mgcvk

I am thinking of doing this mod to accompany a larger turbo and possibly stainless unequal maybe equal headers (or maybe the original exhaust manifold worked on and polished out) for '03 wrx. I'm not looking for technical info just people's experiences living with the car day to day. I do quite a lot of miles, motorway and traffic?? Is the car easier to stall with lightened flywheel etc..

jonny gav

iTrader: (1)

ported headers make the car easier to drive as they help with turbo spool.

as long as you dont go too light(under 8kgs) a lightened flywheel will not cause any problems at all, yes you will need to put a few more revs on when pulling away but nothing that you won't get used to within a few hours.

mgcvk

Thanks for that Jonny Gav. I know the headers will help with gas flow. Do you really feel much benefit from the lightened flywheel? Do things happen perceptibly quicker?

jonny gav

iTrader: (1)

to be honest i didn't notice a lot of difference but there was some, i would only consider fitting a lighter flywheel if i were dropping the box out to replace the clutch.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

So its not worth doing as a mod on its own then?for the financial outlay

As i was also considering this


Cookie

jonny gav

iTrader: (1)

yeah,a set of lightened underdriven pulleys may be a better idea as they are alot easier to fit.

paul-s

Ive got the lightened balanced flywheel, it was done when the box was out being rebuilt. Notice the main difference when halfway through boost, seems to pick up much quicker the further you get through the revs. So if im on the motorway in 4th doin about 80, when it gets to 100 its really starts to shift

mgcvk

Thats interesting, as I would have expected more drama lower down the range. Faster spool up and the like.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Ported O/E headers will show clearly perceptible benefits IF done properly. Earlier spool, slightly more boost and better power. I am not aware of any downsides.

I have tried a number of lightened flywheels from 4.2 kg costing over £250 to O/E machined between 7.6 and 9kg. (Incidentally the Classic has a 12.1 kg ish flywheel, WRX or STi. There are some differences on some New Age cars.) The performance gain was not quantifiable as it was with the ported headers. I accept there may be some benefits, particularly if used in conjunction with lightened pulleys at the other end.
The downside of the lighter flywheel is that you may stall it a few times for the first couple of days. Nothing more than that in normal driving. If you do drag starts you will need far more revs the lighter you go and far more precision is required. It was quite surprising to me.
I would only contemplate a lightened flywheel during a gearbox out job and IMHO light after market flywheels are a waste of money for a number of reasons.
Some lightweight flywheel users may experience the plasebo effect, having spent a lot of money.

mgcvk

Thanks Harvey. Thats helped me make up my mind. I'm deffo going to get me headers ported as I've only heard good things about this mod. The cost of lightening a standard flywheel is over the £400 mark and I think funds are best put towards new turbo, intercooler etc.

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

You can get the OE flywheel lightened to 8kg(ish) from around £75.

The topic of lightweight flywheels was done recently in the tech forum:

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...ght=ultralight

Hope it helps.


Bob

mgcvk

Yes thread does answer my questions. I think I'll leave flywheel alone.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

The machining cost for a lightened and balanced flywheel is typically £50-£100. £400 sounds like a very expensive aftermarket item, produced from a billet of high tensile steel or even in some cases, alluminium.
AS Performance do an exchange service for the O/E.