and immediately start doing burnouts and hole-shots, you’ll probably overheat and glaze your clutch before it even breaks in. This is an important step.
The Mach 400 Mustang clutch kit includes the clutch disc, pressure plate, pilot bearing and alignment tool. It does not include a throwout bearing. The 2005-2010 Mustang uses a hydraulic throwout bearing. It isn’t always necessary to change these, especially if your car has low miles and you’re simply upgrading the clutch to go along with other mods, but it’s not a bad idea to do it anyway while you’re in there just for added assurance. The Exedy Mustang clutch release bearing is fairly inexpensive and is a good way to make sure you get lots of miles down the road (or track) before you need to worry about replacing parts again.
Brothers Performance has found the Exedy clutches to be an excellent value. They have earned a solid reputation for providing high power handling while retaining excellent street drivability, all at an affordable price point. When it comes to performance Mustang clutches it used to be that you had to sacrifice to get the power handling you need, but now you can truly “have your cake and eat it too.”
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