A while ago I bought this flywheel and I have been really worried about the heat cracking that it ever since. Do you guys think this crack (the worst one by far) is safe to use? I defiantly want to keep both of my feet! Thanks a million!
I would not use that flywheel. That is a pretty large crack and will only get worse and may end in a catastrophic failure.
ANY crack of ANY kind in a flywheel turns it into a potential grenade. Wish I could find some pics of cars with the floor boards demolished and the dash board bent up like a bow. These were circulated by the NHRA when they passed the scatter shield rule. Hate to tell you what the guy's legs looked like. Later.... check out this thread and see if you still want to use a cracked flywheel. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...eel-explosions-lets-hear-some-stories.185297/
It's right between those two holes. It looks like it could be shrapnel if the crack makes it to the holes.
I'm no expert, but I am the core guy at the local peterbilt dealership. I have gotten a few cracked flywheels back and when I inquired about it with caterpillar they told me they will resurface the flywheel if the cracks are not to deep and they are good to sell as a reman unit. If it was me and my money and my car though, I would look for a different flywheel.
Should be plenty safe to use as a base for your grinder or buffing wheel. Probably. I think. Maybe not.
Perhaps the best use for it. If you do, though, remove the starter ring. Those teeth will chew up a concrete floor every time you try to move it.
That it will explode is true given that you go to the track and rev it up to 6 grand and pop the clutch. That is why they use billet still flywheels for racing. Now before I get shitted on for saying this let me finish. I don't know of any stock, cast flywheels that don't have heat cracks in them. I worked in a brake and clutch machine shop and resurfaced flywheels like that everyday, it's a common practice especially in trucks. I would not use a wheel like that for racing and good luck finding one for a stock 56 Pontiac that isn't cracked. If you find one that has been resurfaced you may not even know. All of the stock standard shift cars out there that are hamb friendly and have stock flywheels in them would not be driven if they ever looked at the flywheel. Again I said stock. non racing. So throw that one out, buy a new billet one (non-hamb) and install a scatter shield, you will be good to go. Pat
I have seen ‘heat checked’ flywheels that had myriad small cracks in the surface and did clean up with a surface grind. But none that I have seen had a crack of that length, width and depth. I am no authority on the subject, but I agree with most posts above that see that flywheel as likely to be a major safety issue. The thing is, for the price of new flywheel, would you want to gamble with your feet, legs or possibly life....not to mention any potential passenger injury? Ray
I'm with everyone else on this, wall art. A scattershield may contain things to a certain degree however the risks far outweigh the gains IMHO.
I have to go along with Hnstray in that that isn't your normal heat check crack. I've machined a lot of them with surface heat checking cracks down with decent results but I'd think that crack is pretty deep.
Having a flywheel/clutch assembly come apart on my full race olds engine in my '34 ford 5 window just before I reached the traps I wouldn't touch it. When mine went it broke a weld on the scater shield and jambed it against the throttle. It was going past the 6,000 rpm red line when I hit the kill button. No injuries but that was the end of my hotrodding for over 50 years.
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