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FIDANZA ALUMINUM FLYWHEELS  Rating:  Rating
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 Posted: 11-03-2006 04:16 am
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Dan Eiland
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I'm getting ready to purchase the Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel for my Jensen Healey. I was wondering if anyone has purchased one in the past year or so and did it fit? They list it for the Lotus Espirit, 1980-90, 2.2L, Non-Turbo,   Part #122961,  8.5 pounds. I found them at a very good price of $325 delivered to my home. Just trying to get some input from anyone who has been there and done this. If someone is interested in purchasing one, contact me and I can give you the information. You may want to wait and see how this purchase turns out before placing your own order.

Dan  

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 Posted: 11-03-2006 01:49 pm
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Ron Earp
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I've not used one, but I would expect, but don't know, that at 8.5lbs in weight you are going to have a very choppy idle from the motor. I think Judson has run one and reported that to be true.

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 Posted: 11-03-2006 03:56 pm
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Greg Fletcher
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As long as the flywheel and all moving parts in the engine front to back have been precision balanced, the idle will be silky smooth. You should do this any time you rebuild a 907 engine, even if it's dead stock. I used a 7lb Tilton for years and was mostly happy with it. It will make the clutch very touchy compared to stock of course, that's what I didn't like. I'd never put a lightened flywheel on a Lotus engine that was not balanced - Lotus wasn't real good about that on the early engines.

I've found that some Lotus 2.2 crank flanges can have a slightly different flange configuration, no idea why or what years are effected. See if the manufacturer can send you a cad drawing to compare with what you have.

That's a great deal for an aluminum flywheel, let us know how that works out.

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 Posted: 11-03-2006 11:17 pm
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normv
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Fidanza no longer make this flywheel I ordered and paid for one in January from their Australian  distributor  and affter many excuses inluding being told it was with the forwarder in the US  it never arrived. Fidanza deleted it from there cataloge in June now refuse to supply one.

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 Posted: 11-04-2006 01:54 am
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Dan Eiland
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I just typed in Fidanza and got their website and looked up the Lotus flywheel. Still listed. See it at:

http://www.fidanza.com/ItemDetails.aspx?fid=219&mid=212&mk=LOTUS&md=ESPIRIT&yn=80-90&eid=207&mkid=28

Ordered it today at a cost of $324.95 USD. That includes the shipping cost to my home.

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 Posted: 11-04-2006 02:07 am
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Dan Eiland
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I would normally agree about the vibration and choppy idle using an aluminum flywheel if I weren't getting ready to do a complete rebuild and upgrade on my 2.0L Jensen Healey engine. The reason I am ordering all the parts now is so I can have them computer balanced seperately then all together attached to my new 2.2L crank. This should smooth out the engine even at high rpm. Thanks to this forum and the great input from so many people I now have all the specs to proceed forward and I am in the process of attaining all the final parts so I can finally rebuild my engine. The parts should all be in by late next week or early the following week. Looking forward to having the engine finished so I can get my transmission adapter made for my 5 speed conversion. Then it's on to modifying the drive shaft. In the mean time I guess I need to take my body in to the body shop to have it finished and ready for the mechanicals.

Last edited on 11-04-2006 02:11 am by Dan Eiland

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 Posted: 11-05-2006 01:20 am
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normv
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Dan

Please let me know if they wil supply you one as I an currently having a chrome Moly one built but would prefer the alloy if i can get one at a reasonable price, This flywheel no longer appears in there 2006/2007 cataloge but hopefully they will still supply them . I will go direct if that its the case becous ter Australian distributor could not get one.  Pelase let us know the outcome.

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 Posted: 11-06-2006 11:55 am
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Ron Earp
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Greg Fletcher wrote: As long as the flywheel and all moving parts in the engine front to back have been precision balanced, the idle will be silky smooth.
 If the flywheel is too light you will have a motor that won't idle very well no matter to what 0.000000X gram weight it is balanced to. If the weight of the flywheel isn't enough to dampen the power pulses it'll show up as an idle that is definitely not sliky smooth. That said, I don't know if 8.5 lbs is enough or not. The stocker is a heavy piece for sure in comparison.

I'd been interested in how you get on with the project and if Fidanza will supply one. If not there are a couple floating about used, and, there is a flywheel supplier advertised in GRMS that can make one for you. All you'd need to do is supply a stock one so they can get measurements for the distance from the crank flange to the surface face, as well as ring gear diameter, and teeth.

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 Posted: 11-06-2006 04:01 pm
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Greg Fletcher
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Ron, all I can tell is what I personally experienced and that is that I had an aluminum Tilton 7 pound flywheel on my Jensen Healey and with the balance it received, it performed perfectly and in fact was very smooth at idle.

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 Posted: 11-06-2006 04:05 pm
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Ron Earp
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Sounds like 7lbs is enough to do the job then. I'd love to be able to use a flywheel this light as I'd imagine it'd rev a lot better - the stocker is around 18-20lbs just from guessing from moving it around.

R

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 Posted: 11-06-2006 04:27 pm
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Greg Fletcher
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That was one cool feature about the light flywheel- if I'd jump on the throttle at 50-60mph, it would fly up to 90mph in a heartbeat. The original flywheel is a boat anchor, but certainly better suited to city type driving. Commuter driving with a light flywheel was not very fun.

