lightening con rods

Trondelond

Active Member
Why do you lose torque when installing a lightened flywheel? I guess the only place you would lose perceived torque is at a drag start, since the heavier flywheel will have stored more kinetic energy than a lightened one as you drop the clutch. In all other instances, there will be less mass for the engine to spin = more power to the wheels.
 

stumo

Active Member
Why do you lose torque when installing a lightened flywheel? I guess the only place you would lose perceived torque is at a drag start, since the heavier flywheel will have stored more kinetic energy than a lightened one as you drop the clutch. In all other instances, there will be less mass for the engine to spin = more power to the wheels.
wot teh ice princess sed. innit


if you don't want a lightened flywheel, why are you getting the crank lightened?

Lightening the crank is the last resort as it is a small diameter compared to the flywheel, using a std flywheel you'll struggle to notice the lightened crank.

save your money from doing the crank and get a light flywheel and get the whole assembly balanced.
 
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STU666V

Active Member
you lose inertia not torque.2 totally differant things.




Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to describe the motion of matter and how it is affected by applied forces. Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, or lazy. Isaac Newton defined inertia as his first law in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which states:[SUP][1][/SUP]
The vis insita, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.
In common usage the term "inertia" may refer to an object's "amount of resistance to change in velocity" (which is quantified by its mass), or sometimes to its momentum, depending on the context. The term "inertia" is more properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his First Law of Motion; that an object not subject to any net external force moves at a constant velocity. Thus an object will continue moving at its current velocity until some force causes its speed or direction to change.
On the surface of the Earth inertia is often masked by the effects of friction and gravity, both of which tend to decrease the speed of moving objects (commonly to the point of rest). This misled classical theorists such as Aristotle, who believed that objects would move only as long as force was applied to them.[SUP][2][/SUP]
 
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STU666V

Active Member
what's that got to do with the price of fish?
I was on wikipedia looking at info on rubbing your balls on things and thought i would look up Inertia! and just posted it up.

When i put in, rubbing your balls on things it came up with stumo

 

chopper

New Member
So staying on the subject (away from balloons!) ok "torque was the wrong word" MY BAD :doh:

Your driving along and release the throttle (for some reason) then apply it again, the heavier flywheel would not slow down as much so would already have the momentum when you re-apply the throttle giving you a better initial "kick". The lighter flywheel would have slowed down more and require more time after the throttle was re-applied to get up to the same speed, loosing some of that "kick". That "kick" normally been percieved as more torque.

I am trying to build a responsive fast road engine not a track cars so instances like above would accour.

on the same but another topic would lighter internals create more or less engine breaking?
 

vss irvine

Well-Known Member
but if you had lighter better balanced internals the engine would spin up quicker, rpm would rise faster as it doesnt take as long to spin up a heavy flywheel.

if you want response to an engine it needs to be lighter.

theres less 'kick' as you call it with 4wd transmission being dragged along anyway.

our fwd rally car has a tiny twin plate clutch/flywheel assembly and it revs like a bike engine!
 

skiddusmarkus

Active Member
If your engine revs up faster when lightened I guess it should also do the same when slowing down, like the lighter flywheel which slows down faster, so kind of more engine braking.I think its more to do with vacuum though than the weight of engine components.
 
off throttle lighter components will drop in rpm quicker than heavier ones (this can make down shifts easier as you don't have to blip the throttle as hard to speed match), but will speed up again quicker. Some of it has to do with engine tune and some to do with driving style as to what suits you best. For example in one of previous cars I ended up fitting a heavier fly wheel than standard and it made it a much better car to drive on b-roads as once you were up and going it never dropped out of its some what meager power band.

The other dis-advantage of a very light fly wheel is it becomes harder to get the car rolling from a stand still.
 

Mr B

Member
The rotating mass stores energy & reducing mass/moment of inertia will allow the engine to reach its revs much faster and slow down faster as less stored energy is available to drive engine off throttle. Most people only look at this aspect in the engine & flywheel assembly but the whole of transmission wheels/brake discs all play a roll.
For cost to gain ratio, the flywheel clutch assembly makes huge differences, reducing internal engine rotational mass can get very expensive for minimal gain & if done badly will leave you with a potential weak component.
Good engine component testing, full balancing & quality machining should be top of the build expenditure budget, money spent on peening standard rods & buying best rod bolts available is also money well invested.
Lightened standard rods would see no noticeable improvement but could lead to a failure or be a limiting factor if higher future power goal is required ...
 

Mr B

Member
off throttle lighter components will drop in rpm quicker than heavier ones (this can make down shifts easier as you don't have to blip the throttle as hard to speed match), but will speed up again quicker. Some of it has to do with engine tune and some to do with driving style as to what suits you best. For example in one of previous cars I ended up fitting a heavier fly wheel than standard and it made it a much better car to drive on b-roads as once you were up and going it never dropped out of its some what meager power band.

The other dis-advantage of a very light fly wheel is it becomes harder to get the car rolling from a stand still.
Going too light causes quite a few possible disadvantages & adjusting flywheel weights should be based on specific engines original flywheel mass & vehicle usage. flywheel mass plays a vital role in engine stabilization, Balance, driving smoothness & reducing drivetrain stress .
 
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