Who's running one? The LCE 35lbs flywheel is a touch less than $300 and I'm hoping it might let me lug the engine down to lower rpms instead of doing lower gears on a chain drive case

Anyone added an inertia ring to the stock flywheel?

 

I'm not a clutch expert or an engine expert, but wouldnt lower RPMS cause the engine to use more gas to do the same amount of work at higher RPMS ?

 

a heavier flywheel would do two things for you: it would up the rotational inertia of the engine's rotating assembly giving you somewhat more torque with somewhat less horsepower, and it would make your engine run smoother between firings of each cylinder. It would NOT lower rpm's for you, and it lowers efficiency, but it may make it easier to drive at low speeds. I suppose that's what its designed for.

 

I run the Centerforce heavy flywheel on my 22RE, had it for 10+ years now. I really like it, it nearly doubles the useable low end torque from my experience. It'll let the engine lug down to ~500 RPM in low range and not stall where w/ stock flywheel, it was more like 1000 RPM. For short hard sections of trail, it can save a downshift. It is a little tricky with the throttle down that slow so would not want to run a long rock garden like that. I found that w/ my stock flywheel, my truck could idle up my sloping driveway in 1st gear low range, but stall in 1-H, but with the heavier flywheel, it'll now idle up in 1-H.

 

neato. I think I'm going to look into this more. How much do heavier flywheels run? if LCE is charging less than $300, i'd imagine other vendors being $120 to about $200

 

how well does the heavy flywheel work with gears ?

 

hey dupeman i think that every one who makes it is about the same price as lc

 

Gears would be a more effective mod I'm sure, but because I have a chain-drive t-case and not the money to buy the adapters, the case and re-tube the DS, this might be a more affordable option- a band-aid in a way. I don't do much rock crawling, and I use the truck a tonne for camping and rough backroads. I can't justify the gears on the rig just yet. Gears and a heavy flywheel would be like having your cake and eating it too.

 

I have a 38 lb. flywheel for my 3.4 swap and I got it from PHILSRUNNER4 as he told me it will pull a tree down but as a start it is slower to get you going but once it is going you don't even notice it really.

 

heavy flywheel means it's harder to stall but also doesn't accelerate as quickly
next question....

 

You can shift earlier without your rpm dropping as much.

 

Chrysler once had a supercar based on a turbine engine spinning a flywheel... it wasn't exactly all that quick (0-60 in about 5 seconds), nor all that fast (about 220 miles per hour, IIRC) but only had 2 gears (forward and reverse ). It had a constantly variable transmission though. The trick was that the flywheel kicked in to supply torque when the turbine was over-taxed and the turbine kicked in when the flywheel needed help. And it averaged about 30 MPG, from what I recall, and could burn most any flammable liquid.
Please feel free to correct me.

 

Think of it as a (bench) grinding wheel.. Takes awhile to spin up. but when it's there it's going baby... turn off the switch.. takes awhile to spin down.

Doesn't seem like a good fix to not lowering your axle gears.. I don't see how making a flywheel heavier is a whole lot different than putting on say.. TSL's.. (ie heavier tire) .. granted thats at the very end of the drivetrain ... but for all practical (on-road) purposes of the conversation... gas mileage would go down me thinks

my opinion ofcourse.. i honestly have no idea =)

 

[quote=drew303;51225355]Think of it as a (bench) grinding wheel.. Takes awhile to spin up. but when it's there it's going baby... turn off the switch.. takes awhile to spin down.

Doesn't seem like a good fix to not lowering your axle gears.. I don't see how making a flywheel heavier is a whole lot different than putting on say.. TSL's.. (ie heavier tire) .. granted thats at the very end of the drivetrain ... but for all practical (on-road) purposes of the conversation... gas mileage would go down me thinks

my opinion ofcourse.. i honestly have no idea =)[quote]
it should in theory be easier to turn the larger wheels, and tow more weight, by increasing the torque at the wheels. More weight means more mass and more mass spinning constantly means that there is more centripital force so it would be harder to stop when engauged. But this is also taking away the hp from the engine due to having the extra weight on the drivetrain.

 

The reason it would work better than TSLs is that when the tires are spinning at say 60rpm i first gear, the engine is doing ~2400rpm in first gear low range (assuming your crawl ratio is 40:1). The flywheel has a lot more angular momentum than than the tires. My physics isn't the best, but I would think that (assuming the tires weight twice as much as the flywheel) the flywheel would "store" 20x more energy than the tires... so, to get the same effect as adding 10lbs to the flywheel, you'd have to add 200lbs to the tires.


Basically, what i want hear who's done this and if they've had an problems (ie: slow acceleration, stressed crankshaft etc.).

Also, a quick search has only turned up LCE as a source for the weight-added flywheel.

 

Had mine (Centerforce: http://media.centerforce.com/Catalog...20Standard.pdf) for 10+ years. No stressed crank shaft or other drive train issues. Engine does rev up slower that w/ stock flywheel but with 4000+ lbs. of truck hooked up to the clutch, I really notice no difference in acceleration. And yes, stored rotational energy is proportional to the square of the rotational speed (RPM), so if the engine is spinning 40 times as fast as the tires, you have 1600 times the inertia in the flywheel vs. the wheels/tires (reduced of course by the ratio of the flywheel and wheel weights). Also no change in fuel mileage, but off road it works a lot nicer down in the very low RPMs (1000 and below).

 

I see that Centerforce carries a 29.0 lbs flywheel for the 22RE. Looks like that's probably the one you've got unless they've changed flywheel design. Part number is 700834. The stock is 23 lbs IIRC.

4Crawler, do you remember approx what you paid for it? I wonder if its that much cheaper than the 35lbs LCE flywheel. I'm wondering if 6lbs is really going to make much difference.

 

Cool idea, might have to add this to the pile...

 

How is down shifting and compression braking affected? I'm talking about street driving and using the gears to slow down.

 

I recall it was in the low $200s, that was back in late '98, from some on-line 4x4 shop in AZ. I hear that the 22RE turbo flywheel is somewhat heavier than the 22RE part, not sure of the exact weight difference.