taikowaza

I wanted to ask those of you who have a heavier flywheel on your manual transmission clutch, about whether you like this mod and would recommend it. I am talking about the Centerforce/NWOR/LCE/Downey heavy-duty, or hi-torque, or whatever name...flywheel. I think it weighs over 30 pounds. I'm wondering how much you paid, where you got it from, and what effects you saw. Would you do it again?

taikowaza

bump for anybody running these heavy flywheels? I did some research on this, I called Downey and although they used to make them, they don't make them anymore. LCE said that they don't either. I called NWOR and they stock the centerforce heavy flywheels for the 3vze. The part number at Centerforce is 700832, it's a heavy steel billet, at 34.6 pounds. I weighed my old stock flywheel and it's about 23-24 pounds. So this would be over 10 pounds heavier.
The very few posts that I found on this subject, everybody seemed to be really happy. The guy at Centerforce and NWOR had driven them before and said that the torque is much improved. I take this with a grain of salt though as they are selling them, not cheap either. If anyone has one for sale pls. let me know! hope to get some replies, thanks!

RoBatt

x2 i have also been wondering about this

abecedarian

A heavier flywheel will keep the RPM's higher when you shift, adding a bit of torque while you shift. They take longer to rev up than a stock / light flywheel so consider that as well.
The engine won't rev up as fast, but also when you let off the pedal it won't slow down as fast.

taikowaza

is anybody running this heavy flywheel on their rig now?

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

I have a +10 lb. CenterForce flywheel on my '85. Installed over 10 years ago and am happy with it:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4Runner.shtml#Drivetrain

And I have 200+:1 gearing and find the added (useable) low end torque is very nice. Why? On trails where it is relatively easy going with short rock garden sections where you need to slow down and crawl, being able to let the engine idle down at 500 RPM or so and chug over the rocks instead of having to stop and drop the t-case into a lower range, is a big time saver over the course of a day of wheeling. One of my favorite trails in the high Sierra is the Dusy-Ershim trail and the whole 2nd day of that trail is about 10-12 miles of such terrain. I recall my first time though there, I used gears the whole time (w/ stock flywheel) and that 2nd day left me wiped out and took probably 9 hours. The last time I went through, I stayed in a single gear range in the t-cases all day and let the engine do the work over the rocky parts. Shaved probably 3 hours off the time and got to the end of that day's wheeling and was ready for 10 more miles. Before adding the heavy flywheel, I found my 22RE engine was basically useless below about 1200 RPM. You needed to give it gas to keep it going. With the flywheel, it'll chug along down to 500 RPM or slower and sometimes even seems to die but a little tap of the gas pedal and it'll come back to life.

abecedarian

being geared low enough reduces the need for a heavier flywheel

GenXr

Despite taking longer to rev up, does the heavier flywheel make for smoother starts from a dead stop in high range?

Matt16

Any change in fuel economy with the heavy flywheel?

Silas

Yes the more rotating mass helps out a lot with that and helping the engine "keep" its revs for longer. It'll simulate more lower end grunt..

Think "big diesel straight truck" for heavy flywheel, and "import ricer tuner" for lighter ones for a slight analogy.

Matt16

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...heel-1651.html

taikowaza

Here are some old posts I found about the centerforce flywheel. Everybody seems pretty happy with it. Can anybody help me to find a good deal on it? I am only seeing $400+ so far. Thanks in advance for any help on that! posts follow, just to share what I found. If anyone has one for sale or a lead on a price pls. PM me, thanks

"I've run 33's for years on my 95 4Runner with 3.0 and 5 speed. I have stock gears and it doesn't bother me. I did put in the heavier Centerforce flywheel which helped a lot - especially off the line and with maintaining speed over hills. I do not recommend the heavy flywheel on the 4 banger though."-Steveh29, 2004 post

"When I replaced mine not too long ago I put the heavier centerforce flywheel and the centerforce clutch in. Both work great. Notice a little better takeoff from a stop with the heavier flywheel." Jimbo74, 2005

"Years ago I put a TRD HD clutch and a 5 lb heavier flywheel in mine. I can't emphasize how nice that heavier flywheel is with the 3.0. I can just let the clutch out at idle on my '95 and it takes off. Same technique on my '99 kills the engine. -Gwhayduke, 2006

"I was seriously surpriced to the huge difference in low-end torque with the new fly-wheel. I've been rolling steep uphill (un-loaded truck) with 400 rpm's with no knocking. On first high gear!! (I don't do that regularly, but there was a situation where I couldn't avoid it.) And the truck just pulled as if it had been a diesel. I do not regret having made the change. I was afraid that I would notice a slower trottle response, but no. Nothing at all" (Norweigan fellow named schaffter, total 2nd gen fan, his site is HERE

olharleyman

You might want to talk with fillsrunner4 he had a 38 lb flywheel in his 3.4 swap and ran it for awhile till he swapped to the 4.3 Chevy. I bought the flywheel from him for my 3.4 s/ced swap just have not had it done to tell you but he told me with it it felt like he could pull down trees and it had little effect on the fuel mileage.

taikowaza

thanks for the tip olharleyman. I am local to fillsrunner4, hope to get in touch with him soon & talk about his impressions of this flywheel. I will not be doing a swap this summer but I will be driving over the rockies and I think that this flywheel might make a nice difference. My other option was swapping my 33s for 32s or even 31s but I like the format of the 33x10.5 so much (and they're only a year old) that it would be a shame to swap them out.
I'm thinking that a nice tune-up and MAYBE this heavier flywheel will get me all set for the trip. like I said earlier, anybody who has any centerforce connections or leads on one of these flywheels, I'd be grateful if you'd keep me in mind!

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

The page I posted above has a link to the shop I bought mine from, not sure if they still carry it now.

taikowaza

Thanks 4crawler! that link on your post to 4wdstore.com is hard forwarded to macromotive.com now, they still carry the clutches but not the flywheels that I could see. Thanks for that link though, I wish they still had them because their prices seem really good.

Matt16

THis mod really interests me. Diesel suits my preferred driving style better than gas, and I'd love to see the benefits that 4Crawler saw off road. It is seldom that I need to rev quickly.

Wonder why this guy said not to put a heavy flywheel on the 4 cyl???

"I've run 33's for years on my 95 4Runner with 3.0 and 5 speed. I have stock gears and it doesn't bother me. I did put in the heavier Centerforce flywheel which helped a lot - especially off the line and with maintaining speed over hills. I do not recommend the heavy flywheel on the 4 banger though."-Steveh29, 2004 post

taikowaza

Just an update on the heavier flywheel, I've been researching it some more and I found a pretty good deal, much better than the deals I got quoted. If I do go through with the mod, I'll post unboxing pics and lots of detailed comments for posterity. I have some questions about the actual flywheel install though...I am wondering if the exhaust has to be cut and rewelded in order to do this? For those of you capable of doing a job like this, could you give me a ballpark figure of the amount of time that you would generally bill for a flywheel replacement? I'm trying to get a feel for how much this mod would cost me and whether I can justify it. I have been imagining how nice it would be to rev up slower and regain the bottom end usefulness, it's been getting more and more appealing. Still, appealing is one thing but cash is another! This may be a great summer mod before a long road trip over mountains tho. Thanks for your feedback about the extensiveness of this job

ScottyC

iTrader: (1)

Turbo trucks had heavier flywheels than the stock 22REs had. I believe its around a 8-10lb difference.

olharleyman

Should be nothing more then a clutch job flywheel is the same size just got the weight