Good source of lightweight Flywheel for 308's?

Can't you take yours off and bring it to a quality machine shop, have it lightened and resurfaced?

Why buy a whole new unit when the one in your car could be made the way you want?

 

I have a tilton 7.25" carbon-carbon in my car. It's a LOT lighter and small diameter than a stock clutch and can be mounted on a light flywheel. I stuck with the stock flywheel because light on the street can be a problem to drive, they like to stall pulling away if you don't keep the revs up. I really did the clutch because the stock type are not happy with the hp I have and it wasn't cheap, it cost $3500 without a flywheel, that would add another $1000-$1500.

 

Tom,

I've thought about a low inertia flywheel for my 308 also. After fitting one to my Lotus Elan years ago, I would never go back to a stock one on this car. The engine revs much easier without all the inertia and therefore puts more engine power down on the road. One needs to be a little more careful when engaging the clutch, but if the car is running well, this is very easy to get used to. There is no need to buzz the engine to get going if you have good low speed running. Once you are moving, it's wonderful.

When I was searching a couple of years ago I came across this outfit as a possible source:

http://www.aluminumflywheels.com/

I spoke with them on the phone and they told be they could do one. I never followed up because I had too many other issues to address on my car at the time. You might want to contact them and explore the issue. The easiest way to make it happen is to probably supply them with a stock flywheel from which they could take necessary geometry. If you could also supply a ring gear, I’m sure this would likely speed up the design process and reduce costs.

If you are interested in pursuing this, I do have a used stock flywheel that I could make available and I do know the stock new thickness (which is buried in the Fchat archives somewhere).

 

I forgot, Nick also sells a package. Light flywheel with a quartermaster 7.25 twin disk clutch (mine is a triple), I think the price is $3k. I looked at it, but I wasn't sure how streetable it really was. He told me he thought it would be ok, but the couple he had sold went to the track. Also the quartermaster sight really said there clutches were for race use only.

Tilton on the other hand said there clutch was fine for the street and they had sold about 5 for street cars. I found a web sight by a guy with a monster turbo supra who rated all the clutches he had tried (there were about 10) and the tilton was in a league of it's own. Rexracer (?) also recomended it, although his experience was at the track. So I bought one. It is everything I hoped it would be. Light pedal, not particularly grabby, and handles any abuse I can throw at it.....if it wasn't for the price....

 

IMHO, lightening the flywheel is probably the easiest and least expensive way to increase the throttle response.

I have done it to a quick auto-x prepared Porsche speedster & 914 porsche, which also had a chrome faced 911s pressure plate, a datsun and toyota pick up.

In every case the engine respons was noticeably quicker. In every case, i also experienced a bit of stalling, periodically, when both my brain cells were not on the task of driving. This is not to say that it is an insurmountable problem, only that it does occasionally occurr if you are driving two or more vehicles. no big deal.

Has anyone questioned Verell or any of the other hard-core afficionados who do machining. I would be amazed if he hadn't done one yet.

If you look out there at some of the lightened flywheels it is amazing to see the what can be done to get the weight off.

What does the stock flywheel weigh???

What can it be realistically lightened to?????

Porsche 356 SC - 8 pounds

Porsche 914 - 11 pounds

Datsun pick up 12 pounds

Toyota 22R 12 pounds

How close to a "Zero balance" are the stock 308 flywheels. If they are really close, it might be posssible to spin the flywheel, trim off some of the outter mass and reinstall without having to rebalance the unit???

So far, we have only touched on the flywheel. Are there any other pressure plates for the 308 that differ in weight??

Has anyone catalogued the options for weight, performance and cost???

It's fairly easy to ask questions, eh???

A feeble inquiring mind would like to know.

chris

 

Search the Old Fchat archives for aluminum or Al or lightweight & flywheel.

Several members have had them made up with a steel insert to interface with the clutch disc. Had to supply a doner flywheel for the perimeter gear ring i believe.

Wish I did have something capable of turning something as big as a flywheel out. I'd be able to fix that 10,000 RPM clutch I bought on eBAY.

However, my lathe & mill are the small ones described at:
www.mini-lathe.com

 

Came up w/this from the archives, but there are others:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/256120/297146.html

 

For completeness on this topic I'm reposting one of my old posts:

Posted on Tuesday, August 13, 2002 - 9:57 pm:

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I just took delivery of a virgin, GT-4 flywheel I won on ebay, from Gentry Lane in Canada. A quick measurement, with a dial caliper, yielded 0.632 inches (16.05 mm) thick at the edge. This measurement clears the ring gear.

 

I have a light weight aluminum flywheel, but unfortunately, the guys that made it went out of business. By the way, they had to reuse my ring gear to make the new flywheel. If your ring gear is in bad shape, you can purchase a new one from Norwood for $180 or so. Check the guys at Paeco, they use a bronze insert in their aluminum flywheels and can set it up for a stock clutch or an uprated one.

Regards,
Alan Ing