lightened flywheel?

[C-Pierce]

Is it worth getting a lightened flywheel? do they enhance/hinder perfomrance at all? what manufacturer makes the goods.. etc etc.

thanks all
Chris

[myfast911]

fidanza,i beleive is the name.and yes they are worth it.i love mine.wind up quick,wind down quick!fun,fun,fun.

[RWebb]

define perfomrance ??

it will not add hp; it may add fun

on the street it may subtract fun... esp. from a stop

[JP911]

I just put the Patrick Motorsports RSR style flywheel in my 74 and I love it. The motor "feels" lighter and more willing to rev. Redline definitely comes on faster than it used to. It's not hard to drive in the least, but my engine has heavier internals than your 3.0 (3.2 crank, rods, and 100mm pistons).

[Tincanguy]

Originally Posted by JP911

I just put the Patrick Motorsports RSR style flywheel in my 74 and I love it. The motor "feels" lighter and more willing to rev. Redline definitely comes on faster than it used to. It's not hard to drive in the least, but my engine has heavier internals than your 3.0 (3.2 crank, rods, and 100mm pistons).

I had a lightweight flywheel and an aluminum clutch installed by Chris Powell on my 88 Carrera and have enjoyed it very much. It gets off the line easily and feels more responsive. As others on this thread have noted, much of the joys of owning a Carrera are hidden in the intangibles, not the 0-60 times, etc. My Carrera was transformed by the addition of a cat bypass pipe, a Monty 1 in, 1 out, and a Steve Wong chip. The light weight flywheel and clutch pack adds an extra measure of "feel" fun. I can't imagine a more satisfying everyday street ride!

[dd74]

Originally Posted by JP911

It's not hard to drive in the least, but my engine has heavier internals than your 3.0 (3.2 crank, rods, and 100mm pistons).

Do lighter engine internals mean the lwt. flywheel will make the car more difficult to drive?

I have a lwt flywheel in my garage. I'm wondering at what point, and how difficult it is to install. For instance, the transmission probably has to be dropped, correct?

[euro911sc]

Originally Posted by dd74

Do lighter engine internals mean the lwt. flywheel will make the car more difficult to drive?

I have a lwt flywheel in my garage. I'm wondering at what point, and how difficult it is to install. For instance, the transmission probably has to be dropped, correct?

The lighter the rotating mass the better. The faster you can change rpms up and down. This means that it becomes more sensitive to your right foot. This can cause some trouble for some when driving on the street in stop and go, hills, etc... On track it will take a bit of getting used to and timing your blips on down shift.

Installation means pulling the motor. You need new flywheel bolts and then you have to torque them down so not very realistic to do it in car.

Also, IIRC, in his book, BA does not recommend one for the 3.0+ in street applications. For smaller engines it is useful.

See this thread:

Fidanza lightweight flywheel; 911SC

I am currently in the market for one. I'll look at Patrick and see what they have

Best regards,

Michael

[rfn026]

I love my light flywheel. The damn car just winds up so fast with it. I may not be faster but I'm having way more fun.

Richard Newton

Autocross Performance Handbook

Wheel and Tire Performance Handbook

[ericwitte]

have a lightened patrick motorsports f/w in my 3.2. It revs like a sportbike! definitely more responsive and no idle or stalling problems

[Cooper911SC]

How does the Sachs "Power Clutch" set-up Pelican sells compare to the others mentioned here?

I have to do a clutch real soon on my SC...It is a daily driver that sees a couple autocrosses a year.

Thanks, Coop

[dd74]

Sachs Power Clutch is worth it. Made a very nice (more responsive) difference with my car.

[ericwitte]

same here with the sachs, highly satisfied

[Jeff Alton]

The Sachs Power Clutch is not having any trouble holding the 320+hp my 3.4 is making, good product.

What Randy was hinting at is that if you take too much weight out of the flywheel/clutch/PP pack then the motor looses intertia and can be hard (or different) to get moving from a start. It may also want to stall when comming down to idle.

The Al PP in the Sachs kit seems to not cause any of these symptoms on its own, but one should be careful of taking too much weight out of that end of the motor.

Cheers

[RWebb]

also the DME on some cars may not "like" the signal fluctuations it gets from a flywheel that is too light - this is documented in BMW models - dunno re Porsche

Finally, the later style flywheel bolts do not need to be replaced each time - it won't hurt tho

[Thrlls]

I have a 9lb. flywheel in my BMW 318is and it's great..especially for autox and track use. It takes a little getting use to on the street, but nothing major. Oh, there is a little more noise, well at least on my 318is anyway.

Sooo...I purchased a Patrickmotors light flywheel and the Sachs Power Clutch from our host as well as a SW chip and a TRE exhaust.
However, I just got the old exhaust studs out, so all of this is still in the process.
I'm expecting the same enhancement from my 3.2 that I got from my 1.8!

[javadog]

Originally Posted by RWebb

define perfomrance ??

it will not add hp; it may add fun

on the street it may subtract fun... esp. from a stop

You're right that it won't add horsepower but more of the engine's power will be used to accelerate the car, as the horsepower absorbed by accelerating the rotating parts will be less.

Apart from the increased finesse needed for starting off, a little more noise from the gearbox at idle and low engine speeds might be noted. Most of us are familiar with the rattling noise from the gearbox when the car is accelerated from too low in the rev range, in a particular gear. The engine speeds at which this occurs may change, with a lighter flywheel and clutch.

JR

[KTL]

Like the others said, I think the place to start is the clutch housing. There's much more weight in that than in the flywheel. Example: the OEM Sachs clutch housing for my 87-89 G50 is about 25 lbs. A lightweight clutch from Kennedy Engineered Products is 17 lbs. Big difference. A lightened flywheel is not going to cut 8 lbs from your existing flywheel. Not unless you start scalloping it and drilling large holes in it.

For your purposes, I think the Sachs aluminum pressure plate (Pelican catalog calls this the Power Clutch kit) is the way to go. Unfortunately they're slightly expensive these days. I remember back in 2000 you could get a complete standard 915 clutch kit for $299 and the aluminum kit was $399. Now you'll pay $525 for the std. and $650 for the sluminum!

[Cooper911SC]

Thanks for the feedback.

I will give the "Power kit" a try. The aluminum flywheel is pretty spendy though compared to a new steel one...maybe I'll wait on that part.

Cheers, Cooper

[RWebb]

revived to add some data:

5.0 Flywheel, Wevo Superlite incl ring gear
5.6 Flywheel, Fidanza Al T7075
9.9 Flywheel, stock 3.2L
6.0 Patrick Motorsports steel RSR type, cutaway

the ring gear itself is 0.5 lb.

Naturally, wt. at the outer edge will affect rotational inertia the most.

[Mr9146]

Scallop those b*tches...