Lightened Flywheels

[Jones~32]

Hi all,

The clutch is getting done on my GT4 in the next month or so, and im considering going for an uprated one now rather than having to have it all stripped down again in the future ;)

Question is, uprated/lightened Flywheels, are they worth doing? not even too sure how they benefit the car :!Removed!: Do they just let it build revs more easily and freely? and are there any disadvantages i should be aware of? :bookworm:

Thanks

[TCGT]

Hi,

I had a Davrian Imp based kit car into which I fitted a lightened flywheel.

The engine revved more freely and the acceleration was astonishing.

Only downside could be a shortage of torque and stalling at low revs if it is ultra lightened, due to lack of flywheel momentum.

A good mod if done well.

john

[Sketchy]

Yea basically it lowers the rotational weight of the engine hence allowing it to build momentum at a faster rate, thus allowing the engine to rev more freely. Which in turn manifests as better throttle response.

It's usually more noticeable it lightweight cars as the percentage change is larger with them coz the engines tend to be lightweight to start with and they don't have to pull as much car weight along to start with.

Down side is that they also lose momentum more quickly, so for example going up a hill without changing throttle position will result in the car slowing down more quickly than with a heavier fly.

But as said on large cars like ours with heavy four wheel drive transmission it's not likely to make a huge difference, better gains an be had else where. If you've got the money though and are changing the clutch anyway wouldn't hurt.

Have a word with Ian@ Toyoauto Centre, as I beleive he recomends a lightweight steel fly instead of a aluminium one. Something to do with better longativity and reliability or something like that.

[mikeb]

I wouldn't bother about it, they don't make any difference to actual performance. The flywheel only affects how quickly the engine picks up/slows down when it's out of gear - i.e. between gears. Also, the flywheel will be balanced as a package with the crank, if you change it they won't be a balanced pair any more. On top of that I think the torsional damper on the crank pulley will become less effective - the lighter flywheel will shift the harmonic frequencies of the bottom end.

Toyota made the flywheel the weight that it is for a reason (mainly idle speed), if it could be made lighter without compromising something they would have done it - it would have saved them money afterall.

[Jones~32]

Ok, thanks a lot guys, think i'll save me money on the flywheel and get some other goodies instead :D