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 Posted: 11-07-2006 02:18 am
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Sylva
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Dan

Did I read earlier tha that you are using a Sunbeam 911 Crank? If so be carefull as I wrote on another post the 911 crank is 6 mm longer than a 910 or a 912 Crank, Maybe this is the thing that Greg noticed over the years.

All the guys at Lotus today say that all the cranks are the same and that there is no reord of any diffrences, but I've had a 911, 910 and 912 next to each other, and the fly wheel face on the 911 is 6 mm further out from the back face of the block.

 

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 Posted: 11-07-2006 03:39 am
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Dan Eiland
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My crank is from Delta Motorsports and the box has Garry Kemp's name on it. It was purchased new about 8 to 10 years ago by a PO who abandoned their project after about 8 years of storage and no progress other than purchasing a lot of expensive upgrades. I purchased the project for all the upgraded parts which are new and still in their boxes with the original protective coatings intact. I have one complete Jensen Healey engine with under 8000 miles on it since it was rebuilt in 1989, and one spare block and main bearing panel with all bolts removed and vanished years ago. The liners on my complete engine have already been bored 30 over so they should be perfect for my new 2.2 pistons. The block on the complete engine has a crack in the side of one of the bolt locations for the auxilliary housing. I'm in the process of disassembly of the complete engine which is why I noticed it. The spare block looks to be in very good condition. I need to borrow a liner remover from someone and move the liners from the rebuilt engine to the spare block. I'm getting ready to take the spare block down and have dowels added to all ten bolts surrounding the main bearings. This should help stiffen the bottom end for the 2.2L crank. I'll have the machine shop check the two cranks and see if there is a difference. I haven't heard of any issues concerning this swap in relation to one crank being different from another. With my Ford T5 conversion it might make a difference. If it does, I'll post what I find out on this forum. So far as where the new crank came from---since it is not a x-drilled crank my guess would be it had to come from an earlier Lotus engine. What car I can't tell you.

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 04:27 am
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Dan Eiland
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It looks like we were Both wrong on this one or we were both right. Not real sure which!

I spoke with the Factory today and they have emailed me back with an offer. They will make 10 Aluminum Flywheels without the ring gears for the 2.2L Lotus Non-Turbo engine 1980-1990 at a cost of $350 each. We would have to mount our old ring gear to the new flywheel. Turns out they lost their supplier for the ring gears so they discontinued the flywheel. I will definitely purchase one but that leaves 9 more that would have to be presold.

On another front, I also spoke with Dave Bean today about this situation which they were not aware of. They informed me they could supply the ring gears to Fidanza and would call them. I gave them my cell number and they said they would call me back to let me know what happens.

Anyone interested in an Aluminum Flywheel for your JH or Lotus 2.0L or 2.2L better cross their fingers and pray that Fidanza will make us some Aluminum Flywheels. If they don't I do know of a small company that will make them for $1200 each to order.

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 05:42 am
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Sylva
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If you reuse the ing gear, I'd try to find a way to mechanicaly lock the ring to the fly wheel, I reused my ring gear (on a light steel wheel) after starting the car about 50 tmes the ring gear came loose from the fly wheel, turnng the starter simply rotated the ring around the fly wheel, so engine had to come out.

Solved it by stitch welding the ring to the fly wheel, this was possible for me to do as although I had to sort out a sutable welding procedure and welding rods, at least it was for steel to steel.

I wassubsequently informed that it is very common for the ring to move if it is reused and simply heat shrunk into place.

If any one is interested there is a good photo of my engine on terato.com, under the section for round 6 of the Malysian Super Series, forgive me for it not neing a JH,

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 11:25 am
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Ron Earp
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You can pin it on too, I know some folks do that as well.  A few small diameter roll pins carefully put in through the ring gear into the flywheel will hold it well. Just have to make sure your pin sits below the level of the gear when you put them in.

Ron

Last edited on 11-08-2006 11:26 am by Ron Earp

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 12:27 pm
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jcdean
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Link to Sylva's 9xx motor picture.

http://www.terato.com/cars/content/view/353/46/

Third column, 5th down.

Joey

Last edited on 11-08-2006 12:28 pm by jcdean

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 01:28 pm
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Dan Eiland
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Ron, any idea how many roll pins would be needed? With the high torque starters today and HC engines, you could be placing quite a bit of torque onto some very small roll pins causing some major shear forces to be present. I would think it would take several roll pins to overcome, or at least spread out, the shearing forces to more than one pin. I have heard of using roll pins before, just not how many or what size.

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 Posted: 11-08-2006 02:53 pm
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Ron Earp
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Hi Dan,

pinning every 90 degrees is plenty.  Friction from the ring should still be the primary force holding it on the flywheel.


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 Posted: 11-08-2006 04:18 pm
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Greg Fletcher
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The Club Store has been selling custom made, 7 pound aluminum flywheels for some time http://www.jhps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=jhps&Product_Code=AFW&Category_Code=ET

They are not cheap, but they have a ring gear already installed and are equal in quality to the old Tiltons (which are no longer made for this application). I've just sold my last one, the only other one I have in stock is made to go with the 5 speed conversion kits.

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