Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel...comments

That is a pretty reasonable price...

You do realize (before this thread gets "really started") that some are going to come in here defending it just because they have the part Some get offended easy...

I would suggest against an aluminum flywheel for a daily driver (especially one that can get into stop and go traffic).

I will post more later if need be...

Good luck with your choice

flyingtexan said:

anyone had any experience with them?

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Yup, I do

Thats a good price like said above and local to me.

What exactly are you wanting to know? I assume you wanna hear from guys who use them in their own personal cars, right? Just wanting to clear things up before "other people" who don't have them respond I got one in my pump gas street car and LOVE it. I got it through my engine builder (Rick 91GT) I have absolutly NO driving issues with it what-so-ever. I've sat in traffic from new jersey on my way home from the track all through NYC nothing but stop and go. It drives GREAT. No problems. Starting from a stop is simple and just as easy as the heavy stock flywheel. If you search around the net (more so on hardcore50.com and the drag racing section of corral.net) you'll see TONS of guys running them AND going faster with them all the while we're putting LESS wear and tear on our rotating assemblies since its appx 12lbs less weight the crank had to spin Going faster with no issues and less wear/tear on my expensive rotating assembly are the 2 main reaons I run one in my street car.

Hopefully 1990droptopLX see's this thread. I recommended him an alum flywheel and he went against the grain and put one on his daily driven street car. Last I read, he LOVES it.

I have not had any issues with the Fidanza stuff, they actually make flywheels for some other suppliers as well.

That's a really good price also....

Going with an alumimum flywheel here, through Rick 91GT as well. I look at it this way, those who have them seem to like them. I weighed the pro's and con's out and decided for alumimum.

As we know, the purpous of a flywheel is a part of the clutch assembly for the disc to grab onto, and on our motors, a balancer, as we all know. The purpose of most flywheels is to smooth the transition between cylinder pulses. Have you ever ran your lawn mower without the blade? Kind of choppy. Well that's a single cylinder motor, we have 8, so that is 1 pulse every 90* of crankshaft rotation, not that much to smooth out. The flywheel also carries momentum, which is potential energy (stored energy) but doing this it takes energy out to store it. This is where the controversy is. A heavy flywheel (stock or esp. Steel) will story a lot of energy, and will take less RPM to launch just as hard. It will take a lot of energy to revv that flywheel again, energy that could be going to the ground. As far as street driving goes, I could imagine it would be a little tricky to drive around normally in traffic, especailly with a hard hitting clutch so 5spd GT has a very valid point. Alumimum is a softer metal than steel and also reacts more to heat, so there is another issue.

Mike (Grn92LX) forgot to say one thing, he added some cubes when he did his alumimum flywheel. I will be doing the same.

I wouldnt recommend one if you have stock gears. It wont make the car undrivable, especially when the crankshaft alone weighs something like 45lbs, but it will hurt drivability somewhat. My '68 is at least 200lbs lighter than the average Fox3, but it has 3.00 gears and my aluminum flywheel makes takeoffs a little more driver-involved than a steel. I also have an engine without that much off-idle torque, though.

PS: I got my Fidanza for that same price, but mine was out the door for ~$285. I remember seeing them average around $330.

flyingtexan said:

Hey thanks for the imput ya'll. My cars a road racer only, not a street car. Just wanted to make sure they weren't junk before I made the purchase plunge.

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An aluminum flywheel is a great choice for a road race car. Running the engine up and down through the gears is where an aluminum flywheel will work best. Quick acceleration out of the corners and quick deceleration when you let off the gas makes it the right choice for a road racer.

FlyinTexan - If you have a road race car get the aluminum flywheel.

90mustangGT said:

Going with an alumimum flywheel here, through Rick 91GT as well. I look at it this way, those who have them seem to like them. I weighed the pro's and con's out and decided for alumimum.

