Re: More Performance [lightened flywheels]

[16v Jason <jason@scirocco.org>]

At 03:12 PM 6/11/99 , Victor Farren wrote:
>Is there any detriment to lightening the flywheel?  

You mentioned that a lower-mass flywheel might make an engine work harder
to maintain a constant speed.  I don't know if I agree totally with that,
but I will agree that a lighter flywheel makes it more difficult for an
engine to maintain the same rpms.  However, under load (and in the higher
gears especially), I don't think it's much of a factor.

There are several benefits to having a heavy flywheel.  The first is
smoothness.  A heavier flywheel can absorb the pulses of each cylinder
firing better than a lighter flywheel.  A heavy flywheel also encourages
smoother clutch engagement. The second is resistance to stalling.  If
you've ever driven a small Honda 4-cylinder, which are known for having
very light flywheels, they are very easy to stall, because the engine
doesn't have the rotational inertia of a heavy flywheel to help it out.

However, the engine is much quicker to spool up, and that has its own
benefits (easier blip-throttle downshifts,  etc)

Jason



>
>The scenario I am thinking about is this:
>
>The more weight the flywheel has, the more momentum it has once it has
attained a certain speed, and it more easily maintains its rotational
speed.  That is, the motor has to work less to keep the flywheel rotating
at that specific speed.  yes, it takes more work for the motor to get the
flywheel to reach that speed, but once it is there it would be easie to
maintain.  Thus, it would seem that a ligter flywheel would be better for
increased acceleration (because the motor has to move less mass), but would
not be so good for maintaining speed (cruising at highway speed for
example).  
>
>It seems that a car whit a lightened flywheel would have its motor work
more (longer?) to maintain a cruising speed than a car w/o a lightened
flywheel; but on the other hand , the lightened flywheel car would
accelerate faster.  
>
>This is just my thinking on the topic as I don't have any scientific,
technical knowledge about this.  Makes sense to me though...waddaya think?
>
>Sooo, lightened flywheel better for acceleration, not so good for cruising?
>
>
>
>Victor J. Farren
>Research & Reference Services
>PPC/CDIE/DI/RRS
>Tel: (202) 661-5842
>Fax: (202) 661-5891
>E-mail: vfarren@rrs.cdie.org 
>
>
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----------
1987 Scirocco 16v
1989 Mercedes 190E Sportline Euro


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