Flywheel lightening

Arutha19

Wrench Pro
Points
56
Location
Scotland, Glasgow
Car
2001 Corsa 1.0
Has anyone attempted to lighten their flywheel and could tell me if its worthwhile?

I'm not looking to take LOADS of weight off it just a kilo or 2. No more than that.
 
In a word, for what it costs if you do the labour yourself, I'd highly recommend it. You're looking at what £20-£40 to have it lightened and balanced and the car will pick up revs and lose revs noticeable quicker. Only trade-off is teh car won't carry speed as and you will sacrifice you power up hill but the severity depends on how much you take off.

I'm having the flywheel done on my daily driver when I have time to take the box off. Need to decide how much though.
 
I agree with MA! Don't do it yourself, if the balance is upset then you could wreck the engine.

It would be worth investigating to see if the 1.2 flywheel will fit and if this is lighter.
 
Cheers guys.

I was wondering about the speed-loss on hills and the likes of motorway driving. How bad is it? I've never driven anything with a lightened flywheel on it that was road-going so I really don't know.
 
Depending on the weight of the flywheel, 2 kg could be a LOT of weight to remove and could make the car a pain to drive!

If the engine is standard lightening the flywheel is a lot of work for very little, if any, gain. If the car is heavy then performance could well get worse :)

It is usually only worthwhile when part of a performance improvement pack and being done for a specific purpose. In some cases a heavier flywheel is the way to go. Lighter isn't always better.

PS. DON'T EVER try to do your own lightening (unless you have the correct machinery and know what you are doing). Metal shards travelling at over 200mph from an exploding flywheel will do a lot of damage to both steel and flesh!
 
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Well the car is only 1000 kilos... which sounds bizzare but its light for a car =P

As for the flywheel, i'm not so sure of the weight. Its not for a gain in speed for the car its for a greater driveablity. I like a car that revs nice and freely. I wouldn't go mad, just enough to rev up quicker but not so much as I'll grind to a halt every time I'm on a hill.

My engine doesn't produce a lot of power, 100 bhp if I'm lucky (with the airfilter thats on it now), so rather than soup it right up I'm more concerned with the car using as much of that power as I can make it
A remap, full stainless steel exhaust system, airfilter and fast road cams is a LOT of expense for maybe 15 hp in total. And then I'd have to go about sorting out the handling.

I'd much rather lighten the flywheel, drop it, bigger tires on it, quick shift kit. Yes, there's no horsepower gain but there is a car which is set up for my driving style for not as much money. And we all know that you can have all the power in the world but if you can't get to grips with the car its useless. A driver friendly car is worth its weight in gold. (Audi Quattro rally car as an example. Only one man could get in that car and drive away. Any of the other drivers couldn't handle it. It was set up for him.)

That way I can do the other stuff as and when tho older parts are done like the exhaust and i don't need to go around uprating everything... its already done! =)

And yeah, I'm not so good with machining equipment so it'd be getting sent away for a pro to do it.
 
If you want greater driveability then don't do it, simple as.

Especially if you plan to fit bigger wheels. You will need the help of a heavier flywheel to turn the wheels from a standstill :) With a lighter flywheel you will find yourself slipping the clutch more resulting in an early replacement.

Forget the flywheel until you decide to upgrade the engine properly.

Been there, done it, got the T-shirt, learnt my lesson.
 
Ah... you're right enough....

Fair do's it is probably worthwhile to avoid it.

Thanks for all the advice... unless someone disagrees with MasterAuron and Old-git
 
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Hahahaha

Thought I might as well ask, but what you said sounds like good common sense. More weight to make go round = the need for something heavy to turn said weight.

Do you think it would make a difference if I only take off a very slight amount of weight relatively speaking?
 
So really ideally I'd need to drive a megane with a lightened flywheel to see what it would be like and whether or not it would suit me... which also makes good common sense.
 
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