ValAir v. South Bend?

[Chris Taylor]

Looking at single mass setups to put in my '97 Super Duty, the kits look a lot alike, are there any main differences other than price? It looks like the ValAir is a little cheaper with the clutch and flywheel and rated to more torque/hp.. I'm not going to get crazy with upgrades, but I will be putting a downpipe and possibly a chip later down the road.

Anybody, specifically car haulers, have experience with one or both they wanna share? Not really interested in putting the dual mass setup back on it since mine is raining spring pieces on the ground.

[najaf4life]

never had a SBC... nor the same year as your truck.... mine was a 2003 7.3L.... but I did have the Valair clutch and I had no problems at all with mine.... if you might be looking into getting a valair clutch you can get it from a sponor on this site Raul@stealth-automotive... here is a link for his Valair clutch...

ValAir Performance Diesel Clutches

[Chris Taylor]

That's where I was doing my comparison... $490 for 900ft. lbs vs. $575 for stock... seems like both my cheapass side and wanting some wiggle room for upgrades get fixed up with the ValAir.

[najaf4life]

yeah... can't recall which one I had but I don't think you can go wrong with Valair....

[IHwelk49]

My buddy has a truck with the Valair Clutch that was put in to replace a South Bend clutch if that answers your question. In a couple of weeks were going to Haisley Machine to get a clutch for his other truck

[Chris Taylor]

Well to update the thread I went with the Valair clutch, had no install issues whatsoever (although I didn't do it, I "supervised" ) and now have about 3,000 miles on it, mostly towing a 32' open car hauler with as much as 12k pounds on it (total a little under 15k).

Absolutely no issues with it on driveability, I was a little worried about the feel and engagement but it's a vast improvement over the dual mass. Not only that, the insane vibrations the truck had from about 50-60 are GONE... I was afraid to ask the question for fear the answer would be a balancer or something in the engine, but it turns out it was just the dual mass flywheel coming apart!

[SMKSTAX]

NICE! My valair is holding up nicely too. And i torture it with the way i drive.

[outlawdiesel]

the Valair is GOOD for the money.very strong and the kit was very complete.
smooth ,quiet and unreal holding power.very good for a work truck.BUT SOUTH BEND IS THE BEST BY FAR!!!!
my 2 cents