I have a 12lb Hays aluminum flywheel on my 350 Nova that just isnt cutting it. Im concidering selling it and purchasing a billet steel flywheel for a bit more bottom end on the street and off the line at the track. What weight flywheel should i be looking for? 25lbs? 30lbs? 35lbs? Im just not sure. The car shifts at 6,800-7,000RPM and is street driven most of the time. any help would be great, thanks...

I agree, the 12# will not get it off the line . I use the hayes 30# billet . You did not say what your car weighed so I would say that would be about the stock weight.. 25-30 should be fine. It would be to your advantage to make sure you have multiple pp bolt patterns on what ever you chose. Install a new pilot bearing and throwout bearing while you are at it.

A light flywheel is built for auto racing or monster-torque engines. This is because it stores less energy and therefore you can rev your car faster. This is good when coming out of corners in racing and also lessons the blow on your drivetrain. To run a light flywheel on the street your 1st gear ratio must be around 12 I believe or the vehicle will fall flat on its face.

Like said above you'll be real happy with a 25-30lb flywheel. sorry the winded post just to agree with the above statement.

David

Also, I would encourage you to stick with billet as you have already decided on because of your high shift points. A cast could fall apart at that high of rpms. I'm guessing you know that already, I'm just making sure :thumbsup:

Also, I would encourage you to stick with billet as you have already decided on because of your high shift points. A cast could fall apart at that high of rpms. I'm guessing you know that already, I'm just making sure :thumbsup:

I agree on the billet. If he has few bucks laying around, get a scatter shield too. One that will work with a Tremac,,,,,, just in case.

The car is 3500 lbs with me in it, and i have a McCleod scattersheild.
So you guys think that a 25-30 lb wheel would work much better? Well....anyone have one laying around they want to sell???

What size? I have a 153 tooth Centerforce available.

A heavier flywheel isn't going to improve your bottom end. You may be able to store more energy with a heavier wheel, but once the clutch is engaged it becomes a liability. If your engine is short on bottom end torque you might address the issue directly with engine parts.
What's the first gear ratio of the Richmond, something like 3.28? We used a 9# Fidanza in our road racer with a 2.64 first gear and 3.25 rear gears and it worked very well.

Onovakind, First gear is a 3.28 and 4th gear is a 1.24, i run 3.89 gears in the rear. This comes out to a 12.76 first gear and a 4.82 final 4th gear. This should be plenty of gear for a lower tq motor such as mine i would think. At the track i do come off kind of low at about 4K and it bogs down then goes like hell or i just blow my tires off {hooiser QTP 11.5x 28}. This bog is bad and is a huge reason my car isnt consistantly in the 11's and im sure its costing me at least .2-3 tenths. Ive been going low 12's @ 115-116MPH wich is plenty of MPH to go mid 11's. Im in search of a solution to this problem and i was thinking that a heavier wheel would be a good solution. Im also going to add cal-tracs this spring to help with the blow off problem but i figured its going to make the bog worse so a heavy wheel would probably help with that. Any ideas?

Onovakind, First gear is a 3.28 and 4th gear is a 1.24, i run 3.89 gears in the rear. This comes out to a 12.76 first gear and a 4.82 final 4th gear. This should be plenty of gear for a lower tq motor such as mine i would think. At the track i do come off kind of low at about 4K and it bogs down then goes like hell or i just blow my tires off {hooiser QTP 11.5x 28}. This bog is bad and is a huge reason my car isnt consistantly in the 11's and im sure its costing me at least .2-3 tenths. Ive been going low 12's @ 115-116MPH wich is plenty of MPH to go mid 11's. Im in search of a solution to this problem and i was thinking that a heavier wheel would be a good solution. Im also going to add cal-tracs this spring to help with the blow off problem but i figured its going to make the bog worse so a heavy wheel would probably help with that. Any ideas?
You are at the point where you need a Mcleod Soft-lock, or Ram Single-Iron style clutch. this will enable you to tune in a small amount of slippage off the line to keep from bogging, and also hook up the tires alot better. theese clutches can be street driven, but you will need to learn to drive it as it will be ALOT different than a conventional clutch. This style of clutch will also be WAY EASIER on PARTS!!!!! It will also require a small amount of maintanence, but its worth it. Keep your lightweight flywheel and get a real clutch! my $.02