first off, heres what im driving... it weighs 1260lbs with an 86 6 port and 500cfm carb. im new to rotarys (and 5 speeds) so forgive my ignorant questions.



im thinking about going with an 11lb steel flywheel but i hear different things about them. i assume a lighter flywheel will allow the motor to wind up quicker, and i hear the lighter the car the lighter the flywheel you can get away with, but i also hear that a light flywheel will make shifts feel softer because of less energy being stored in the lighter flywheel (feeling like less torque).
can anyone tell me of their experience going from a stock to a lighter flywheel?

one guy i talked to said he went with a light flywheel and swapped back to factory because it felt less torquey between gears.

how will it effect my little light weight car? (initial take off?, between gears?, when im shifting hard?)
ill keep with a mild/factory clutch.

 

I recently put an 11 lb. aluminum flywheel with a new OEM clutch in my mostly stock FC and it's about the best thing I've done from a performance perspective.
Shifting is easy, the clutch is easy and she revs like crazy.
I see no downside.

 

I agree I added a lightweight flywheel years and years ago to my '87 Sport and absolutely loved it, and my GXL(stock FW) felt slow/sluggish compared to it

 

I did a flywheel that is around 14lb chromoly. We have a 10lb chromoly here that we opted against, just because this is a street car I'm building. The race car has a 9lb aluminum flywheel - quick to rev, but it also is quick to stall. That's the only thing I found about it - otherwise, it's all good.

 

Also, that car is awesome.

 

I put a 9lb flywheel in my vert that was very down on power(way low compression), and still absolutely loved it. It will be going into my vert once I fix the body damage.

 

2 things:

1. That thing looks scary as hell (Also see: FUN!)

2. Where are the vids???

 

just be sure to get the correct counterweight , cool car how much fuel does hold?

 

yes, i know about the counterweight having to be right.
-the tank holds 7 gallons id say ??
-lots of vids can be found on youtube if you search "13b vintage speedster"

 

thanks for the reply's thus far guys!

 

Dang guys, how did yall miss his build thread?

It's in the build thread section.

 

11lb is too HEAVY, get a real lightweight flywheel!

The only people who don't like them are the people who don't know how to drive, IE they release the clutch and THEN feed in throttle, instead of accelerating into the clutch engagement. From a stop. Once moving there is no difference at all.

 

I've got a 10.3lb flywheel in my Miata and the shifts happen much quicker because the motor is allowed to slow down faster so the synchro can engage quicker.

My only complaint is that when letting off the throttle the idle dips very low and then recovers. Where as a stock flywheel has enough inertia to get to idle without dipping.

 

I agree with clokker. My 11lb flywheel was one of the best mods when I was running stock power levels. The revs felt much more "free". I haven't experienced any issues with the idle dipping down too low.

 

The only real downside to a lighter flywheel is less stored energy to make smooth starts from a stop easier. But, since your car is presumably much lighter than an FC (and therefore less in need of energy to get it moving), and probably isn't doing a lot of stop-and-go driving in traffic, this is probably a moot point - a lighter flywheel should be all win for you.