kritip said:

Seems most are routed out to a certain extent. Is it not possible to also drill sections out, ie, through the whole flywheel to reduce even more weight.

I read some cars have alloy/alu flywheels available that in comparison weigh pretty much nothing, are they available for the fire engines? Not sure I'd want one too light though!

KRistian

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Alloy fly wheels, http://www.fidanza.com/productdetails.aspx?id=aluminum_flywheels#

I can buy from Suzuki Sport an alloy flywheel for my Ignis and uprated clutches, but they are expensive flywheel £325, clutch £189 pressure plate £179 plus VAT yikees, but I guess stuff from eth manufacturer is always going to be expensive compared to after market as probably had higher development costs.

balidey said:

Anyone thats had one lightened, what process was done on yours? lathe or grind?

Reason is, i have a lathe.....

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lathe, you don't touch the clutch face bit of it - so it doesnt really matter

clutch on my other car weighs 7 kg and still drives good for road use

Mines off to samson engineering first thing monday, under instruction to lop off as much as possible, but not so much that it will be dodgy

would have thought a milling machine would be better than a lathe

Or both,thats what i did



All the above work was done by me in me shed
I would never recomend touching the clutch face with tool on a lathe.if its really nessary then use a grinder(not an angle grinder ) to remove any high/hard spots ot the face.

Brooky said:

Or both,thats what i did

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All the above work was done by me in me shed
I would never recomend touching the clutch face with tool on a lathe.if its really nessary then use a grinder(not an angle grinder ) to remove any high/hard spots ot the face.

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thats some nice looking work mate... what are the chances of doing another ?? lol

whoooa thats the third request ive had now to lighten them,i should start a business.lol

i do for myself but i wouldnt feel conifdent doing it for others, it would be my fault if it broke and wrecked your car then id probably get a big bill

Brooky said:

i do for myself but i wouldnt feel conifdent doing it for others, it would be my fault if it broke and wrecked your car then id probably get a big bill

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just write up a big disclaimer and say if it chuffs up then its there fault!

OxO said:

just write up a big disclaimer and say if it chuffs up then its there fault!

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not really that simple.a flywheel ripping itself apart at speed could cause a fatal incident!

yea,i wouldn't want 3.5kg spinning at 7500rpm then to break,the bellhousing wouldnt stop it much,neither would the bulk head so after that its your feet..legs etc. not good unless you balance it to the best of your ability then it should all be reet

thionking about it ,i might try and NDT it for cracks,got the stuff at work so ill try and 'borrow' some

well i got 2 fly wheels lol and have some dpi cans at home
give me a price

dpi??

Brooky said:

dpi??

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Its a pentrating dye used for finding cracks, but in this instance its totally useless. If you take a perfect flywheel, machine 5kg off it (ie way too much) all in the centre (ie the wrong place) and check for cracks with DPI and find none, it does NOT mean the flywheel is safe. Checking for cracks after machining is pointless. Fatigue cracks after use are the problem, but you will not know how long after use to check for cracks, and to do it means stripping flywheel off the engine each time.

What i suggest you do is take the flywheel to a machine shop that has experience of lightening flywheels, preferably one that knows of the FIRE flywheels.

rite i get you now,thats the stuff we use at work,i just thought it may help to find any small if any cracks before starting so you know the flywheel is not damaged and any bigger cracks can occur.

I also suggest take your flywheels to a machine shop with experiance.ive only done mine because i can and i wont have people hunting me down for a wrecked car.i'd jus tbe pissed that it has broken,but thats a risk im willing to take.Me dads an engineer and he says it looks good in an engineering point of view so that'll do me

well a mpi ( magnetic particle inspection tiny filings ) will spot any cracks no matter how small has its far more presice than dpi ( dye penitration inspection ) but ultimatly a radiography test would be best ... funds provided of course

but either way i would be willing too trust your work man ship would do it myself but we dont have a mill at work just a lathe

you can still churn quite abit off with a lathe

[email protected] said:

well a mpi ( magnetic particle inspection tiny filings ) will spot any cracks no matter how small has its far more presice than dpi ( dye penitration inspection ) but ultimatly a radiography test would be best ... funds provided of course

but either way i would be willing too trust your work man ship would do it myself but we dont have a mill at work just a lathe

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Inspecting for cracks is not the point as the surface cracks would be removed with machining. The problem is weakening the flywheel in the wrong place, which NDT can't help with.

But as long as you don't go silly, then a DIY lightening should be fine.

hi I think a lightened flywheel in ergal is more safe than a steel lightened flywheel.
It's just a treatment, and no risky machining , but a expensive treatment.