In a message dated 6/27/2001 7:11:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
jimbb88@erols.com writes:
>
Jim,
Here I am! Actually, I am tentatively planning an article on
flywheels/flywheel weight for the next newsletter.
Bottom line? If you have a powerful engine, and/or a lightweight car, you
can get by with a lighter flywheel. If you have a weak engine and/or a heavy
car, you need a heavier flywheel. The standard Ford Flywheel is 40 pounds,
their lightweight steel flywheel weighs 27 pounds. They don't list a weight
for the aluminum flywheels for some reason. I put about 200 miles on Ted
Lathrop's Chevy 350/TR6 last March, on the way to Sebring. Ted has a
lightened his flywheel quite a bit, a lot less than 27 pounds, and I can tell
you - NO problems! Ted is a big advocate of lightened flywheels.
Why? A flywheel is an energy storage device. It takes energy to get it
spinning, and it takes effort to get it to release the energy to stop
spinning. If you could get frictionless bearings, and no wind resistance, a
flywheel would spin forever unless you put a brake on it to dissipate the
stored energy. If you had a big enough flywheel in your car, you could spin
it up to speed in your garage, and then drive across country without ever
using your engine at all (they gyro effect would kill you, though).
Picture this: You're sitting at a stop light, with the engine spinning at
idle. You rear wheels are sitting still. When the light changes, you somehow
have to connect the spinning engine to the motionless wheels. If you are
driving a small 4 cylinder pickup, with 1000 pounds of sand, you'll have to
rev the engine up to max, and slip the clutch to get the truck started. The
engine just doesn't have enough torque to move the truck at lower rpm. On the
other hand, if you are driving a light weight sports car, with a honking
torquer V8, you can just drop the clutch and go - the engine has enough
torque at idle to get you moving.
In the first case, with the pickup, you need a HEAVY flywheel, and the energy
stored therein, to provide the git-up-an-go power. In the latter case, your
engine has enough power on its own to move you, without using the stored
energy in the flywheel.
When you are accelerating your car, you are also accelerating the flywheel.
The energy that goes into the flywheel serves no purpose, and takes away from
the energy you want to put into the rear wheels.
Hope this helps.
Dan Masters
Alcoa, Tennessee
Triumph TR 250 - TR6 Electrical Maintenance Handbook:
http://members.aol.com/danmas6/
Stuffing a V8 into a small British sports car:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
British V8 Newsletter:
http://members.aol.com/danmas4/mgv8.htm
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