My shop sells ACT clutches and Fidanza flywheels. They have used about 8 different clutches and have had the best luck with ACT. They work on alot of AWD Eclipsi and those are supposed to be real hard on clutches. If it works for a 12 sec Talon, Im sure it will be good on my 14 sec Honda. I went with the heavy duty plate, and the good street disk. I didnt want to get the super kick *** one, cuz I dont think I really need it, and Im weak...its hard to push
Also my shop sells Fidanza flywheels, and they have a nice deal if you buy clutch and flywheel at the same time. I looked up the fidanza online and it weighs 7 pounds. Crazy!!

So I got my car back a few days ago. First gear is pretty damn crazy. It revs real fast. Second gear feels great, and 3,4,5 feel about the same. This makes sense cuz last month in Sport Compact Car they talked about rotational enertia and how it is affected by gear ratios. the lower the gear, the more the weight affects the car. The new clutch is nice. It really grabs hard. The hard part now is starting from a stop. In neutral it revs up really really fast. I spin my tires when Im stopped on a hill. 1.5k RPM and below it bogs really bad. Throttle response is much greater now. When you jam the pedal in a lower gear...you go!

People say the revs drop off real fast. I have no idea what you are talking about. With the new clutch/flywheel combo, for the smoothest shifts I actually have to shift slower now!

People say you lose low end power. Yeah you lose any and all power below 1k RPM, but 2K, 3K, 4K they feel the same, and rev up alot quicker in lower gears.

The only negative thing I see about this is starting from a stop. I need to work on this, because when the snow and ice come around, its going to be really hard to get going!

Dont listen to the myths!! This is a good upgrade. JDM 4-1 is an even better upgrade, no loss of low end. We need to end the myths now!

 

I just ordered the Act Xtreme pressure plate/street disc, going with a shaved stock flywheel at about 11lbs. Is it hard to press on your clutch from a stop? I've driven a car with a rps turbo clutch and it was real stiff and would shake the hell out of the dash board.

 

Nope, not at all. very close to stock feel.

 

how much does the stock flywheel weigh ?

 

Okay, hang on a sec... Trust me when I say, you didn't lose any "power" down low.

Attached is a response I wrote to an article that was posted in Temple-of-VTEC.com by Dan Ponze. He was reviewing a lightened flywheel. It's long and technical but worth a read... I want to dispel the myth that lightened flywheels and crank pulleys cause a decrease in low-end torque. The first paragraph is an excerpt from his article.

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"Power was great although I suspect some of the gain is from the Type R trans installed. Some gain is from weight being restored. As I have written before, the combination of such a light flywheel with an aluminum crank pulley causes loss of low end torque. I had a lot of responses in opposition to this opinion but I stand by it 100% and will be replacing the aluminum crank pulley with stock to see if I can get even more low end back."

Dan,

As a clutch and flywheel development engineer and a student of engine design and performance, I beg serious exception to these statements. With all due respect I would like you to consider these statements and my comments:

1) Power produced by the engine is a product of: Torque produced by combustion of air/fuel mixture in the cylinder times the engine speed.

Transmission has nothing to do with power. If the gear ratios in the Type R box differ from the baseline, then you will multiply the torque differently and perhaps see an improvement in acceleration.

2) Torque produced by the engine at a given RPM is controlled by (primarily): Volumetric efficiency of the cylinder, fuel control, and spark timing. The flywheel and crank pulley have positively NOTHING to do with torque produced by the engine.

Here is why you perceive a lack of low-end torque with the lightened components:

The flywheel's purpose in life is to store rotational energy. It does so because of its inertia. The greater the mass of the flywheel, the greater the inertia, and the greater the energy storage. By storing the energy produced by the engine, it smoothes out the torque impulses produced by the engine due to the distinct cylinders firing at distinct time intervals. Also, by storing this energy, it allows smoother launches by adding rotational energy to the entire driveline. Without the flywheel, the engine would shake the transmission to pieces, and it would be extremely difficult to launch the vehicle. So, as we decrease the inertia of the flywheel, it is storing less energy at launch, forcing the driver to put more pedal into the launch. This is why you percieve a lack of torque. Not because of a change in torque in the engine, but a change in the total rotating energy available to move the car when you begin to slip the clutch.

The reason to lighten the flywheel is to reduce the rotational inertia of the driveline to allow faster acceleration. The lower the rotational inertia, the greater the angular acceleration at a given torque input. Say for example an engine sweeps from idle to redline in 2 seconds at WOT with a stock flywheel, it may only take 1 second with a lightened flywheel. This is due to the reduced inertia of the flywheel. This also applies to deceleration -- it's easier to accelerate a light flywheel, and also easier to decelerate it -- going back to the "loss of torque" feeling.

Crankshaft pulleys also posess rotational inertia. They function as mini-flywheels for your accessory drive belt. They smooth the torque pulses to the accessories. It also adds inertia to the total crank system, which includes the flywheel. So by lightening the crank pulley you further reduce the energy stored in the rotational system that is the engine.

If anything, an aftermarket crank pulley should increase the torque that you put to the wheels. Usually the diameter of these pulleys is reduced from stock, called "underdrive," which reduces the operating speed of the accessories and thus reduces the parasitic drag on the engine.
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Hopefully this explained why 1) flywheels don't affect engine torque, and 2) you percieve a lack of torque.

 

So are you saying that if you put some underdrive pulleys on you will get more torque? And the loss of torque feel you get will diminish by putting on those "underdrvie" crank pulleys?

One more thing. If you were to get a HEAVIER flywheel does that mean it would take less gas on the accelerator to move the car? so it would feel like you receive more torque?

 

If you were to put a heavier flywheel you wouldn't have to rev the car as high to get the car moving.

Underdrive pulleys reduce the amount of drag that the accessories put on the engine. Yes you'll get some more torque.

IMO a 7lb flywheel is way too friggin light. Imagine when you have your a/c on your car will stall just idling.

A lightened flywheel is great for roadracers, not drag racers unless you have enough power to overcome the loss of inertia that the flywheel provides.

 

Actually, lightweight flywheels aren't always bad for drag racing. For some cars that have trouble with wheelspin during launches, the lightweight flywheel will reduce that wheels spin making launches easier.

 

People start all kinds of myths people they can't do a certain mod to their car for whatever reason (money, etc) so the start **** to make themselves feel better!! I did not experience any loss in low/mid range either with a JDM ITR 4-1 header!!! The power is awesome now!

 

I didn't feel any lose in power at any rpms, and it definatly revs quick, especially in the lower gears. Underdrive pulleys also helped my torque a little. Enought o make it worth the $130 I paid for them (AEM). I guess it just depends...

 

Well, no and yes. Remember, for a given engine, it will produce the same torque at the same speed at the same throttle position, no matter what flywheels or pulleys you have on it. But, by using underdrive pulleys you reduce the parasitic drag of the accessories on the engine. With stock pulleys, your alternator may take 10 lb-ft to rotate. Perhaps with underdrive pulleys, it will only take 6 lb-ft. So that 4 lb-ft is now available to accelerate your car. Those numbers are purely ficticious, meant to illustrate my point -- I have no idea how much the Integra alternator draws.


As 94GSR said, yes, it would take less pedal to move the car. Theoretically, with a big enough flywheel, you could launch the car from idle with no pedal at all, as the flywheel would possess enough energy to launch the vehicle by itself.

 

17 pounds give or take a couple of ounces.