flywheels
 

Does a ligthened flywheel give your motor more response and maybe run a little cooler if it has holes drilled in it??

RE: flywheels
 

What flywheel?

Regards,
doubledee

RE: flywheels
 

Yep...and it helps to cool the clutch bell...

RE: flywheels
 

Good answer

RE: flywheels
 

Just be sure you balance it if you do drill it

RE: flywheels
 

If the flywheel are lightened of drilled holes, it can make idling problem cause there are not saved enough energy in the flywheel to keep rotating in idling.

Jens Eirik

RE: flywheels
 

Oh, that flywheel.

Regards,
doubledee

RE: flywheels
 

Lighter flywheels allow the engine to spool up faster, but it may not idle as well as a result. The cooling effect of holes/fins in the flywheel is probably negligible.

RE: flywheels
 

id pass on that matter, would worry about it. Its not enough 'load' on the engine, from keeping the engine idling well.

RE: flywheels
 

yes it does allow the engine to spool up faster. Some racers do this to allow faster spool up times as you dont have to worry about idling all that long. As racers need there engine's to be able to spool up as fast as possible. But if your bashing then drilling the holes or getting the lightened fly wheel is not worth it. Having a lightened flywheel will make some rough idles and the lighter it is the rougher it going to idle. But as for the cooling action part of it I would say that it doent's do a whole lot if anything as a cooling action.

RE: flywheels
 

Thats true, lightened flywheels will have a reduced moment of inertia and this makes for faster rotating accelerations. Also, what Jens Erik says is also true. The reduced moment of enertia makes for reduced rotating enegy. This in turn makes for rough idling.

As far as cooling, the best way to keep the clutchbell/flywheel/clutch cool is to make sure you have clean and crisp clutch shoes that do not slip. Slippery shoes causes slipping which in turn causes friction and heat. If your shoes are slippong, change them or upgrade them to a high quality shoes.

RE: flywheels
 

As a racer, lightened up drivetrain parts such as middle shafts, 2 speed shafts, and 2 speed hubs all work well, but you never lighten up your clutch parts, when using high power racing motors. Why, think of it like this, When you put your car up in the air your not supposed to gun it for more than like a second because the engine is likely to over rev and snap a conrod, being that the wheels are off the ground. The engines crankshaft needs the weight of the flywheel and its clutch parts so it does not over rev easily. ligtning up those clutch parts decreases the weight to much to where there is not enough rotational mass. Thats why racers lightin up there cars drivetrain parts, but not there clutch parts. It would be "too easy" for the engine to spool up [:-];)

RE: flywheels
 

I'm not a racer, I'm a basher. As far as lightened clutches go, I can see how this would benefit racers a little.

As far as catching air and when you gun it to pitch the nose up to keep the vehicle level, the clutch is still engaged and the rotating intertia of all 4 wheels and the rest of the engaged drive train provide more than 10times the moment of enertia to prevent the engine from revving up too quickly. If the wheels run free like that too long (10sec+), then your conrod journal will suffer from permanent strain and expand and eventually snap. I don't know of any RC that has been able to catch that much air time though (If some one has, I'd love to see that!).

RE: flywheels
 

yea i can speak from expierence had a lightened flywheel and i on my truck when i was making a high speed runit snapped the conrod in like 50 pieces in my os motor i caught air but i it was soo far away from me i couldnt tell and i kept it pinned and then it shut off i though it was out of gas and nope broke the conrod and maby damaged the block

RE: flywheels
 

Thats exactly what happens when you lighten up your clutch parts, except on the ground when it comes to on road racing, You can't really give exact increments of time, because every con rod has its different strenghtnesses and stress points. Every good racer nose better not to do lighten up their clutch. There comes a time where all that weight reduction becomes too much and harmul to the car.

RE: flywheels
 

I've bashed with nothing but lighten flywheels. I like having the peace of mind knowing that I am getting better response and power delievery. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. With the engine's ability to rev up faster, you get better clutch engagement.

As for rough idling, a simple fix is to idle up. Then you have a reliable idle again, just like with real cars. I don't see why this would deter anybody.

Cooling? Drilled flywheels aren't vented. Vented flywheels seems like to me to rob the engine of power by adding parasitic drag. Again this defeats the purpose of a lightened flywheel. In my opinion, I don't think this will make the difference whether an engine ran at 280-300F.

I have not run into the issue of blowing conrods yet. The load of the car + high speed drag will not allow any lightweight flywheel to magically break 100+ mph. Also I don't pin my throttle with no load for minutes on end. That's like asking for something to break.

If you got the money, get one. I use HPI's.

RE: flywheels
 

Yes having the engine over rev can snap a conrod. BUt people pin the throttle when there in the air all the time. To do stunts and of the sorts. You can break a connecting rod without having the flywheel lightened so what makes you think that the lightened flywheel was did in the rod. I have seen things break for no reason at all, Yes running an engine with no load can and will hurt the engine but it may have come damaged from the factory or the way you broke in the engine. There is to many variables here so to point out the the reason why the conrod broke and place the reason why it broke solely on the lightened flywheel is not justified in any way.

You have no clue on what that particular guy did to his engine, he could have over reved it without the lightened flywheel on for so long then when he plaecd it on there thats just when it happened to let go. There are tons of reason why a conrod could have snapped in an engine. Overreving the engine from a lightened flywheel is just one of them. And yes racers do lighten other points also as every ounce counts but I know one place that racers do is the flywheel.

So just because he had that flywheel on doesnt mean that it broke because of that reason. You can run the lightened flywheel with no ill results. You just have to know what your doing.

RE: flywheels
 

In What CLASS DO RACERS LIGHTEN THEIR FLY WHEELS? You may not know what exactly caused his conrod to snap but Why use the Light Weight Cutch parts, if they do increase the risk factor. A light weight flywheel makes a difference but not that big of a difference, where ese on-road we can lighten the clutch bell, the flywheel, the transmission shafts, the 2 speed, the list goes on. reducing the rotational mass of the transmission is all good, but doing that and the clutch is over board. Yes your engine will rev up quicker, but your engine was not created to rev up that quickly. And your conrod wasn't either. Go ahead do what you want is not my money, it's yours. But think of it like this, an engine break in stand has a weight that goes on the engines shaft. Why because if the weight is not on the shaft the motor will over rev. Why would you reduce the weight of that weight. To make it easier for the engine to overev and spend 300 dollars on a new one, or for the satisfaction of knowing that your engine will rev up a little bit quicker. ITS NOT WORTH IT MESS WITH YOUR GEARING TUNE YOUR CLUTCH AND LEARN HOW TO TUNE YOUR ENGINE FOR PERFORMANCE. [&o];):D There are many other solutions to increasing snap than lightening the clutch parts.