lightened flywheel ,do they work???

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hyper 78

hyper 78

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I was thinking a few weeks ago about these lightened and balanced flywheels so read up abit about them. seemed to have mixed opinions over different forums but most said they has seen an improvement in performance but i wanted to see for myself , so ordered one from ddm .

ive never really bothered with them in the past but since i had a tuned pipe and tuned engine , the flywheel would be my next logical step for a bit of improved performance but at the same time wasnt expecting any real noticeable improvement.
i fit it to the fg baja's OBR longrod and took it out for a test run yesterday, fired it up ,let the internals get a little heat then gave it some WOT.... , all i can say is im very pleased with it ,even from the first run i could see and hear it was better ,it felt more responsive and hit the top rpms quicker with a faster spool up time , the acceleration seemed more urgent .

ive spoken to a few of the guys who run the same engine and none of them reported any overheating issues. also read that a little torque may be lost on surfaces like grass that put more load on the motor but i ran on grass and no noticable loss of torque here .i also read that because of less rotational mass that the engine would unwind quicker coming off the throttle but i would have thought that would make the engine more responsive anyway.

Im very pleased with the results and now wish i got sooner.i cant wait to go test it again, i know its just the flywheel but it really has made me more enthusiastic about taking the fg out for a good blasting about again...

at the moment i haven't used it enough to recommend it to anybody else thats considering one as i would like to see if having material taken from the fins will effect the cooling effiency .

but back to the title ' do they work? ' yes, a definate improvement.
 
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I use a very light weight flywheel and have had no over heating issues. Actually there is a thread somewhere on HPI Baja Forum where someone did a back to back test and the Temp increase was only a couple degrees, even with one like mine. I have not ran a regular one on this motor so I can't say about the power increase, but simple physics says there will be an increase.

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wow, now thats a lightened flywheel. I got the ddm version, not as much material taken off. i had an improvement with spool up, rpms and acceleration so yours should definatly have improvement over stock. i guess you have done the mesh mod to keep debris out.
thanks for the heads up on the flywheel heat thread,il check it out mate.

btw, what motor and pipe is the light flywheel on?
 
I want a Lightened flywheel for my OBR, missed out on DoTD the last week..noticed with others that the take off is better with them fitted....
 
jackobyte said:
I want a Lightened flywheel for my OBR, missed out on DoTD the last week..noticed with others that the take off is better with them fitted....
Click to expand...
theres a guy that will lighten and balance your existing one for £12 posted on msuk, never used him but it sounds like he's done quite a few on there.
although i have read that the majority have had gains using them ,ive never been interested as i thought the improvement would be minimal , nothing worth mentioning but i was pleasantly surprised with the gains.
it worked very well with my set up.
 
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I have run the modified lightened flywheel originally designed by Rapid Rick on HBF.

dd03a75c.webp

There is no cooling issue but they do need to be balanced. A stock CY or Zen is not balanced. When running them you are running a risk of blowing one up and it will take out anything in its path. Believe me! They will spool up faster and I have noticed a performance difference.
 
again, alot of material taken off, which engine(s) have you got this on?? i could imagine the gains with these sort if im seeing the improvements on mine which has mostly only the fins cut down. now im sure i wont have any cooling issues, thanx guys.
 
As with any RC car engine "performance enhancing" item, it may well affect the tuning of an engine and may or may not provide the increases claimed by the manufacturer. If you but a complete tuned engine that has been dynoed then you know it's going to give you what they say it will (in most cases). If you buy for e.g a tuned head kit then you can't be sure because it's not been run with the rest of your componants.
 
I would'nt waste my time with those modified flywheels i don't trust the cooling effect

You can buy the proper CNC lightened flywheel from darksoul it probably weighs the same or less than a modified flywheel but with maximum cooling affect

media.webp
 
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Like Troy, I wouldn't buy one unless it's been CNC machined and balanced by someone who konws what they're doing with RC engines. I don't know the dark soul stuff but they seem to have a good rep.
 
The bottome line is .... design.

Why do the engines have a flywheel?
Somebody's decided that they are unable to run smoothly without, and to permit a lower but smooth idle speed, evenly distributed extra weight in the form of the flywheel is required.

Does cutting down this weight have any effect, or were the original engines 'over-engineered'?
This you'll find out, if the idle becomes unstable a bit, and may mean you need to increase the idle speed a little.

Next is this 'cooling effect'. Is this 'fan' really required, or is it just there because it's part of the original 'weed cutter' design, which obviously doesn't blast through the air at 30-50mph?

Just a couple of thoughts - flywheel smoothing/idle speed + cooling effect requirements.

