GAIN ACCELERATION – FIT A FLYWHEEL!

Fitment of our new hi-performance, road weight, steel flywheel is the equivalent of shedding around 100lb of total car weight – that is one small person!

The ungainly reciprocating mass of the standard cast flywheel greatly reduces the acceleration capability of the standard engine. A situation that is even worse when the engine is modified for greater performance. It takes a reasonable amount of accelerative horse power to spin the engine internals – horse power that could be used to improve the acceleration of the whole vehicle. For road use the cost in effectively lightening most of the internal engine components is not economical compared to the performance gained. HOWEVER, an appreciable increase will be realised by investing in a proper flywheel assembly.

It is standard practice for the cast flywheel to be lightened – but this does have one or two drawbacks! Extensive lightening to bring its weight down to an acceptable level vastly reduces its strength. Breakage can occur – a flywheel disintegrating at high rpm can cause an outstanding amount of damage. The clutch friction surface was not designed to cope with high engine outputs, quickly suffering from over-heating which induces clutch slip. Uprated clutch plates and stronger diaphragms accelerate wear of the clutch surface too, reducing sufficiency and once more premature clutch slip is suffered. Being cast, the material is not particularly well suited to high rpm use, leading to damage of the flywheel and crankshaft tapers caused by fretting. In some cases this is so bad that the flywheel has literally welded itself to the crankshaft. All totally unacceptable having invested a fair amount of money in an engine. It is therefore worth a small extra investment to safeguard your pride and joy! Use of the ultra-light steel flywheel for road applications is not practical as an acceptable idle speed is not attainable. (As pictured) The ultra-light flywheel, part number C-AEG619 @ £141.00.

British Leyland’s ST department produced a steel flywheel prior to the availability of the ultra-light versions. These were used on the works cars to eradicate all of the aforementioned problems during competition use (i.e. rallying, racing, etc). The same flywheel was also used as a recommended warranty replacement by British Leyland on many Allegros. They suffered clutch problems caused by the massive weight increase over a Mini that the same clutch assembly was expected to cope with.

At Mini Spares we are now producing our own special light weight steel flywheel to resolve these problems for the performance road enthusiast. Manufactured in the same hi-grade steel used for our ultra-light flywheel, they are machined to a specific weight commensurate with optimum performance, yet allowing a reasonable idle speed. Part number is C-AEG421 @ £99.88.

To supplement the use of the above, we can also supply a lightened back plate. Cast in the recognised “triangular” shape – and in the same material as the original 22G270 ‘S’ back plate – the weight as cast is ideal for fast road use. It features letter finning on the back to increase surface area for rapid heat dissipation. It is possible to lighten it further, but is only recommended for full race applications. Part number C-AHT230 @ £47.50.

 

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