Building a Tomahawk 555. TA offers a few options. Looking for lessons learned and opinions on flywheels?
I opted for the steel one but lighter. I would recommend the aluminum only if your overall 1st gear ratio is 10:1 or better or if you have a really light car
my question around aluminum is durability. crank etc has plenty of mass plus I've driven various manny trannys for 40 yrs. I don't mind finicky. My daily driver is a 2017 RAM cummins 6-sp .
My limited experience with aluminum flywheels comes from small cars. I've driven a few Subaru BRZ cars. They are a boxer motor in a little sporty car, RWD with traditional layout. They are not very torquey but not hard to drive. I looked at one a guy had modified heavily. It had an aluminum flywheel and you had to rev it quite a bit higher to get it to take off without dying on you. A light flywheel will carry less momentum and is less forgiving of a clunky launch. On the other hand, they rev very quickly.
Had a 69 charger in about 1975, with a 440 V-gate aluminum flywheel and to this day i have never been in a car that i could shift faster,,, 120 speedo and only moving 3 or 4 mph.. The door jams would knock. That car was not to heavy i don't think. Not a full frame under it.
We have an aluminum flywheel in our 03 Mustang cobra. It was built for the road racing enthusiast with independent rear suspension, a six speed Tremic T-56 manual and supercharged forged internals from the factory. As we increased HP, it moved from the stock aluminum flywheel to a Fidanzia billet aluminum flywheel with a replaceable steel insert (the stock flywheel did not have a replaceable insert). The reduced rotational mass allows quicker reving as discussed above and also quicker breaking. Our 10 spline input shat in the trans was replaced with a stronger 26 spline input shaft. It was done when we sent it to Liberty Transmission in MI for a rebuild. They make the shaft and are a renowned expert in the T-56. The 10 splines were reportedly breaking around 550 rear wheel HP with good traction. It is a very simple upgrade that requires getting the end play right with spacers. You may want to pay attention to the input shaft on the trans you are considering in addition to the flywheel. The clutch will be your other consideration. The Centerforce DFX was all the rage at the first clutch change. It is a puck type disc that was said to better all-around. It chattered, was grabby and noisy. Most of the high horsepower clutches are on/off type clutches. You do not slip them. It takes a while to learn that and then it becomes normal. Even then, I did not like the DFX. We replaced that with a Spec 3+. It is capable of holding 850 rear wheel horsepower and we are currently under that by 100. It is a more user friendly clutch then the DFX. The pedal pressure is heavier then stock, but it is not bad. A more pricy option are the twin disc clutches. These have similar or greater holding power, but have lighter pedal pressure. There is usually a light weight pressure plate option for all of these clutches that will further reduce rotating mass, but they tend to be expensive. We do not have a light weight pressure plate and it did not come with one from the factory. Cheryl
I just changed from steel welded to billet on my BBC (632 cubes) Camaro...why...it chewed 4 teeth of the steel one
great feedback. Thanks all and makes sense. I have a Centerforce dual friction with my current car. Happy so far. The Tomahawk twin turbo will need more. Had to limit the EFI live programming on my 2017 Ram Cummins to about 750ft lbs torque so my stock clutch wouldn't slip and have a bit of appreciation but no experience with multi-disc clutches. just like to shift #brotherhoodofhandshakers
