lightened & balanced fly-wheel

[KARMANN 0]

When people talk about this what do they mean?whats the difference between a starndard flywheel and a lightened & balanced one?do they just drill holes through it or? also what the advantage?

as iv got a normal one that going on the car on thu.

 

 

Cheers Fraser

[Banana Man 0]

They dont drill it they stick a std flywheel on a lathe and take material off the whole suface which reduces the weight of it ( or make it out of billet alloy and hardened steel)so it will take less effort for it to spin up when it's in an engine so you get better throttle response a little better low down torque I'm having mine done when I finish the X flow rebuild. Take a look on ridgeways website for the differences in weight from a std flywheel and one of they're lightened and balanced jobbies! http://www.ridgewayracing.com/

[PhatVR6 0]

Ho ho!

 

if you do buy a ridgeway one, ask him if he's corrected his CNC program first.......

[Hotgolf 0]

Made one for Tubthumped on the CGTI forum for his 16v golf. I removed a fair bit of material from the right places and had it balanced up to a crank(better than balancing it up to itself if you can get your crank out) The results......a much more responsive engine, without the loss of torque that most people think.

This would be ideal for use on the Corrado or mk3 16v as the flywheels on these are VERY heavy, and would probably help to reduce the amount if idle 'hold' when slowing down associtaed with these engines.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Made one for Tubthumped on the CGTI forum for his 16v golf. I removed a fair bit of material from the right places and had it balanced up to a crank(better than balancing it up to itself if you can get your crank out) The results......a much more responsive engine, without the loss of torque that most people think.

This would be ideal for use on the Corrado or mk3 16v as the flywheels on these are VERY heavy, and would probably help to reduce the amount if idle 'hold' when slowing down associtaed with these engines.

 

Sounds like you could be onto something there. By idle 'hold', do you mean it sort drops and bounces back up? I think that's more a fuelling/timing issue than the weight of the flywheel?

 

So how much does a decent lightened/balanced flywheel cost? Do they affect the way the clutch works?

 

I would imagine engine braking would be better with a lighter wheel?

[PhatVR6 0]

VR6 FW is 18lbs, Ridgewya do a 9lb and a 6lb one.

 

Mine a Fidanza one, that's 6lb. it cost me as taggering £375........only $305 in the US, but I couldn't get one in time.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Ah.... think I'll be sticking with the 18lb heffa lump for the time being then!

[Henny 0]

you can get the origninal one machined down (I have!) to around about half the original weight... Have a word with 16VG60 or Race Power in Dartford who did mine... 8) Makes a nice change to the engine as it allows it to spin up AND DOWN, faster than standard, allowing for faster acceleration and better engine breaking... 8)

 

I'm not sure how much mine cost, but £75 rings a bell... :wink: They also do exchange units... 8)

[PhatVR6 0]

Revs like a sports bike in other words.

 

On the road, it makes the car feel lighter, as the engine picks up quicker. well, mine did when I fitted the Turn2USA alloy crank pulley, which is a lot cheaper and easier to install than a flywheel.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

OK I'll have a word with some peeps. May aswell do all this now as the box is coming off in May for new chains etc.

[PhatVR6 0]

You can have my old flywheel if you want to get it done befor eyou take the car off the road? it's abit pitted though, could do with a skim, but that could be done when it's getting lightened.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Cheers mate, sounds good..... A bit heavy on the old postage though!!? What sort of price did you have in mind?

 

I know a place local to me that can do the necessary skimming and lightening/balancing.....so I pop that into them as soon as....

[PhatVR6 0]

Free, it's no use to me. just pay the postage.

 

I can deliver it direct to the machine shop if you like? it should weigh around 18lbs, (9Kg)give or take the lack of ring gear, and the added packaging.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Free, it's no use to me. just pay the postage.

 

I can deliver it direct to the machine shop if you like? it should weigh around 18lbs, (9Kg)give or take the lack of ring gear, and the added packaging.

 

:lol: Nice one

 

You have PM!

[davidwort 0]

Revs like a sports bike in other words.

 

On the road, it makes the car feel lighter, as the engine picks up quicker. well, mine did when I fitted the Turn2USA alloy crank pulley, which is a lot cheaper and easier to install than a flywheel.

 

 

have a look at : http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread/t-10041.html

 

I think to sum up their discussion/argument, a lightened flywheel will result in increased acceleration but also increased deceleration (due to the smaller rotating mass), so revs could drop a bit too fast between gears if you go too mad on the lightening.

You could also loose some of the 'smoothing' effect of a heavy flywheel on the engines feel.

BTW 1.6 mk1 GTI's had light flywheels compared to the 1.8 GTI and were generally known to be much more 'revvy'.

 

David.

[PhatVR6 0]

Ridgeway Racing 9lb (4.5KG)flywheel, £300

 

Fidanza 6lb one £375, from Helix Autosport/Stealth or $305 if you can get it from the US.

[g60bv 0]

when i spoke to c&r about it they said don't bother, it's only a track thing.?, i was going to get one but could never get throu to ridgeway racing. gave up after 3 weeks of tring, wanted to do it with the clutch.

[Hotgolf 0]

Good old C&R. If they told me the sky was blue I would have to check :wink:

[Henny 0]

well, having driven a few cars with lightened flywheels(from my old beetle thru my MKI 16V and now my Corrado G60) I can safely say that it's NOT just for track use! ;)

 

It makes a difference in all driving, mostly positive with only a couple of very minor drawbacks... the one that most people will notice is that you have to dip the clutch a little earlier than normal when coming to a stop, else the engine will stall... takes no time to get used to and that's a small price to pay for the extra pick up you gain through the revs... 8)

[flusted 0]

Good old C&R. If they told me the sky was blue I would have to check :wink:

 

Is that you martin? :?:

[Bobbywhacker 0]

got me thinking about 1 of these now..... just how difficult would it be to change? I realise its a gearbox out job!

[PhatVR6 0]

once the gearbox is off it's easy. only 6 clutch bolts and 10 flywheel bolts.

 

Might as well do the chains and crank oil seal and clutch whislt you're in there though. I wouldn't strip the box off purely to do the flywheel on it's own, but if you need to go in there for anythign else you may as well do the flywheel too.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The flywheel bolts are stretch ones apparently but I've heard clutch "fitting kits" include new pressure plate and flywheel bolts.

 

How much is the crank seal Paul? Might get Vince to slap one of those on aswell.

 

K

[Bobbywhacker 0]

so.... probably a daft question, if I provided the parts, what dya reckon the average spanner monkey is gonna tax me 2 do all this? Like you said whilst the gearbox is off I might aswell have the other stuff done, the engine's got 78k on it so I suppose its coming upto a chain change right?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

You've got a bit of time yet. The chain starts to eat through the plastic pad on the upper tensioner at about 85K it seems. You've then got a further 10K max before it distingegrates and ends up in your sump.

 

I would start saving now but you're looking at a healthy 8-9 hours spanner work to get it all done I reckon.