L-L-Lurker...

[acmeradio]

Firstoff...I'm new to the 2002. I just got it Halloween weekend. It's a '73 non tii. It had a great frame...paint...but had a blown head gasket...the trans was shot...and the inside looks like a horse blew up in it. I was WARNED by the guy NOT to by this car. A guy told me it'd become my obesession. Oh...why didn't I listen???!! Now I spend WAY too many hours searching the web for info/parts/etc for the car. I've become such a SAD person. . It looks as if I'm in good company though.

Onto my question. I've searched this topic...but nobody "with" this setup has ever chimed in. Is a lightened flywheel a bad setup for this car. I'm looking at a "hot street" setup...and would like to take it to "driving school" a few times a year. It's not a daily driver. Just a fun weekend car for me. I'm doing a "stage 2" setup to it as we speak. If any "with" this setup has the pluses & minuses of this setup...holla back. I've pretty muched "nixed" doing an aluminum flywheel. I'm not to keen on trying to keep an idle. If a lightened flywheel is going to be the same deal...I'm going to nix that idea too.

Thanks for ALL the great info you all post. I've learned SO much from you guys!!

Paul in Atlanta

'73 2002 / Polaris

[Mike Self]

I'm rebuilding my 73's engine and had the machine shop take about 2 lbs off the outer edge of the flywheel, in bite-shaped pieces between the pressure plate mounting holes. Removing weight from the edges is more effective than from the center due to cenetrifugal force effects.

Basically what you want to do for a street car is remove enough weight to make the engine rev a bit faster (less inertia to overcome) without screwing up the idle (which is what a flywheel is for--smooth out the firing impulses--the fewer the cylinders, the more important this is)

I did this on an 850cc Renault engine some years ago, and must have gotten it just right, 'cause it revs much quicker and still has a good idle. Usually having a machine shop rework your flywheel is less expensive than buying and aluminum one (but the aluminum one will be lighter).

Welcome to the madness, incidentally. I've been hooked since 1969...

mike

[DavinSF]

...not aluminum, just a shaved stock flywheel. It's not quite the same situation because I did the small six M20 conversion but I can tell you that versus a normal 325i my engine does idle a touch rougher. The other drawback is that when I'm cruising at a relaxed pace (it's my daily driver) the revs drop more quickly than normal. This means that when you come off the throttle you have to be smooth with it, same for when you're shifting at a relaxed pace. The revs will drop very quickly as soon as you let up on the gas between gears. Pretty minor stuff.

The upside is that when this thing gets over 3k rpm it just rips to the redline. Spins up really f-ing quick. It's a lot of fun.

In my instance I feel it's worth the tradeoff: A bit less smoothness, significantly more fun. Cheers!

[acmeradio]

Mike & Dave...thanks for the feedback. I think I'm going to go for lightening the flywheel!! If I don't like it...I can just blow more money and put in a regular old flywheel. ;-)

Thanks for helping a "lurker" out!! The info I've gotten off this board has been a PHENOMINAL help...probably why I haven't posted yet. I always find an answer by just using the "search" function.

L8R!