Lightweight flywheel question

[MoparMan]

Since my car is apart getting the Arrow rebuild I'm considering getting a lightweight flywheel put in when the engine goes back in. Is this mod worth it for a non-tracked Viper? Will there be a noticable difference on the street or is this just a waste of $400-$500? Any input is appreciated!

 

[RX VIPER]

While adding an aluminum flywheel will not net you any bhp, the car will feel quicker due to the weight/inertia transfer. I'm sure someone can explain it much better than me.

 

[Ulysses]

The RPM's will rev up quicker.

 

[joe117]

And it will slow down quicker. I'd do it.
I raced stock cars for years. The light flywheel made a big difference, you could feel it SOTP.

It was not legal in the class I was racing. Everyone cheats at stock car racing.

 

[Ron]

In my experience, waste. I had one then took it off and sold it. Spend your upgrade money elsewhere.

 

[Andrew/USPWR]

I track my car, and had one put on it when I first bought it. Its also a semi daily driver.
My car jumps and jerks around a lot at low cruising speeds and I think its because the flywheel is slowing down and spinning back up so much faster than it was intended to. I myself, would like to change back to the stock flywheel and see how it drives.
Pretty much everything I've done to my car, has or is, causing me trouble. Your smart thinking twice about changing out stock parts for a daily driver.


2000 GTS Steel Grey
6 piston Baer claws up front, front brakes in back
Quaife Differential, GKH half shafts, alloy fly wheel,
short throw shifter, polished aluminum intakes, K&N air filters, Optima battery,

 

[Bugeater]

Track car? Get it.
Dont track car? Waste of money. Simple as that.

 

[ByteMe]

I agree with Andrew/USPWR. I had a car with a lightweight flywheel and the driveability was not very good on the street, but it did accelerate significantly better. For the street, don't do this.

 

[Torquemonster]

Does the lightened flywheel make the Viper too easy to stall? Or is it still easy to navigate around traffic and parking lots - just a little more jerky?

 

[Ron]

For me it was virtually no differance. No more bucking than OEM, perhaps a little more slip to get the car off the line. Even with a back to back comparision, not enough of a differance to matter good or bad.

 

[vegasviper]

Jerky, a bit harder to drive

 

[Mike Adams]

Waste of money to just pull and change but if you have it out you might just as well do it.

 

[VIPR GTS]

Now I feel stupid, I like the way mine drives with the aluminum flywheel, and the revs! Whats wrong with me?

 

[joe117]

Didn't we have this discussion a few times in the past.

Some mechanical engineer did the numbers to show what was gained by dropping some weight from the flywheel.

It would be nice to see that again. There really shouldn't be any guesswork about this being worth doing or not.

 

[ViperRay]

Stop all this bs'ing and check out this article. I've got mine on order.

www.pumaracing.co.uk/flywheel.htm

 

[Paolo Castellano]

Does the lightened flywheel make the Viper too easy to stall? Or is it still easy to navigate around traffic and parking lots - just a little more jerky?

Barry, I did not notice any difference in how easy it stalls.

It feels the same in traffic and parking lots, not really more jerky in my opinion.

I noticed the car with the alum. flywheel seems to slow down easier in terms of threshold braking around the track.

For highway roll-on races, the stock steel one keeps up the revs between shifts.

When my car was stock/headers/exhaust, my dad had a bone stock 1997 GTS with rear muffler delete.

I would sometimes get to drive both back to back. I noticed my dad's car seemed to pull harder from the time you let the clutch out after the shift for sure as compared to the stock flywheel.

I can say my car now with the supercharger seems to pull harder on the highway and is easier to launch at the strip with the steel one. I would think the steel one would maintain higher revs and will keep up the boost between shifts for the turbo car as well!

 

[SnakeEye]

David Baker and Puma Race Engines above referrenced article excerpt ... "On the other side of the coin, it's not worth spending much money lightening the flywheel of a 7 litre Chevy engine revving to under 5,000 and geared for 60 mph in first as the vehicle will be very insensitive to the reduction in weight."

Just curious ... the Mopar motor is 1 litre bigger than the Chevy example given and although its redline is at 6K and not the 5K listed, gearing for 60mph in first is about the same. Given this does lightening the Viper's flywheel still make good sense or will it too be rather insensitive to the reduction in weight?