As we know, the purpous of a flywheel is a part of the clutch assembly for the disc to grab onto, and on our motors, a balancer, as we all know. The purpose of most flywheels is to smooth the transition between cylinder pulses. Have you ever ran your lawn mower without the blade? Kind of choppy. Well that's a single cylinder motor, we have 8, so that is 1 pulse every 90* of crankshaft rotation, not that much to smooth out. The flywheel also carries momentum, which is potential energy (stored energy) but doing this it takes energy out to store it. This is where the controversy is. A heavy flywheel (stock or esp. Steel) will story a lot of energy, and will take less RPM to launch just as hard. It will take a lot of energy to revv that flywheel again, energy that could be going to the ground. As far as street driving goes, I could imagine it would be a little tricky to drive around normally in traffic, especailly with a hard hitting clutch so 5spd GT has a very valid point. Alumimum is a softer metal than steel and also reacts more to heat, so there is another issue.

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Nicely said...

90mustangGT said:

Mike (Grn92LX) forgot to say one thing, he added some cubes when he did his alumimum flywheel. I will be doing the same.

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I like to call that convienent amnesia

Now for those that like track cars or daily drivers. Let's see here...

Here is some interesting info from another board, right from Centerforce themselves.

Originally Posted by Will Baty
Another thing to think about is that in most cases the steel flyhweel has more heat sink. This typically means longer clutch life, seeing how heat is a big killer for clutches. The steel flywheel has more mass which allows it to absorb and dissipate the heat that is generated from the clutch when the car is put into motion. Both flywheels do have pros & cons, you should look at what some of the other guys with similar or the same set-up as what you have are using. Another thing to look at is what percentage of your driving is around town daily driving? Do you want every ounce of performance out of your car or are will to sacrifice a little performance for more drivable clutch around town? I not saying that the Aluminum flywheel is bad by any means I know allot of guys with the Aluminum flywheel that have no problems what so ever. I am just saying that steel vs aluminum on the street 9 times out of 10 the steel will have the better clutch feel.

Just my 2 cents.

Will Baty
Centerforce Clutches

There is a reason why centerforce doesn't recommend aluminum flywheels on a daily driver.

Let me copy a couple post from other discussion on this:

"I'm a billet steel fan...

The aluminum flywheel will help you decelerate quicker and accelerate a tick quicker if you want that little extra addition but some things to think about with the AFW is starting from a stop, particularly on hills, may require more slipping of the clutch to make up for the lower momentum than is stored in the heavier stock flywheel. Some jerking can be occured due to the loss of momentum possibly in between shifts for example as the rpm will drop sooner.

I would stay away from an aluminum flywheel on a daily driver and plus some of the harder grabbing clutches can tear up the aluminum flywheels...and aren't recommended with a aluminum flywheel.

Get a stock replacement or a nice billet steel one...(more expensive)...

This is posted from FastDriver - The answer to your question is that a 15 lbs weight would be easier to catch/stop if it has been thrown at you at the same speed as a 40 lb weight. A pretty obvious answer, but I think you are misinterpretting the results. A drag racing launch has nothing to do with ease of launch. If it did, you wouldn't launch at 6500 rpm, you'd launch right off of idle. Also, my clutch doesn't seem to have any problems grabbing my flywheel at any rpm. My tranny doesn't seem to have any problem managing the shock, and with the right tires and suspension, I will launch this car right off of redline with a single clutch drop.

The point is that you want as much stored energy to jump into your tires as possible, and you want your suspension/weight distribution/ tire combination set up so that it can handle all of the power and effectively put it to the ground - as opposed to wasting it by blowing away the tires.

In regard to your posit about stored energy being meaningless, I'll counter that stored evergy has everything to do with the difference between a heavy flywheel and a light one. In fact, stored energy is the only cause of a performance difference between an aluminum and iron flywheel.

The aluminum flywheel does not store as much energy as rpms increase which gives it an advantage in that the energy that would be stored in the flywheel has instead been exerted into the rotational force in the drivetrain and hence the driving force/power of your car.

