I have a 12lb Hays aluminum flywheel on my 350 Nova that just isnt cutting it. Im concidering selling it and purchasing a billet steel flywheel for a bit more bottom end on the street and off the line at the track. What weight flywheel should i be looking for? 25lbs? 30lbs? 35lbs? Im just not sure. The car shifts at 6,800-7,000RPM and is street driven most of the time. any help would be great, thanks...

The heavier the flywheel the easier it will move from a stop. My stock flywheel for an 11" clutch weighs 30 pounds.

The heavier the wheel the more Kinetic Energy it can store on the starting line to blast you out of the hole. However, the heavier the wheel the longer it will take the motor to spin back up into it's power band for the next shift.

Like any combo it has to be matched to your gearing, engine (displacement and cam are big factors), the weight of your car, additional rotating mass (this includes the tranny, drive shaft, and everything on the rear end; and even your choice of carb size can effect optimization.


Big Dave

As Big Dave said it all has to match and being that you have a 5 speed keeping the motor in the power range shouldnt be a problem with the heavier piece . Ive sold lots of flywheels for your type of application (obviously not all the same) but 99% of them where 30lb.Also some tranny companies (automatic) make heavier flexplates like JW "the wheel" and "reactor" these use the extra weight for more inertia to help the engine stay up in rpm same idea as the hevier flywheel.