aluminum vs steel flywheel for stroker

Interesting.

Acceleration of the car, and deceleration in gear. To simplify, the inertia of the car can be viewed as a load attached to the clutch disc. When the clutch is disengaged the inertia of the engine's rotating assembly, including balancer- flywheel- pressure plate- crank- rods, is on one side and the car is on the other. When you engage the clutch it slips until the two come to equilibrium.

If the rotating assembly (includes flywheel) is heavier, the engine will drop less RPM. This will make the car run smoother, start smoother, etc.

So, to get our tow rig or tractor moving i would think we would have to raise the RPM more or feather the clutch more with a lighter rotating assembly. On a tractor you definitely want the big flywheel, it will help you break through intermittent obstacles and keep you from feeling every little jerk or bump.

Lighter will accelerate quicker, decelerate quicker in gear, get better gas mileage - absolutely no argument there. Simple physics. Less inertia. Rotating mass gets you twice. You have to spin it up and carry it with you. Same reason bigger tires are not always better.

Maybe it does depend more on the combo. A bigger engine may not need as much flywheel to behave the same on a launch as a smaller engine. I'm sure car weight and gear play a big part as well, especially coming off the line.

As I said, interesting discussion.