Re: Lightening the Flywheel on a 327

Posted by Anthony Pallett On 2013/11/17 9:07:39

I dealt with this topic a lot when I use to build engines. A lighter flywheel will not always make a car accelerate faster. When you are sitting in neutral and revving up your engine to impress your buddies at a show, yes it will tach up faster but in actual driving conditions you might actually make your car go slower.

As with anything in making an engine faster it is a balancing act. Putting in a .750 lift cam will make you sound like a hero but with stock heads and an intake you wont be going anywhere fast. Same with a flywheel. In a heavy car, which all Packards are you need the weight of the flywheel to keep the inertia going between shifts, a light flywheel in a heavy car will result in a bog as you shift into each gear. On the flip side a heavy flywheel in a light car will result in smokey burnouts in each gear, cool yes but not helping performance.

The rule of thumb we used in selecting the proper flywheel was 1 pound of flywheel for every 100 pounds of car, so 4,000 pound car 40 pound flywheel and so on. If anything with a low/ slow revving Packard L8 and heavy Packard car combo I would lean towards a heavier flywheel.

If you are set on reducing your rotating assembly weight go with lighter pistons rods or even lightening your crank.