Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic
Experiment with a lighter flywheel? What do you think? I have seen guys on here saying in helps a lot in the lower gears and that the VX had a lighter flywheel. Maybe you saw those comments too?
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I've thought about it. The racing guys do it to their motors, and a lot of the modifications for racing are about efficiency which also translates into better mpg sometimes. But in this case I don't believe a lighter flywheel will help. From the research I have done here on ecomodder, many seem to believe a lighter flywheel actually hurts because the motor cannot store as much energy. In daily driving duties that stored energy in the flywheel helps when taking off and shifting. The energy the flywheel uses is not parasitic like an alternator or power steering pump. With that in mind I can't see how a lighter rotating mass will improve fuel economy.
The racing guys lighten the flywheel so the motor will rev easier. On the downside for us, lighter means less energy stored. So you would need to apply higher load and RPM for takeoffs, and your RPM's would drop quicker while shifting. The only advantage I can think of would be for EOC. The motor would die much quicker since their is less "momentum" in the engine.
I think the reason the VX came from Honda with a lighter flywheel was because the motor had less power and torque than the standard Civic motors. Obviously a heavy V8 flywheel on a 4 cylinder would feel sluggish. Maybe with the VX's reduced power Honda figured it needed to lighten the flywheel to keep up the throttle response.