laminated or billet flexplate?

Thanks everyone for your input.
I took it all in and mostly took JacktheBear3's and asked dave and he told me he has one that will foot my needs.
Thanks again.
Mike
 
Jetpilot said:
I just got one of these.... Personally it looks like the best of both worlds. One piece but twice as thick and SFI certified.
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looks like the same one as i run from DTT
 
munchies said:
I love the mis-representation of the word 'billet' and metallurgy in general. Makes me all warm and fuzzy.
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thats funny, it happens alot!
 
Loose bolts??

triton said:
well, I'll say I'd still be running a Suncoast if this didn't happen.

Apparently, some plates have too much lamination on them. Because of that, once it was heated up several times, the lamination melted causing the bolts to loosen. Several came out all the way. If you happen to be at Indy 07 you may have hear it around the whole track.... it wasn't as pretty sound.

This caused the bolts to wallow out the threads in the crank to where they had to be retapped. Luckily that was able to be done but, the plate was shot !

ATS was at the event and they were nice enough to hook me up with a nice deal on their plate and I've had no problems since.

Suncoast makes a good product and I have all Suncoast billet shafts that I'm perfectly happy with. I'm sure this was an isolated incident but, it's something all you installers should keep an eye on to avoid customer complaints.

After talking to the guys at ATS for a while about the subject....their plate is as good as anyone else's. It my be billet but, it does flex enough to do what it's suppose to do. Too much flex can be a bad thing. Plus, the fact it's billet... you can bet the center will never break out like a Suncoast " style " can.
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That sounds more like an install problem rather than a product failure problem. Did you remember to use locktight? I know b-4 I purchased mine I did numerous searches on the key players in both drag and pulling and they were using the Suncoast laminated units with their autos and those guys were putting down power I could only dream about so I felt safe with the Suncoast laminated unit.
 
OT-OF-Here said:
That sounds more like an install problem rather than a product failure problem. Did you remember to use locktight? I know b-4 I purchased mine I did numerous searches on the key players in both drag and pulling and they were using the Suncoast laminated units with their autos and those guys were putting down power I could only dream about so I felt safe with the Suncoast laminated unit.
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Loc-tite won't help if the surface the bolt screwed down too all the sudden is disappears. There's a lot of torque and force going on and a millimeter of surface removed will cause a bolt to eventually come loose.

It was found the some plate had too much lamination was the problem. Plus " The Jeff Garmon " did the install. He also cover the entire cost of fixing it. I'm sure Suncoast in turn paid him back.
 
Hmmm!

triton said:
Loc-tite won't help if the surface the bolt screwed down too all the sudden is disappears. There's a lot of torque and force going on and a millimeter of surface removed will cause a bolt to eventually come loose.

It was found the some plate had too much lamination was the problem. Plus " The Jeff Garmon " did the install. He also cover the entire cost of fixing it. I'm sure Suncoast in turn paid him back.
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Ok, now I better understand what you are talking about. I know Garmon used one for his own truck,.. at least back when I bought mine and he was one of the guys I checked out when I made the decision to go that way. Apparently that was a bad one for sure,... but I haven't read of there units going South on the forums so it must have been somewhat isolated,... maybe a bad batch. Tks for filling us in.
 
OK HERE THEY ARE This is the same flywheel that I used on the NitroFlash Truck, its is light weight and strong . SFI taged. Was at the WareHouse last week and saw a PALLET of these . are real pallet , not a stack of Drop ship PO books but real PALLET full of these flywheels , and it look like there were Fords. and Duramax's.

did I saw there was a PALLET of them




Flywheel5_9.jpg
 
triton said:
Apparently, some plates have too much lamination on them. Because of that, once it was heated up several times, the lamination melted causing the bolts to loosen.
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triton said:
... you can bet the center will never break out like a Suncoast " style " can.
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I am trying to figure your interpretation of "lamination".
Lamination is described as 2 or more surfaces bonded together.
A windshield is a perfect example of lamination.
In this case. a cut-out center section of a stock flexplate is welded to another flexplate. (see pics below)
All steel, what melted?
There is a rust preventive coating, but very light.
Were new bolts used?
Were they long enough?
And why are others, including myself, running this flexplate with no troubles?
The "lamination melting" part I don't understand.

SuncoastFlexplate1.jpg

SuncoastFlexplate2.jpg


Brad
 
Apparently, some plates have too much lamination on them. Because of that, once it was heated up several times, the lamination melted causing the bolts to loosen.
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I am trying to figure out where all the needed heat came from that caused this "meltdown" of the surface?.If you had that much heat,which in your own words caused the lamination to come off,thus loosening the bolts to create a failure,you would have had a bigger failure problem.
 
Brad- FWIW, 03+ trucks came with a flexplate that is significantly weaker than earlier years.
 
dudes... if you want the answers to your questions.,... you need to ask Jeff Garmon. The install was done at his shop and I've only relied what I was told.

You can say the plates are laminated together but, you can also say that the plate had been laminated with a coating. That coating apparently was too thick. There enough heat in the trans to cause it to degrade which from what I was told is what happen.
 
the laminated flex plates are just that. Two pieces of steel, laminated together by welding. I have installed plenty of them. There is no thick coating. Just two pieces of steel. They take the center section out of a second flexplate and weld it into the the center of a flexplate to make it stronger.
 
well, I wish I still had the plate to take a picture of. Then you would see the thick " laminate " on the plate itself. Yes, there is a coating on them. There was on the one that came out of my truck anyway.

Garmon is sponsored by Suncoast and probably one of their favorite dealers. There may have been installer error but, they also found why my plate came loose. Don't believe me.... call Garmon.
 
Don't have to call him or believe anything! I have installed them personally and they are two pieces of steel. The coating is nothing more than an exterior coating. It does not make it thicker. Don't take my word for it though. You never do. The strength comes from the plate being twice as thick as stock by layer two pieces of steel together like you do with any type of laminated surface, just like plywood
 
lmills said:
Don't have to call him or believe anything! I have installed them personally and they are two pieces of steel. The coating is nothing more than an exterior coating. It does not make it thicker. Don't take my word for it though. You never do. The strength comes from the plate being twice as thick as stock by layer two pieces of steel together like you do with any type of laminated surface, just like plywood
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Why would I take your word for it when I saw the plate myself. The laminate is likely a rust inhibitor to prevent it from rusting until it's installed.

The coating " I was told by Garmon " was applied too thick to the center of the plate. I know a laminated plate is a two piece. I also know what a laminated coating look like.

Whether that actually cause the problem... I couldn't tell you. It's what Garmon told me after it was sent back to Suncoast for examination as to why it failed.

You need to keep an open mind Lloyd. You may have built a lot of hp but, you surely don't know it all.
 
I have no problem with being open minded, you just skewed what you were getting at. The laminating process they are referring to is by applying two pieces of steel together. Not the coating . You can remove the coating and still have a laminated flexplate. So, what you mean is the coating was too thick and caused the problem.?.?

As for not knowing it all, I won't touch that. I will just let my numbers speak for themselves 3 seconds at a time. :hehe: :hehe: With a stock rail none the less. :hehe: :hehe:
 
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