In drag racing, that extra stored energy in the flywheel at a stop is put into your tires as soon as the clutch is dropped causing more force/power driving your car as it leaves the line. As your car moves down the track and rpms increase, the energy is transferred back and forth from the flywheel to the tires as rpms increase and then decrease (as you shift). Finally, when you cross the traps, rpms at the top of their powerband, the stored energy in the flywheel did not get put to good use. So, the advantage after you leave the line is to the lighter aluminum flywheel. Does it make up for the Iron one? Possibly. The longer the track, the more likely. However, will the difference be significant enough to justify the extra expenditure? Not to me."

"we lost like .20 on our 60 foot times with an alum flywheel. its the initial shock the torque ripping the tires is what was different and in turn they say about every .10 in the 60 foot is about .15 tenths in the quarter. i find this to be a close fact went from 11.50-11.55 to 11.68-11.71 in the quarter i dont remember mph."

"I have dyno tested several different flywheel and clutch combinations. I was part of the article for MM&FF that Robin mentioned over on HC50. If you can find that, theres alot of good info in there. Since then I have done some prototype testing for another clutch manufacturer. Believe me when I tell you, 9lbs will not make a difference on a chassis dyno doing high gear back to back pulls. If you averaged 5 or 6 pulls, making sure that engine temp, trans fluid temp, rearend oil temp, air intake temps, etc.. were the same, I'd suspect you might see 1 horsepower. Thats doing high gear pulls only. There are other ways of making pulls that will show a greater increase, and give more real world results."

"I beleive it was Eagle on here (the one that sells the rotating assemblies - Brian?) that said the AFW does react differently under normal conditions. He seems like a pretty credible source on it as well seeing how he does sell the rotating assemblies Ed Curtis and some others (can't remember) where suggesting keeping a steel flywheel in the heavier side of the cars (like 3200lbs and up)...so that is where my lx falls into.

For autocross cars, I agree...your up in the revs for 99% of the time (almost literally) and your not building up speed (revs) if your autocrossing right so the AFW would be beneficial in that case.

For the picky daily driver like me...I'm not for the AFW."


Just a couple...it isn't just "losing weight"...you lose other things as well. Driveability changes. revs drop quicker so your engine will "catch" more in between time when you shift gears...you don't have the rotational weight to help you "idle off"...

I would keep an AFW for a autocross car...not really a daily driver IMO.

Now let me say I run the stock "$99" dollar flywheel from summit and have no problems with it. Looked just like the stocker it replaced and feels the same.

$25 dollars to resurface a cast iron or billet steel clutch. Or you can pay $80 for the aluminum flywheel inserts Hmm...tough choice Also I like the fact that a disc sits against a solid object and not a plate bolted onto a solid object.

About not being able to take off as smoothly. Well that is very true (an example was shown in this thread a couple post up from one who has it).

Why, I repeat, why increase your cars gears to make up for a flywheel counterweight. That is financially and physically unneeded to do if an aluminum flywheel has no negative effects, right?

Grn92lx also did a 347 with his change...like that doesn't change the ability of a car to take off from idle or not...lol...piston speed is quicker and is easier to power off normally and it isn't even his daily driver.

This is to easy...

The inserts can actually be turned a little if needed

It all depends on the combo and use...

I run the exact same flywheel. Got it off ebay for $290 shipped and could not be happier. Some people will say not to run one on the street but I totally disagree. I have a stock 302 with your average H/I/C, TKO-500, Spec stg 3 clutch, and Fidanza flywheel. It is my daily driver, rain or shine, and its just fine. Like I said I could not be happier. I did lose just a tad of low end but its hardly noticable due to the steap gearing of the 500 and the 3.73's out back. On the plus side I felt a very noticable increase in power passed 4500rpms. It honestly feels like I picked up a good 15rwhp, no joke. Aluminum IS the way to go. Good luck with whatever decision you make.