light weight flywheel

[solatare]

i am not lightening my flywheel, even for the b6e im building, since i live in a very hilly, mountainous, high altitude area, had an 8 lb newspeed cro moly flywheel on my 86 vw gti in michigan and it was a bear around town. i dont even want to think about the nightmare it wouldve been here.

[Nerd Racing]

I actually just finished up flywheel calculations in my mechanical systems design class here at college, and well lets put it this way, be careful with the lightened flywheel and redlining your car unless you want to find out what an exploding flywheel is like. They are precisely designed to have a certain weight and rim thickness, and it affects the speed at which you can rotate them. If you exceed that speed the centrifugal force will cause it to explode, WITHOUT warning. Oh and aluminum flywheels are able to rotate faster than cast iron ones, it is in the material tensile strength. So while they might seem quite expensive, a fidanza aluminum flywheel is MUCH safer than having your flywheel "lightened" and by the time you spend the machining money you could almost pay for the aluminum one, and have a higher rev limit. Another useful thing about flywheels is yes they require power to get them spinning, but once you get them going, they add power to the system, and the heavier they are and the faster they spin, the more they add to the system, and the less work the motor does in the long run, and they also help to reduce system vibrations due to cyclical operations, i.e. the combustion cycle process. So that is just my 411 on the topic...

[FestYboy]

if you wouldn't mind going into this subject a little deeper, this might be good "sticky" information for all our members.

besides, i'd like to get into this a lil deeper myself.

[Silv3rBull3t]

Finally, let the misunderstandings end. Nerd Racing, I have done those calculations myself and that is why I commented but I had gotten told by other members last time I brought this up, that I was ridiculous and obviously had no idea what I was talking about. I just hope one doesn't blow up and cause anyone harm. -Kyle

[festymick]

Oops. I'll have to extra careful eh? Funny thing is- i was advised that the amount of lightening would not affect my reliability or safety?