Does a Light Weight Flywheel give you more power?

[Glenn Butcher]

How about this statement!...
 
Engine inertia is greater with a heavier flywheel - less with a lighter.
 
All circuit cars (EDIT: SHOULD) run light flywheels - they are sensational
 
Heavier flywheels are good for hard launches off the starting line at the drags as there is more inertia from the engine.
 
I remember in 2002 speaking to Rick Engman about the 4rotor at LE Mans (the one that stopped on the first lap! ). As they were running a restrictor to reduce power to around 500hp they were having trouble getting the car through and out of corners. So they put a heavier flywheel on it to assist with this - but the downside is slower revving through the gears.
 
Listen to the 787B videos, idling and revving - it has a very light flywheel. One of my old racecars had a 1 kg aluminium flywheel - it WAS AWESOME!
 
Light flywheels make driving the car in traffic more difficult, and generally speaking that is why the factory flywheels are heavy - as it reduces the jerkiness, and helps keep engine revs through the inertia on low rev starts in 1st gear etc.
 
I think for a street RX - a 6kg flywheel is quite nice (standard are around 12kgs I think).

[D1 WTF]

lol.  5 pages late they actually agree on an outcome.  keeping reading to find out.

[nikp]

Ah, jeez. I aint going into this anymore. This could go on for ever. You\'re certain of your explanation, I\'m certain with the mathmatics and physics of mine. People will (and have) get bored very quickly.

Put it this way:

lighter flywheel = better acceleration.
Heavier flywheel = more consistent revs, less lumpy, potentially easier to drive, easier quick launches from lower revs.

Which explains why mine bogs down easily, if i don\'t give it good revs. I have a lightened flywheel on mine.

[Glenn Butcher]

Listen to the difference here:
 
Heavy Flywheel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGLkpIpsCow
 
Light Flywheel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLsNKmdvQa4&mode=related&search=

[Glenn Butcher]

See how hard it is to get going without inertia from the engine! (my old RX-4 - which I\'m sure some of you have seen, but it is a good illustration of a super light flywheel)
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHmoVN2c9ys

[Adriansturgess]

Superlight flywheel gives you RSS (repetitive stalling syndrome).

[onelastpost]

I am sure we all agree here that there is no diifference to torque.

The difference is how the torque is used.

[7ForLife]

The way i see it is
torque is created by force x radius (distance between centre of crank and connecting rod big end)
force is created by compression (amount of air and fuel in the chamber at the time of ignition)
If the rotating mass is less,less throttle will be needed therefor less force is created and less torque.
But a rotating mass also creates its own kind of torque due to its weight therefor helping when the engine cant apply enough force(eg on a hill)

a lighter flywheel will allow to engine to rev faster
but a heavyier one will help with torque
So its best to pick one correct for your set up

[D1 WTF]

all i will say is 787b, awsome.  i want one they sound cool as F***.  POWER TO THE ROTARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[onelastpost]

all i will say is 787b, awsome.  i want one they sound cool as F***.  POWER TO THE ROTARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here Here!

[NurburgRob]

With a lighter flywheel you\'ll notice the reduction of the effect of the torque the engine produces especially when you drive up a hill (breath), when driving down a hill or on the flat you will feel the benefit of the lighter flywheel and the engine\'s rev\'s will climb quicker as torque is not as essential (breath again).

A mate of mine had an uber-light flywheel on a Civic VTi (not much torque anyway) and when blasting up a hill it felt like the clutch was slipping!!! when on the flat or downhill the revs just shot up.

Also, with a lighter flywheel, when you take your foot of the gas the engine\'s revs will drop quicker.  Vectra V6\'s have a massive flywheel, you can take your foot of the gas and pretty much continue at the same speed!!!

That\'s my laymans version anyway - sod maths, gave that up at 18!

[oldone]

A few weeks ago I had the a prob with starter\\flywheel...........as you all know I ran a machined lightened flywheel on the 13B Bridge,on pull away from a stop,I needed to give it some to get away,driveablity at low rpm was a bitch to say the least,I was always cruising with clutch in or run in a higher gear.
When the clutch let go etc etc,I changed to a stock 12A flywheel\\pressure\\clutch combo.drivability is so much better,pulling away is boring now,low rpm cruising is boring.............:Typing.

The heavy flywheel has given me more torque,engine takes time to rev up,had to adjust carb and idle speed.Because our road speeds are lower than Im used to in the RSA,a slightly heavier flywheel makes sense now.:Typing

Make sense....

[oldone]

Forgot to say,on the race cars running in class C (no bridge or PP port),we ran heavy flywheels,Class A cars running Birdge an PP\'s we ran ultra light flywheels !!!:Typing

[Glenn Butcher]

A few weeks ago I had the a prob with starter\\flywheel...........as you all know I ran a machined lightened flywheel on the 13B Bridge,on pull away from a stop,I needed to give it some to get away,driveablity at low rpm was a bitch to say the least,I was always cruising with clutch in or run in a higher gear.
When the clutch let go etc etc,I changed to a stock 12A flywheel\\pressure\\clutch combo.drivability is so much better,pulling away is boring now,low rpm cruising is boring.............:Typing.
 
The heavy flywheel has given me more torque,engine takes time to rev up,had to adjust carb and idle speed.Because our road speeds are lower than Im used to in the RSA,a slightly heavier flywheel makes sense now.:Typing
 
Make sense....

Hope it is machined steel? and not the original cast material that is machined?

[nikp]

When going uphill, etc on a lightened flywheel and you notice \'less torque\', what you actually noticing is less stored energy in the flywheel.