Austarion

I would like to know what people think about lightened flywheels the results people have found has any one done a before and after tests

Yep, a light unit is good up to 120KPH, then struggles due to not enough mass, lighting a STD Staz unit( just removing the ring on the backside of flyweheel) is the best result :beer

and you also lose torque with them.

4gpwr wrote:I would like to know what people think about lightened flywheels the results people have found has any one done a before and after tests

as you know I dont run my car on the street but I prefur the lightest possible flywheel clutch assembly I can get
if you slide past I'll show you my new flywheel it weighs 2.9 Kg but still has the ring gear to fit
and the clutch weighs 2.9 Kg

i prefer lightened flywheels in turbo cars, more responsive, gets up into the higher rev range quicker, therefore on boost quicker. only place i find u lose out is it makes them harder to launch if ur a goofball, and at the start of hills they drop off quicker. but if u can drive then its not a problem.

Starion VR4 wrote:Yep, a light unit is good up to 120KPH, then struggles due to not enough mass, lighting a STD Staz unit( just removing the ring on the backside of flyweheel) is the best result :beer

Is that a joke? Not enough mass ? Lets use some common sense here, when the vehicle is in any gear, the Engine has to turn the flywheel, the clutch disc, the pressure plate, a shaft with gears connected, an torque tube, a diff centre, a set of axles and two wheels with tyres. Do you honestly think a flywheel being 3 or 4 kilos lighter is honestly going to effect the top speed? rofl

Yep! :beer

Starion VR4 wrote:Yep! :beer

So what will be your excuse when I video a 200+Km/hr run in the car which has the Fidanza flywheel ?

With no gears engaged, the only thing holding inertia/torque is the crankshaft and Flywheel, so yes alloy Flywheel will make a difference, but once any gear is engaged then there's a lot more mass holding/transfering the torque the Engine produces. Does that make sense or do you wanna bet houses on it ? :)

Listen scorpy, yr talking a bout a high HP engine against a near stock starion, which is what we are looking at, if U had any education on engines then U would know that a flywheel which is to light will not have enough INERTIA to achieve top end speed... why do all bonnyville salt speed cars have heavy flywheels? Now dispute that.... enough said

Hopefully this clears things up.

Inertia is the force which keeps a still object from moving and keeps a object in motion from stopping (disregarding friction). It sums up to be the force which RESISTS change.

For a car to launch over a set distance (perhaps the salt flats?), a car benefits from a heavy flywheel as the resistance of motion within the flywheel helps the car accelerate UNTIL the flywheel has slowed to the speed of the drive chain. From here onwards the flywheel DRAWS power from the engine as it takes more energy to speed up a heavy flywheel as opposed to a light flywheel.

So if you have less force acting against the engine turning, you should be able to achieve a higher speed. Less drive chain loss = more power to the ground.

As for the comment about whether 3 - 4 kilos makes a difference, it's called centripetal force. It may not make much difference at 800rpm, but at 6000rpm it will make quite a bit of difference.

I doubt F1 cars have 'heavy' flywheels.

Junkers wrote:As for the comment about whether 3 - 4 kilos makes a difference, it's called centripetal force. It may not make much difference at 800rpm, but at 6000rpm it will make quite a bit of difference.

That was just a throw away comment by myself to try to get people to see the common sense in the argument. I know the difference the weight has is dependant on how far away from its rotating axis that weight is and the speed etc but lets not make things too complicated for the simple people here. :D

scorpyy wrote: Do you honestly think a flywheel being 3 or 4 kilos lighter is honestly going to effect the top speed? rofl

top speed will be about the same if you have enough road to get there
but the lighter flywheel will get you to a top speed faster

Starion VR4 wrote:Listen scorpy, yr talking a bout a high HP engine against a near stock starion, which is what we are looking at, if U had any education on engines then U would know that a flywheel which is to light will not have enough INERTIA to achieve top end speed..

I would have thought a near stock starion would be a high performance car
maybe not an F1 however still h/p

when some one can tell me how to fuel a flywheel to drive the engine I'll buy one of those carbs
my flywheel still has to be driven by the engine so I will make them light so the engine dosen't have to work any harder than it has to to drive a lump of steel in circles then the power left over from that
is the little bit extra that will drive the car quicker corner to corner

Ok, personal experience with a Staz, my sons staz with STD flywheel, topped out at 255KPH ( this can be verified by at least 4 members on the 1st ever QLD Cruise) Clutch failed 2months later( operator error) replace flywheel with super light unit as this is what son wanted, Staz now has top speed of only 170KPH , from 130kph up it starts to get lethargic, son complains about top end ( Note: Acceleration up to 130KPH is noticeably quicker), told him flywheel is to light, get old unit machined to my specifications, hey presto 250+KPH again & good acceleration . Go figure
:beer

Starion VR4 wrote:Ok, personal experience with a Staz, my sons staz with STD flywheel, topped out at 255KPH ( this can be verified by at least 4 members on the 1st ever QLD Cruise) Clutch failed 2months later( operator error) replace flywheel with super light unit as this is what son wanted, Staz now has top speed of only 170KPH , from 130kph up it starts to get lethargic, son complains about top end ( Note: Acceleration up to 130KPH is noticeably quicker), told him flywheel is to light, get old unit machined to my specifications, hey presto 250+KPH again & good acceleration . Go figure
:beer

How about installer error or oil contamination causing new clutch to slip ?

When the car is in any gear, the Engine's torque is transferred through the whole driveline. There's a lot of weight there in total, so your experience does not make any logical sense..

scorpyy wrote: installer error or oil contamination causing new clutch to slip ?

If clutch was slipping RPM would of been max 6200RPM, engine could only turn to 3900RPM... clutch slip. yea right :x