flathead ford flywheel lightning

[zgears]

so, how much is to much, or to little to remove from a stock steel flyweel?

[Digger_Dave]

zgears, your question made me chuckle a bit.
I was digging through some OLD hot rod magazines the other day and came across a cartoon where the machinist guy set the lightened flywheel on the counter, and you could see the printing on the paper under it. The machinist asked, "That light enough for you?"

Seriously, lightening flathead flywheels has never to my knowledge been an exact science.

For drag racing a light flywheel would allow the engine to "come up to revs" faster. (less rotating mass to "drag" up to speed; pun intended!) Most serious flathead racers would use aluminum flywheels. (with a steel insert to prevent gauling the disk area)

Taking a LOT OFF a steel flywheel would start to upset the clutch linkage geometry. Plus weaken the flywheel.

On the other hand for street use, leaving the flywheel alone would insure the engine would not "lose" revs (bog) between shifts.

The simple law of physics comes into play; "A body in motion, (the flywheel) tends to stay in motion." (rotating mass) vs "A body at rest, tends to stay at rest." (needs torque to bring up to speed)

If you take weight off for street use, it becomes a pain.

[zgears]

hum...i may just leave it. so that i have a "safe" flywheel when my aluminum flywheel flys apart.

[timebandit]

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If you take weight off for street use, it becomes a pain.

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Ï`ll agree with that. I have done it on a couple of engines, and they both became useless to cruise around town with. Fun for a while with an agressive throttle response, but you`ll end up getting tired of it soon unless racing is the main activity.
I ended up putting a stock weight flywheel back on.

[av8]

Dave is on target with his info. As great as it is to hear that crisp, instant bark from a built flathead with a light flywheel, it can be a pain in the butt to drive a light-flywheel motor on the street, in the real world. More important, it can take its toll on clutch life because that light flywheel needs a bit more "slipping" during initial engagement to get the car moving.

You can roughly correlate flywheel weight (mass) to the weight of your car. Light flywheels are okay in light cars, such as non-fendered T, A, and Deuce roadsters and coupes. But you'd not be likely to find much enjoyment in a light flywheel installed in a fat-Ford coupe or sedan or pickup.

I have a new Scheifer steel-face aluminum flywheel (thanks, Dave) that I'm dieing to use, but it's going to have to wait for something much ligher than my '48 F-1.