What I see in the Dark Soul flywheel, and no offence, is a hell of a lot of machining, but not much difference in overall weight - certainly not as much as I would have expected, but my thoughts are it's possibly weakened a vital part.
Personally, and I'm definitely not a racer, I would change it, as it's so much extra hassle to replace if it breaks.

Al.
 
hyper 78 said:
again, alot of material taken off, which engine(s) have you got this on?? i could imagine the gains with these sort if im seeing the improvements on mine which has mostly only the fins cut down. now im sure i wont have any cooling issues, thanx guys.
Click to expand...

I have had these on a CY 27, a race ported 29cc and a OBR 30.5 race ported




The darksouls have been known to explode if there is no case mesh mod.


Without Dyno results I have deffinitly noticed a difference with the flywheel mod from running these motors with a stock one then to this modded one. With that said, I wouldn't run one now with the higher end motors I have with the risk you take with a blow out. The last one I ran, did let go and took out the coil and ripped it off the head.
 
dscjester said:
I have had these on a CY 27, a race ported 29cc and a OBR 30.5 race ported




The darksouls have been known to explode if there is no case mesh mod.

Without Dyno results I have deffinitly noticed a difference with the flywheel mod from running these motors with a stock one then to this modded one. With that said, I wouldn't run one now with the higher end motors I have with the risk you take with a blow out. The last one I ran, did let go and took out the coil and ripped it off the head.
Click to expand...

Any flywheel can explode regardless of if it's got a mesh mod or not.
 
dscjester said:
The darksouls have been known to explode if there is no case mesh mod.

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Click to expand...

Also seen and heard they explode, break, crack or whatever you want to call it...but saying that you only hear of the bad ones like any other upgraded part that breaks...

I'd still like to try a lightened flywheel just to see for myself if the difference is worth the change on my OBR FM...there is a detailed thread on here somewhere about cooling temps with standard and modded wheels and with blocking the cooling vents up on the casing...
 
Mine has been run on a stock CY 26cc on an 5B, a 27.2cc reed motor, and now on my 30.5cc stuffed stroker TS reed case with custom ported head on a Redcat Rampage MT. Never any cooling issues, never any pre-mature bearing wear (you would get this if it wasn't balanced well).

The Darksoul one has been known to come apart. It has a lot of weak spots on it because of how it is lightened. Some people have used it without problems though.

The power increase is not only from less rotational mass but also less wind resistance from less and shorter fins. At the speeds these things travel the wind resistance is going to be a factor as well.

Less rotational mass, and less resistance is going to make the engine spool faster. You can't get around physics.

Here is the link to some testing. Temps are on pg.3 Back to back wot testing had no reportable difference in temp.
http://www.hpibajaforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70752
 
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the dark souls f/w are the ones that have had reports of exploding on some people even with the mesh mod and even someone who was just running on road.

the ddm ones are lightened and balanced in house by the looks of it. material taken from just the fins, like the d/s but no holes cut out. ive found nothing criticising the structural integrity of ddm lightened flywheel upto now.

i had great tickover ,no fluctuation of the idle and a nice clean pull through the revs.fells more urgent, these should come included if you buy a full tuned engine as it has just made mine better, the icing on the cake.

freeprawn sell them too

http://www.freeprawnracing.co.uk/cy-lightened-flywheel-dr350.html


like i said it definatly worked with my set up , a relatively light 10.5kg fg ,obr 27.2cc longrod fullmod, jetpro pipe , now i know for myself that they are a worth while purchase and upgrade as long as nobodys getting cooling issues.

Jacobyte, you seen my set up ,it works well with that, cant tell anyone else that it will work on theirs as i wouldnt know but all i can say is try it, its worth it as they are cheap and easy to install plus the feed back off people that are actually using them is good, id run them on all of my cars if i keeping them , for sure.
 
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Yeah, the darksoul flywheel lasted me one on-road run. One small tiny little stone went through the crankcase opening and destroyed a couple of fins. That's how weak it is.
 
SUPER MARIO ,
ive read quite a few times about the d/s flywheel exploding ,seems to pop up alot but couldnt find anything about it happening to the ddm version .
if there is always an equal and opposite action to lightening it, then i guess the more material taken off, the faster it will fall off after peak h/p, again not too much of a problem as my peak is higher up with the pipe im using.

tried the fg out again today,well happy with it, just enough material taken to make a good difference but not enough to weaken it.

Theres a thread on the baja forum where lunatic dynos the stock and a lightened version with hardly any fins, im sure youve probably seen it but even there it revved quite abit higher etc.
 
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Just to re-iterate.
The function appears 2-fold - to smooth/balance the low speed running of the engine, and to cool.
According to members who have them fitted, there isn't a cooling issue, but perhaps there may be a balance / low speed idle stability issue?

Al.
 
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