Alum flywheel on stock motor

[sage2k]

Looking for people with aluminum flywheels on stock motor or motor with only minor boltons, how do you feel about it?

 

[95snoozer]

I am interested in doing this soon as well

the opinions i have seen from modular guys all run hella gear, 4.30 and 4.56s

1 thing is it will give you power and will make you faster

 

[DougNuts]

I have a 6.8lb flywheel on my Civic. I'm not sure how much torque it has, but it's a 2200lb car with a 130hp motor and it runs great. It revs very very quick, but it also drops RPMs quick.

I also have a very close ratio gearbox in the Civic, so that has the same effect as running a high gear like Snoozer alluded to. On the other hand, the motor doesn't have too much of a problem with low loads at low RPMs either.

To make a long story short, I don't see a problem with it, but on a car that peaks out at about 5200rpms (stock 5.0), it's probably a waste of money.

 

[Yobi1Kanobi]

I would spend my money on some other power adder. You with a stock motor will benifit from something else that make power. you will be stealing the inertia that is built up by that heavier flywheel and when the clutch engages it will rob that rpm you built up so quickly.

 

[Grn92LX]

It will be fine. I dont think i'd tear the trans out just to do a flywheel but do it while you're doing a clutch swap if you have the money. I LOVE my fidanza aluminum fly on my STREET car.

 

[Joes95GT]

I would spend my money on some other power adder. You with a stock motor will benifit from something else that make power. you will be stealing the inertia that is built up by that heavier flywheel and when the clutch engages it will rob that rpm you built up so quickly.

This isn't true. Well, it is true, but it isn't true. I can't measure Newtons or any other physical force that's working in my junk - I'm not that smart.

What I can tell you is this: the flywheel isn't connecting the motor to the trans. A clutch is going to do one of two things - grab or not grab. It's that simple.

As a matter of fact, I noticed better throttle response and better "rev-ability" with my aluminum flywheel....

Joe

 

[sage2k]

well i am doing an AODE to T5 swap and thought I might just go ahead and get "good" parts while im upgrading my drivetrain..cost isnt that big a deal, i found it for 289$ shipped on ebay what im mainly looking for is people with personal experience with an aluminum flywheel on a near stock motor, if the daily drivability is horrible ill pass, but if you can drive it daily just fine with minimum of annoyance I might just go ahead and buy it

thanks for the response guys

 

[94-302-vert]

With gears you should be Ok. WIth stock rear gears I would say no.

For me I am thinking of going not with an alum flywheel but a billet steel that will save me abotut 4 pounds of rotating weight when I do the clutch this year...

 

[sage2k]

I got 3.73's

 

[zenboy99]

I just read an article on this that I'm trying to find. It was in Hotrod or Popular Hottrodding. They compared a steel vs aluminum flywheel on two mustangs. The aluminum flywheel won out on the dyno and at the track. I'll try to get a link.

Anyone else see this article?

 

[sage2k]

No but i would like to see it

 

[FORCED2DV8]

You can put it on a stock car and drive it with relative ease, what you will notice is that it revs easier, but you may have to slip the clutch a little more to get the car moving than the stock flywheel. More like a four cyl. car, just for example, the heavier flywheel build up more energy..ie more mass. which transfers to the driveline. with a lighter flywheel, you dont need as much energy or power, from the engine to get that flywheel moving, but also ther isnt the same amount of mass to get the rest of the driveline going either, its a trade off.... decide whats best for you, If you auto cross this car, with alot of shifting up and down quickly, then i would get it, if you drag race and a normal street car, use the money on something else... IMO

 

[nmcgrawj]

With gears you should be Ok. WIth stock rear gears I would say no.

For me I am thinking of going not with an alum flywheel but a billet steel that will save me abotut 4 pounds of rotating weight when I do the clutch this year...

Why not spend the extra 25-50 bucks on the aluminum?

 

[Joes95GT]

Why not spend the extra 25-50 bucks on the aluminum?

Because you don't have the gears and you lose too much stored energy.

Joe

 

[zenboy99]

I found the article, its in the February 2006 issue of Popular Hotrodding. The article is rather involved so I'll just give the results since its not posted on their website yet.

They compared a 23.75 pound and 10.8 pound flywheel on 2 mustangs, a 12 second (Robin Lawrences old Factory stock mustang) and a 10 second NMRA Real street car. The aluminum flywheels all dyno'd higher numbers. Launch rpm's were changed to make up for inertia loss. The best 3 passes were averaged for each car.

#'s are
flywheel weight---60foot---ET---mph---launch rpm

Factory Sock car

Heavy---1.788---12.39---109.757---3000
Light---1.739---12.289---110.399---3500

Craig Baldwin's vortech car

Heavy---1.651---10.863---127.81---4600
Light---1.577---10.725---126.443---5000

One thing they didn't really discuss was driveability, I know a few BMW guys running aluminum flywheels, driving the car on the street was a little different because of the inertia loss (ie driving from a stop). But us Mustang guys probably have enough torque to overcome that.

 

[94-302-vert]

and the stock flywheel is actually 27-28 pounds... so even more savings...

As for me not sure if I want a flywheel as light as an aluminum...

What were the HP differences between the two at a couple of key RPM, say at 3500 and at 5000 rpm...