flywheel options - What are you using?

[Apolan]

EDIT: i changed a topic to poll to see what many of you are using. Please share your experiences..

--------------------orginal post---------------------------

Hi,

since im rebuilding my engine now, i would like to know your opinions on the stock flywheel. Im thinking about machining it to make it a bit lighter. Is this a good idea? What the stock weight and what weight should i be looking at for improoved performance but still keeping the car streetable? How much material can be taken off not to compromise the strenght? etc.

thanks..

[jamiemirror]

http://www.my-acoustic.com/Car/weight_is...weight.htm

http://www.my-acoustic.com/Car/weight_is...wheels.htm

Take a look here for some ideas.

[Apolan]

hm, this looks more complicated then i first thought.. lightning the flywheel in the center doesnt make much sense to me, as the weight nearer the center has little (or much lesser) influence on the turning momentum. isnt the point to reduce the momentum so its easier to rev, thus giving better response and increasing the power?

[Apolan]

if by any chance you people think im done with this you are teriblly wrong im afraid

what nobody has any experience with lighter flywheels or lightning them for your ae's?

[vladx_kc]

I know that Toda flywheel weights 3.7 kg.

[Apolan]

huh, stock silvertop is 6.9 kg, blacktop 5.9 kg.. im guessing ae86 flywheel is even heavier? so 3.7 seems very (too?) light..

[meshin]

Apolan Wrote:im guessing ae86 flywheel is even heavier? so 3.7 seems very (too?) light..

Aprox. 10 kg by Bill Sherwood...

TRD for AE86 is aprox. 4,5-5 kg

[Ivan141]

Apolan Wrote:if by any chance you people think im done with this you are teriblly wrong im afraid

what nobody has any experience with lighter flywheels or lightning them for your ae's?

I cant recall anyone that has lightened the flywheel.. but I do think it is potentially dangerous to do this. Look around for pics of a honda with an exploded flywheel on google, you'll get the picture. It would rip right through the car, and maybe even take a leg along the way if it happens to break.

[Apolan]

what are you serious?! now youre scaring me.. I imagined that the flywheel is overdimensioned for the purpuse of adding weight not to hold everything together.. I mean it is logical that an unbalanced dish of solid steel spinning at 8000 rpm is asking for trouble. i've had a cd explode in my rom .. but lightning the flywheel equally along the whole of the radius and balancing it would lessen the stress due to lower weight so it compensates for the loss in strucutal integrity? right..

[NoHachi]

A lot of people remove the weight where it is easy to do: the thick center section. A brilliant bit of thinking that...

Stresses are the highest in the center of the disc and the reduction in rotational intertia is the smallest. Darwin award stuff if you ask me.