[jeffko]

I believe it to be 2 problems. One is in fact heat and the other is low quality parts. It seems the inherent problems of the poor parts quality is often further compounded by high fluid temps. Hydraulic fluid suffers adverse effects and its ability to maintain viscosity and anti-wear agents degrade. From what I have read this usually starts occurring at approx 180F. Uncoated headers run upwards of 700F so there is plenty of heat transfer available. Without a sufficient air gap that crappy little mazda clutch slave does not stand a chance. Let alone being designed for 4-6 cylinder pressure and being used for high performance V-8 clutch pressures. Bad recipe!

Short term solution: get as much air gap as possible and use some kind of heat shield to deflect temps.

Long term solution: ??? We should all do some research and post to this thread until a viable solution is found.

That’s my two cents.