[DeTomaso] Steel vs aluminum flywheel

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

> In a message dated 2/7/12 21 18 39, kenn_green at yahoo.com writes:
> 
>     I have a new McLeod steel flywheel (which I think had a removable 28 
> oz balance wt), and a new Hays aluminum internal balance flywheel.  One 
> will hopefully eventually go into a twin turbo street motor, looking for about 
> 800 FWHP and using 3.2 gears.  I was thinking that the steel flywheel 
> would be more forgiving with these gears, although when I ran a Dynomatio 
> simulation, my motor would have twice the torque at 1,000 RPM of a normally 
> aspirated engine with a big cam and carb due to the cam the turbos like, so I 
> think either flywheel will work well on the street.
>   
>      Any thoughts on this?
> 
Personally, I'd go with a 3.77:1 and your steel flywheel. Virtually any 
aftermarket flywheel is better than an iron stocker behind a highly modified 
engine. But your problem is not gonna be the flywheel weight. That's a 
Bonneville ring & pinion ratio that should allow an easy 200 mph. Larry Stock tried 
one a few years ago in his Silver State car that he drives on the street, 
and he lost two clutches around town (one a heavy duty) in a couple of 
months. The flywheel needed resurfacing both times from excess slippage trying to 
get moving, before he gave it up as a bad idea even with a 400 ft-lb 351-C. 
That gearset would work with a megatorque big block or maybe a supercharger 
set for low end, but not higher rpm turbos.... Jr Wilson ran an even 
lower-ratio R & P behind his 572" monster-block and it was useable around town but 
was reportedly twitchy & hard to control in the lower gears. His partner 
(also a Pantera owner) crashed it on the street once & took out two parked cars 
while simply going a few blocks for gas. 
FWIW, Larry still has that low mileage 3.2:1 ZF all polished and ready to 
go for a good price; saw it last week. Good luck either way- J Deryke