ACT Prolite Flywheel or Spec Aluminum Flywheel

[svtfast]

Well? Spec's is lighter but is 7 lbs enough? Gimme ur opinions!

[jnice]

im my opinion 7 lbs is t0o0o0o light...my 9lb flywheel definitely made a difference but wen i got to about 110 mph it felt like i hit a wall...the car wouldnt go any faster......

[smoke187]

what about the flyin miata flywheel its 13lbs

[deadly_sleeper]

you can take your stock flywheel to get it down to about 14.5 lbs. in my opinion 7lbs is too light. 9lbs is a little better. i would want a 11 lb or so one. also, if you get it too light, you will have NO bottom end.

[smoke187]

or you could go with this flywheel 10lbs or 13lbs

http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=4531&parentid=0&stocknumber=08-26500%20%2013.45

[Skuce]

Have to use a Miata clutch with those^^^?

[smoke187]

i am using a 94-97 miata clutch on my stock flywheel

same clutch pilot bearing only thing you change in the kit is the throwout bearing

[jay]

The only time that flywheel weight helps forward movement is at launch. That's the *only* time the kinetic energy stored in the flywheel can be turned into thrust, when it's spinning faster than the car is going. That's why drag cars usually run stockweight flywheels. But once the car's in motion, flywheel deadweight is exactly that: dead weight. The less weight the engine has to spin and move, the easier it is for the car to accelerate. And it ain't just a few pounds, it's a few pounds at several thousand RPM where inertia and momentum increase with the square of the velocity. I know cold, dead to rights, this stuff about flywheel mass. I've driven before and after the exact same car under the exact same conditions, pre-and-post flywheel swap. It revved faster, came outta the corners better, climbed hills in high gear and low RPM better, slowed down faster (less weight is better on that side of the performance envelope too), etc. More bottom end, not less. The fidanzas on my cars are 8.5lb. and if I could go lighter without worrying about durability I would. I don't know anything about the two flywheels mentioned here; I do know that them there fidanzas are a very nice and very tough bit o' kit.

Jnice, if you hit a wall at whatever speed, it wasn't the light flywheel making it; something else is going on. Look at it this way; you're going 110 and you wanna go 115. So foot to the floor and the engine has to not only fight 110mph worth of wind resistance, it also has to add X amount of energy to the flywheel to add those extra RPM to the drivetrain. So your engine needs to only spin 9lb weight up to the higher RPM instead of 23 lb or whatever stock weight is. Your wall is prolly just wind resistance, which increases by a factor of 4 for every doubling of windspeed. And if you come back and say your car had a higher top speed before you changed out the flywheel, then I'll say go back and look for something like a hole in a vacuum hose or a leak in the coldside plumbing cuz there are all kinds of things that can be pulled loose or otherwise up-screwed, during the process of removing and replacing the tranny....been there, done that, have scars, and dunce cap...

[FazdaBoy4ever]

you beat me to it jay... all this talk of a lightweight flywheel hurting top end is a myth.

Once the flywheel is matched to the speed of the motor the only thing that then matters is rotating mass... and we know how much that affects our vehicles (a heavy set of rims can KILL you). The flywheel is a storage device that stores (as jay said) kinetic energy, once the energy is released its no longer a storage device beyond maybe a flat foot shift (think thats the correct term) where you can spin the flywheel up but if your turbo you dont need the small gain of a heavy flywheel from a flat foot shift because it will help to keep you in the boost and you will have motor power out the gate without the aid of a heavy flywheel. not to mention flatfoot shifts are very hard on the drivetrain and a heavy flywheel is just that much harder on the drivetrain.

[therieldeal]

i find it amusing when people insist to me that with a heavier flywheel a car will make more torque, and with a lightweight it will make less torque but more horsepower.

if that were the case, i better run out and buy some 19" chrome wheels, i'll have mad torque then!

[Skuce]

I like the idea of a solid steel flywheel over a alu/steel hybrid wheel for sure.
I just put in a Spec3 Escort clutch in the fall....So I just wanted to make sure I could still use it on a Flyin'Miata flywheel.

[Skuce]

Found a nice contradiction on Fidanza's page.

Escort GT and Protege LX share the same flywheel part#
Escort GT is a 8lb Flywheel
Protege LX is a 9lb flywheel

Figure that one out!

[SgtRauksauff]

since we're on the subject of flywheels, What are thoughts on the differences between a chromoly 1-piece flywheel, and an aluminum/steel 2-piece unit? I'm trying to figure out what flywheel I want to get for my '85 corolla gts.

--sarge

[Skuce]

I personally like the idea of a single chunk of steel being my flywheel.

[Skuce]

Just got this back from Fidanza:

Hey Drew,


Thanks for contacting Fidanza. The correct weight would be 9 lbs.


Thank You,


Brad Bojc


Fidanza Engineering Corp.
4285 Main Street
Perry, Ohio 44081


brad@fidanza.com

https://www.fidanza.com

Phone: (440) 259-5656 x111
Fax: (440) 259-5588