It is not easy for large engineering machinery equipment to start smoothly and successfully, because the starting torque is much larger than its rated torque. In order to improve the starting torque without increasing the installed power of system, a new driving system, which was composed of electric motor, flywheel and hydro-viscous clutch (HVC), was proposed. Based on the mathematics model of new driving system and oil film bearing capacity, the AMESim simulation model of HVC system was built up. According to the influence analysis of flywheel rotary inertia and oil film thickness control method on the dynamic engagement performance of HVC, curves of torque, rotational speed and jerk degree were obtained. The simulation results showed that compared with wet clutch, HVC can effectively avoid the start-up shock by reasonable control of oil film thickness, and the variable decreasing speed of oil film thickness was a good method to increase the starting torque and reduce the jerk degree. To verify the theoretical analysis and simulation, a test rig of the HVC system was established. The experimental results showed that the viscous torque curve with twice of the load torque and duration of 50s were achieved by controlling the oil film thickness of HVC, which can satisfy the demands of big starting torque and small impact for large engineering machinery equipment.