Flywheel lightening?

Bassman/NZ

Bassman/NZ

Well-known member
I'm looking to mod my C59A a little but retain stock appearance. I'm going to give the heads a haircut, retain stock cam and single carb, and I'm wondering what benefits, if any, I'll get from shaving the flywheel down. I know it will make the engine a bit more responsive. Any other advantages, or disadvantages?
BTW: this is in a reasonably light fenderless 28 A tudor.
 
The small size of the 59A limits torque. By adding a set of 81A heads milled for .050" clearance over the pistons will increas CR. You'll have to do alittle grinding to clear the valves.. The light flywheel won't help much ,leaving a light. The early 9" flywheel can have the lip cut off reducing the weight to around 24lbs and the 9" pressure plate can be beefed up for a light car. All this has to be balanced. I don't see much of a gain here.
If it were mine I'd use the wildest cam I could find. After all it's a Hot Rod.
 
Bassman, In every engine I build I use if at all possible an early 'lipped' flywheel with the lip machined off, and a 9" Auburn clutch. This entire package is somewhat lighter than most anything else available, and stands up to all manner of abuse, and from quite large displacement motors too. Dunno what increase you get, but I'm a believer in making everything as light as possible; can't hurt can it? My opinion only, Brian
 
When the 59 AB engine in my '36 was first built in '54 it had an aluminum flywheel with what was supposed to be a hardened inset face... wrong, within a couple of years the clutch was gone and the flywheel had big groves in it.

The machinist that rebuilt the engine specialized in engines for stock car car racers in lieu of drag, speed demons. My flywheel is a stock Ford item, just what size I can't remember, it has been milled down to under 20lbs and balanced. My Offy heads were junk so the machinist used 59 AB heads which he milled, domed and fly cut to improve air flow and compression to 9-1. The Weber F-1 cam is a little lumpy, just enough to let people know the engine is not stock..
 
Bassman
Like Brian, I believe every little bit helps in the weight dept. I had my 59A flywheel machined to 22#. If I could afford an aluminum flywheel, I'd do it. Just think. My flywheel was about 35# stock, now it's 22#. Kinda like I went on a diet. I like it and the car will like it
Jim
 
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