[DeTomaso] Flywheel and damper recommendation

JDeRyke at aol.com JDeRyke at aol.com
Wed Jan 16 13:32:11 EST 2008


In a message dated 1/16/08 8:21:07 AM, daniel.c.jones2 at gmail.com writes:
snip.....
> All the serious race teams I'm aware of use elastomer balancers but some of 
> the teams have the resources to have them tuned to their specific engines. 
> Perhaps some of the engine builders can jump in here but I've been told BHJ, 
> Powerbond (Pioneer), FRPP, Innovators West and Romac are good quality parts.  
> ATI is as well but pricey.  Pro Form, Engine Works and TCI should be avoided.
> 
> Agreed. For the record, we run an aluminum flywheel and a Romac harmonic 
balancer. I'll add that most OEM elastomeric dampers can be 'reconditioned' or 
rebuilt, and if you go this way because of price, be sure to ask for a guarantee. 
Because some of the the smaller rebuilders use a home-built jig to position 
the two parts, with RTV poured in place of the usual neoprene strip. While 
silicones bond well to sandblasted cast iron, the rebuilders have no idea what 
rpms the assembly will 'tune' to, and no way of finding out. 
As for changing the flywheel material on a street Pantera, mine and other's 
experiences have shown that going from a stock 30-lb iron flywheel to a 15 lb 
aluminum unit does not destroy the driveability of the car around town. Even 
doing this along with removing 8 more lbs from the Pantera's cast iron crank and 
water pump pullies (on other end of the same crankshaft) didn't cause 
problems on our mostly street driven car. Removing weight from the crank, rods, 
flywheel and pullies frees up some horsepower that had previously been used to 
change the rotational speed of those parts. A guess-etimate for the 15 lb flywheel 
change might be an addition of 10 or so useable horses to a 350-horse engine, 
with no other changes needed. Good luck- J DeRyke




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