Advice on lightened fly wheel

[Al 29Tudor]

Once again, the Barn proves invaluable.
I hadn’t considered additional weight of a balanced crank only the loss of dampening a lightened flywheel offers along with the vibration of an unbalanced crank.
I have read and considered all your comments including the “five year old” discussion on the subject. I didn’t see a definitive “you must do it” or “you must not do it”.
My conclusion is that I will lighten the flywheel when I have to rebuild the engine and at that time install a counterbalanced crank. My thinking is with a counterbalanced crank there is no longer a need for a sixty-four-pound flywheel. I think the result will be a quicker responding engine both accelerating and decelerating.
Thank you all very much for your comments on your experiences and all things model A.

 

[Terry NJ]

I guess by now what I'm going to write is getting old, but here goes anyway. Get yourself a Model B carburetor. It's almost the same as an A carb, but with some small differences. In my albums, there are side by side pics that show some of these differences. Just to begin , those major difference are The main Bore, The accelerator tube, and the transversal float.Now when you get this Carb.you will need a manifold to be bored out to 1.281-1.300" and polished
and the runners must be polished too. This operation allows fuel mixture to pass through the manifold with less turbulence and therefore you get more of the gas into the cylinders. Go to Pirianos Antique Autos and tests on the dyno. indicate a rise in HP of about 4 HP or about 10%.
Terry

I expect to get to my Model A project ('31 Coupe) in the next few months. I have started to gather some parts for mild mods to the engine and have considered a lightened flywheel among the things to do. I plan on using a 5.2:1 compression head I bought, a Model B distributor, perhaps a slightly "higher performance" cam, and a slightly larger carburetor and less restrictive exhaust. My question about lightened flywheels is whether the balance of the flywheel is independent of the crankshaft or are they balanced as a "rotating assembly". In other words, can the machining be done to the flywheel and then just the flywheel re-balanced, or does it need to be balanced together with the crankshaft?

Thanks, in advance, from this Model A virgin.

Lynn

 

[JRN1967]

I regard to the diaphragm pressure plate in t a Model A, I used one out of a 86 Ford T-Bird 2.3 Liter L4 engine. It works with a 8-7/8 inch clutch plate. Really easy to depress the clutch.

Al, Does this pressure plate work with a stock model A throw out bearing, and I'm guessing the clutch plate is a 10 tooth spline on your OD ******, correct?

thanks,
John