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lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:26 pm
by monkey
i am replacing the clutch on an e36 323 , i am going to use an m20 flywheel that i am going to get lightened . how light can i go without causing problems ? the car has aircon if this makes much differance . thanks monkey
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:46 pm
by monkey
anyone ? i think the one i used on my m50 was 6 or 6.5 kg would that be too light on an m52 with A/C ?
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:13 am
by Simon13
just use an A/C spec M20 clutch. I'm not bothering on my 328i though
6.5kgs will be fine i expect
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:26 am
by DanThe
Aircon spec clutches are utter shite, they are sold as 'heavy duty' but are the same as a standard clutch apart from the extra spring plate
It juddered like a b*stard on my 2.8, I cured it with some welding and it now works perfectly on my other car

Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:52 am
by Messenjah
ive got a 6kg m20 flywheel fella whats it worth to ya ?
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:58 am
by monkey
thanks Simon and Dan i shouldn't get any problems with the car stalling when the aricon is on then . Messenjah i have a flywheel and starter on the way to me and a friend owns an engineering company , he lightened my last flywheel for a bottle of wine

Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:00 pm
by Kos
i'm running a lightened m20 flywheel on my m52, down from 8.9kg to 5.5kg. no probs what so ever in 6 months of use including hammering it on the track
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:42 pm
by monkey
thanks Kos
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2010 6:29 pm
by bulletproofbob
Messenjah wrote:ive got a 6kg m20 flywheel fella whats it worth to ya ?
hmmm i bought it but it never arrived!!!!!! now we have no Messenjah....
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:14 pm
by Avtovaz
I dont know how much torque a bmw motor has over when i have the XE in the Lada, but i found that lightening the flywheel made it rev up quicker, but the car had far less torque.
A standard c20xe flat flywheel on the standard engine was best.
As i say, i dont know much about your bmw engine, but i would not lighten it too much, i think about 12lbs the c20xe one was.
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:40 pm
by HairyScreech
theres a lot more rotating mass in an I6 engine and the power strokes are closer together.
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:46 pm
by harry_p
a lighter flywheel may have made it feel less torquey, but it won't have affected the actual torque from the engine, it'll just feel less strong low down because it spins up quicker. the actual torque output from the engine will be exactly the same.
a bit like 16v engines feeling less torquey than 8vs even if the figures prove otherwise, the stronger top end makes them feel like theyre lacking low down even if they plotted the same power curves up till say 4000rpm at which point the 16v starts making more where tha 8v starts to level off.
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:21 pm
by Jhonno
Avtovaz wrote:I dont know how much torque a bmw motor has over when i have the XE in the Lada, but i found that lightening the flywheel made it rev up quicker, but the car had far less torque.
That is basically pure rubbish..
The flywheel does not give an engine more or less torque. It is an energy store, not multiplier or adder.
In practice it means you might need to accelerate a little sooner up a hill.. However I am running 5kg flywheel on my e30, down from the 12.9kg standard and I notice only benefits
Re: lighter flywheel on an e36 . how light can i go ?
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:46 pm
by Dezzy
Jhonno are you using 5 spead box?
What flywheel and cluch are you using?
I have a 5.5k flywheel for my M50 strocker.
