hey just seeing if anyone has an opinion on what flywheel i should run. its a 3300 pound car around 400hp 355ci 12 to 1 spun around 6500rpm a m22 muncie/lakewood bellhousing 12bolt with 4.56 gears,some good axles and sticky tires... I was looking at the hays 50lb steel one but is thr any better ones to use?
Heavier flywheel helps with momentum of the engine to offset dumping the clutch. Lighter flywheel helps engine rev faster. Since you have fairly light weight and some fairly low gears, a lighter flywheel should give a lower ET; although you may have slightly lower 60 ft time with light flywheel vs the heavier one. The engine revving up faster will overcome the starting line gain.
you will want to use a billet or a wheel cut from a solid forged piece ! no cast anything, you want as close to blow proof as you can get, and look for the sfi rating sticker on the hub,,,
wbrw32 is right call Mcleod had a problem with disc coming apart they sold me one with no marcel (the spring between the facing) just a sprung hub worked perfect also a heavy flywheel to stop the k/s from bogging out of the hole wheels up
Asking these questions reminds me of the day's of scatter shields when clutch explosions seemed to happen every weekend. Scary day's for sure. Jimbo
My '55 Chevy gasser had both small block and big block engines. With the small block I ran a 8# Scheifer aluminum flywheel with a Hays clutch. 10" Goodyear wrinkle walls, 5.57 gears and a M-22 gearbox, 2600# race weight. Ran 11.35. Put in a 50# billet steel flywheel and it ran 11.21. The launch was much more consistent and shifting at 8,500 I was convinced that a heavy flywheel didn't have any negative effect.
Heavier flywheel stores more energy, it also slows the engine's rate of accelleration. Sometimes slowing the engine's rate of accelleration can make a huge difference in keeping the tires hooked up.
At the very minimum, a stock GM flywheel that is made out of nodular iron! It should have a big "N" cast on the back. Otherwise buy a REAL steel flywheel. My now way gone Buddy Tom blew up a stock flywheel shifting at 8,000+ back then so please listen to me. I pulled his car and him back to Atlanta, MO at like 11 PM late Sat. evening back in '65 or so using his supplied "1" dia. hay rope", He, He!! You OLDER farmer guys will know what I'm talking about.. To continue, Tom was handi-capped so had to have somebody shift his old '58 Vette ragtop 4-speed dragging. His engine was a '64 375hp/327 FI engine with and old Isky Z-30 cam in it, hand controls and all. Gene was shifting for Tom that night and the next day, he said that it was like a grenade going off under Tom's car. pdq67 FWIW, Tom's Vette had a 3.08 reg with little bitty 7.00/14 tires under it. Guy's with 350hp/327 '65 Chevelles would jump him outta the hole like 3 car links and were going into 3rd gear as he would motor buy them in 1st! Last time I road with him was a 160 to 170 mph ride late one "VO" run between Atlanta and La Plata, MO way back in '63 or early '64.
For your combination I would run a 30# billet wheel. Your HP is too low for an alum. fly wheel. Flywheel weight has to be calculated with your HP/car weight/and traction. Too light and, you launch and the rpms drop below your max torque, you will lose 60' time. Too heavy, accelleration through the gears suffers. 50 lb. flywheel, that was for 265 and 283 10,000 rpm engines. Never screw with flywheel safety, unless you want permanent disability.
A heavy flywheel allows you to store energy before the green light comes on and use it after. Once the car has used that energy the heavy flywheel is not a plus. But, if the cars suspension and tires are up to harnessing that extra energy on launch, a heavy flywheel can be an overall plus. If the car is already at the limit on launch without a heavy flywheel, a heavier flywheel would not be a plus.
Ram, Hayes, and my favorite- Centerforce! All these company's have SFI approved Chevy Flywheels. Be sure to get the correct teeth count as well as balance. ALWAYS replace and TORQUE new Flywheel mounting bolts and use Lock-Tite. New Grade 8 hardware, torqued and Lock-tite as well for the pressure plate. Check the U-Joints also while the driveshaft is down and in your hands. Don't overtighten the Universal joint U-Bolts!. I also HIGHLY recommend indicating your bell housing/scatter shield bore centerline C/L, to crankshaft C/L as well. TR
What am I looking at here? Looks more like a hydraulic coupler than a clutch/pressure plate/flywheel.
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