Lightened Flywheel VR

[VR6Pete 0]

I've thought about thay flywheel StueyB, was wanting to come across some real life reviews before i made the final decision... will probably get one when i fit my new gearbox with G60 FD :)

[andycowuk 0]

I got a Fidanza alloy one for my g60 (2nd hand and unused) and was really excited about it - tbh I only noticed a difference when shifting down the gears. I'm glad I didnt pay fidanza price for it. The weight of the crank shaft is much more significant than the flywheel, so the % weight saving in rotating mass from the flywheel is hugely diminished by that.... ie there wasn't so much point in me putting alloy flywheel on standard crank.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Add an 18lb flywheel to a bike or F1 engine and it see what it does to the throttle response :D

 

The flywheel is part of the drivetrain weight and you could argue that the lightest possible clutch, gears/shafts/final drive, driveshafts, road wheels and tyres should also be used to compliment the flywheel, but that's taking things just a tad too far :D

 

No two ways about it, a flywheel half the weight of stock does make a difference to the VR6, and I'm as sceptical as they come with bolt-on things like that, but even I was surprised by the difference with a turbo in use too!

 

That Hot tuning one comes from the same Chinese factory that's knocking out the generic cro-mo 9lb flywheel, as per Schimmel's - http://www.spturbo.com/onlinestore/index.php/vw/mk3/vr6/drivetrain/clutch/light-weight-cromoly-flywheel-vr6.html

 

£220 is actually very dear for that, but mine's also done over 20K with a turbo and it's fine.

 

I am going back to the stock one though. 24V throttle response + 9lb flywheel + 3.6 final drive is just ridiculous.....

[poll250 0]

I've thought about thay flywheel StueyB, was wanting to come across some real life reviews before i made the final decision... will probably get one when i fit my new gearbox with G60 FD :)

 

Why get the Hottuning one for £220, when for ~£100 you can get it machined properly in the UK, from a genuine VW part?!

[StueyB 0]

I agree that £220 seems a lot for a bolt on flywheel and i'm sure its produced for a fraction of that cost over in China but when you compare it to say the Fidanza item - around the £400 mark (from what i can find) and post import cost of the Lightweight SPTurbo equivalent it seems like a good option to me given personal experience of performance on my brothers VR6.

 

On the subject of why pay £220 vs £100, I'm personally not keen on taking a 15+ year old flywheel and chomping it down. I'm sure in theory and practice its absolutely fine but its just my personal preference. When it comes to engine components I'd rather bolt something on that has been made for the job rather than modify a standard part.

[boost monkey 0]

From what I have learnt on my degree, the flywheel helps for the engine balancing. It dampens out the vibrational harmonics from the crankshaft to stop them getting destructively large.

 

Basically, depending on how many cylinders an engine has, whether it is 2 or 4 stroke and also the firing order, it is possible to calculate the primary and secondary forces through the crank and also whether there is a primary and secondary moment in the engine (although this takes into consideration the mass of the reciprocating parts [conrod and piston], the stroke and the conrod length when performing the calculations).

 

Even though I've graduated, I still have access to all the information until July. If anyone's interested i've uploaded part of the Engine Balancing chapter of my notes here:

 

Engine Balancing Part 2 (PDF)

[Hotgolf 0]

The whole reason why cars come from the factory with harmonic balancers. What the manufacturers don't tell you is that the std. OEM flywheel is SOO out of balance you wouldn't believe it.

There's loads more to it than that, but as long as the factory 'lightened item' is balanced you won't have an issue, unless its too light.

[jimbob88 10]

I recently took my standard fw off and had it machined, it now weighs 5.5kg (12lb) and there is no downside, and it cost me £20

[mark-vr6 0]

im in the process of fitting a mk5 r32 engine, i have a vr box and flywheel at the moment would it be a good upgrade to have the flywheel lightened with this setup or stick to a stock flywheel? cheers

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Stick with the standard VR6 flywheel. The R32 is already a bit too responsive low down!

[VAG-hag 0]

I recently took my standard fw off and had it machined, it now weighs 5.5kg (12lb) and there is no downside, and it cost me £20

 

where abouts mate?

[Hotgolf 0]

You really should have it balanced, end of. The harmonic balancer will only do so much.

Please make sure whoever's doing it knows what they are doing and don't put shear points in while machining. A good machinist will know what that means, the ar5e hole on ebay that does them (and not balanced either) clearly doesn't. The last thing you want is a flywheel letting go. It won't just make a mess, it could do some serious injury too!

[jimbob88 10]

where abouts mate?

 

A local place in sowerby bridge called settle engineering

[VAG-hag 0]

A local place in sowerby bridge called settle engineering

 

cool, cheers. bit of a lag responding there!