[flht99b]

Originally Posted by ckaram

How necessary is this mod on a bonestock SS? My car has about 1400 miles and the fluid still looks like honey. No crap to be found in it yet, but I'm not clutch-dumping nor do I plan to.

Also, this mod will not affect the smell of the clutch burning as posted above. If you ride or slip the clutch it will burn and stink regardless of the additional reservoir.

Over time even during normal "non spirited" driving clutch dust does enter the clutch hydraulic slave unit inside the bell housing contaminating the brake and clutch hydraulic system fluid as they share a common reservoir point on top of the brake master cylinder. Corvettes as well as the GTO had a separate reservoir for the clutch hydraulic system to prevent this from happening. The real issue in my mind is keeping the brake hydraulic system clean. By separating the clutch and brake hydraulic systems reservoirs neither system contaminates the other. With the separate clutch reservoir, it is an easy, low cost and not very messy task to change the clutch system fluid with out touching the brake hydraulic system too. This mod will not eliminate the clutch burning smell if excessive clutch slippage is encountered. However, keeping the clutch hydraulic system clean does improve clutch actuation over the long term. I have spent some time measuring clutch and brake fluid temperature and the fluid in the clutch hydraulic system consistently runs hotter than the brake system fluid under normal conditions. The clutch hydraulic slave unit sits inside the bell housing and is subject to engine heat as well as clutch heat and does not posses an effective way to dissipate the heat. In my opinion our cars should have had a separate clutch reservoir and I would be surprised if the ZL1 does not have one from the factory.
Ed M.