hi will a lightened flywheel unleash more horse power to the wheels? if so how much will a 9lb flywheel affect a b18c1? thanks

 

i dont no about hp
but it helps throttle response alot which means you will get to the power band faster

 

from what I hear, putting a 9 lb flywheel is like losing 200 lbs off your car, on a b16 anyway...in first gear as well. Then when you get to higher gears, the weight is not quite as much. It is the same concept as lightened pulleys. However, from what I hear you loose torque in the bottom end....although I do not know why this is.

 

you don't lose torque. you gain torque, because the motor is moving less excess mass around. less drivetrain loss.

what you lose with a lighter flywheel is stored momentum. when the car is sitting there idling, the energy that goes into rotating the 20lb flywheel is being stored. when you engage the clutch, the motor itself starts turning the wheels but the flywheel does too! that's what it's for.

if you had a 500lb flywheell, and your motor could spin it, you could shut off the motor, engage the clutch, and the car would rocket forward because the flywheel would be turning everything, using up it's stored energy.

 

Flywheels don't make any power. They are just an ignorant piece of metal that's along for the ride. However, they do help to store amounts of power for short periods of time as a previous poster stated.

 

OH yeah i heard you can plug in hairdryers to flywheels, that **** stores so much power. Great for camping.

 

thats an interesting concept, i'm totally aware that the flywheeel does not produce HP but its defianatedly more than a piecle of metal along for the ride, its one of the main conductors of power to the wheels, so lightening it would take away some strain from the engine and allow it to work more efficiently right? and that would mean more HP to the wheels? this is what i was curious about. has anyone seen a dyno where they measure the difference of a lightened flywheel? thanks

 

Doesnt matter if it makes HP or TQ. All that matters is it makes a HUGE difference.

Get one. Comptech is the best. 6.75lbs. aluminum.

 

thanks mike, i was tempted by the comptec but i wanted to get a chromoly so i picked up the exedy FW its 9.1 lb, i havent heard much about it but i know their clutches are good, i'll post my oppinion when installed tomorow.

 

It does not help the motor produce any more power. But what it does is reduce your power drivetrain losses by creating less mass for the engine to rotate. It takes less work to rotate a lighter object. The work saved by rotating less flywheel mass goes to the wheels. This results in marginally higher power at the wheels on a dyno.

Andrew

 

Removing 7lbs. from a Civic EX flywheel is like removing this much weight from the car:

1st - 206 lbs.
2nd- 71 lbs.
3rd- 31 lbs.
4th- 16 lbs.
5th- 10lbs.

Like the previous posts stated, lightening a flywheel won't really produce much extra horsepower, it slightly reduces drivetrain HP losses. What it does is it helps you use the engines power more effectively, increasing forward acceleration and RPM acceleration. It is possible to go "too" light with a flywheel. For example if you were launching from a dead stop on slicks with an overly light flywheel the flywheel will have less enertia stored to turn the tires over, making you bog off the line easily. Sometimes having a flywheel with a considerable amout of weight behind it is more beneficial. It all comes down to application.

 

LOL! It's true..I've done it!

 

How are these numbers calculated? Wouldn't the weight of the wheels, rotors, axles, pressure plate, harmonic balancer and other spinning components come into the equation?

 

It's assuming a 100% stock setup. The only number your varying is the weight of the flywheel, so the weight of other components (stock components that is) doesn't impact the output. It's just an impact on the weight of the car its self. Another way to compare would be to use those numbers to find out the effective 1/4 time reduction after reducing the weight. Not taking into account the decreased rev-time though.

 

but what about for an integra LS....if i go with the lighter flywheel....that would mean i would be revving faster. but the thing is w/ LS engines there is no power way up high....would you guys recomend it for an LS?

 

I've been resisting replying to this post since there's been soo many repetative responses about it....and I can't hold back any longer---eeegads!

but...

a lightend f.wheel won't unleash more power than what the engine is already producing. It will help, unleash pent up power that the engine is already making though...and that is 'felt' with the quicker acceleration, or throttle response, once a stock f.wheel is shaved down to a lighter weight or replaced with a lighter aftermarket f.wheel.

 

ok, to me it seems that weather the engine is realeasing more pent up power, or its allowing the engine to produce more power by reducing the weight it needs to fight against the main thing that i hear everyone agree on is that the car will rev faster and accelerate quicker. So it makes sense to me that in order to rev faster the car has to have more power to accelerate faster, right? So wouldnt it be right to say that its allowing more power to the wheels?

 

damn this ish is confusing. A lightweight flywheel allows you to regain some of the power that was lost attempting to move the heavier stock flywheel. On a dyno, you will show increased power to the wheels and on an engine dyno you will show equal power to the flywheel. It does not add/give/make power, it restores power that got lost between the engine and the wheels...

 

M = I x ( <U>Gear x Final</U> )2 &lt;-- (2 is squared)
.............Radius of tire


I = moment of inertia (rotation equivalent of mass)


[Modified by H22Si, 6:40 PM 4/19/2002]

 

There is not more horse power, the difference is that it takes less effort to move the wheels when you have a lightened flywheel, so you have a better acceleration.
I do know that a lightened flywheel will not improve a car's performance on up-hill, I think that's because of stored up energy or inertia, but I'm not too sure.

 

Ok example:
Say you have a 4,000lbs car with 200hp. If you removed 3,000lbs. from the car, reducing the total weight of the car down to 1,000lbs., do you think the car would accelerate quicker? Yes. Is there any more power being put to the wheels? No. It's simply removing weight to make more effective use of the power being produced.

Colt: Yes, you are correct about not enough energy being stored, making hill climbs problematic with an ultra-light flywheel. Mainly in higher gears.
Thats why the engine will stall and loose power, it literally cant pull its self up the hill since not enough energy is stored.


[Modified by H22Si, 6:53 PM 4/19/2002]

 

I beg to differ with "you gain torque from a lightened flywheel" statement. A lighter flywheel has less kenetic (sp?) energy while the engine is idling. So when yuo engage the clutch, the lighter flywheel has less energy and the engine has to do more work to get going because there is less momentum-resulting in less low end torque, however, when the engine gets in higher rpm's, the lighter flywheel results in less mass that needs to be spun


[Modified by vtecteg, 12:01 AM 4/20/2002]

 

yes, but it's not a question of "higher RPMS," it until the clutch is engaged. once the speed of the engine and the tranny are matched, the mass of the flywheel is just more work for the motor to do. i GAARANTEE that if you put a heavier flywheel on and dyno the car, you will have LESS torque.

 

Fu@# this flywheel talk i got some flyweed. WWWWWAAAAAAZZZZZup!!!