I am replacing my clutch in a few weeks and was thinking about a new Fidenze flywheel to. Is it worth it for a NA car? Or am I better off putting my money elsewhere?

 

Worth it 100%

 

Only if you get it from Jeff though

 

how much does jeff want for one?

 

Worth it all the way! I put one on and thought I was sitting in a different car lol it rides so much smoother now. Go For It!

 

I'm getting more in a few weeks. My price has always been $325+shipping.

 

Would a new stock clutch but a light weight flywheel be a stupid combo?

 

I dont think that is a good idea.. why not get an aftermarket clutch you will feel the car much better. I have an ACT with Fidanza everytime i drive it i enjoy it.

 

No, many have done it. Some people prefer the OEM clutch. You will still feel the effects of the flywheel with the OEM clutch,and will love it!

 

I was thinking exedy stage 1 at best. ACT I wont ever need that much holding power...............plus I cant stand all that chatter.

 

I've always wanted to get this flywheel but I wonder if there is any side effect on the longevity of the engine by removing some of the rotating mass. I know that our VQs are internally balanced but I do notice that after I installed my UR pulley, the engine sounds a little rougher. It's not as smooth as when I had the stock pulley on it; and the difference is pretty obvious to me from the first time I started the car with the UR pulley on.

 

I have a Spec Kevlar clutch with Fidanza flywheel and its very smooth. I dont have anything to compare the flywheel too though because I was auto prior to this set up. Car revs extremely fast though, thats for sure.

-Tony

 

Before I had the UR pulley, I can hardly notice that the engine is even running during idle. But after installing the pulley, I can hear the engine noise from inside. Now it's even worse cause I often take it to redline and the engine is even rougher.

 

Glad to see everything went well with your conversion! You get used to it yet? I bet you drive your car much less now lol

 

UDP makes the engine rougher....I didnt know that was possible. I've been in a couple with them..and didnt notice that.

 

My car scared the **** out of my VG friend when I told him to bring it up to 3000rpm then punch the gas.

thank god he didnt wet his pants... I would have been ****ed.

 

I drive about twice as much as I used to...lol


-Tony

 

oh yeah, buy if from Jeff, I've done multiple transactions with him and hes a great guy, and great seller.

Also another nice thing about the flywheel, its nice to know its slowly paying itself off with the gas mileage.

 

Give it time lol I miss my car have not drove in over a week waiting for james to figure out how to fix my antifreeze leak..

 

here answer your own question. The stock unit is very very heavy. Which would be easier on the internals of the engine? a heavy wheel it has to turn or a lighter one? Which will yield more power and better gas mileage? a lighter unit or a heavier unit?


My answer the lighter one. the only side effect I see out of this flywheel is that none of these maxima freaks wants to get out of their cars

 

Im going back and forth on whether to put one in or not. If one person can tell me that they went faster in the 1/4 mile (which i never hear) that may sway me to purchase one.

 

Sweet, I'm not the only one. I'm actually thinking about putting the stock pulley back on.


Dave

 

It will help 1/4 mile every mod u add to the car helps! Flywheel was one of the best mods I added to my car and everyone who I drove say the same thing.

 

I dont know if this makes you feel better, but i've had my UDP on for almost four years.

 

from what i have heard, they are TOTALLY worth it, and i have been trying to get one for the past 2 months but they have been on backorder everywhere! SOMEONE FIND ME ONE, i wanna get this S/C in at the same time my ACT goes in!!!

 

Jay, check "this" out. I'm just wondering if Nissan can make it lighter in the first place, why wouldn't they do that. If they can extract more power out of the car, it would make their cars more marketable. My point is, if you reduce the rotating mass on one side, the ratio between the two side is not in propotion anymore; just like a wheel that's not balanced. I believe the equation to relate the weight ratio of the left and right side is not as simple as we may have thought.

 

I read that. The BMW has a rubber insert inside their pulley. The 3-gen VE and 4-gen VQ's pullies are solid metal. So no dampening that I can see.

Balancing? I don't think anything on the front of the motor is balanced to what is mounted on the rear. Also if you install diff clutch pressure plates like the ACT, that is noticably heavier also. But no one talks about that. Also how about the SC installs? That would place alot of extra stress on the front part of the crank due to the belt tension. But again, no one talks about that also.

 

Your talking about the flywheel because thats what I am talking about. I dont know about the UDP, I dont own one. I dont think Nissan wants to invest alot of cash on a alloy flywheel. A long time ago I posted would it benefit a car to have a lightened flywheel. I got all types of feedback. Most negative. At that time Fidenza was not out yet. Fidenza came out. I was one of the very first to get one took my chances and put it on. My best 1/4 mile time was 13.8 @ 104 2.3 60s. After flywheel install I went to 13.6 @ 106.89 2.3 60s. Car feels great. You decide. I do my own installs I have nothing to lose in any way! if its no good I take it off.

 

Is the E36 BMW's inline 6? If so that explains a lot why it needs a harmonic damper. The longer a shaft is, the lower the natural frequencies, and an inline six has a significantly longer crankshaft than a V6. Apparently the I6 is long enough so that it has natural frequencies in the operating rpm range of the engine, hence the need for a damper. The VQ's natural frequencies are high enough not to be a problem, so Nissan doesn't equip them with a harmonic damper in the first place. If anything, a lightened UDP and/or flywheel will drive the natural frequencies even higher out of the operating range.

Now why doesn't Nissan sell the VQ with a lighter flywheel? A heavy flywheel absorbs energy from firing pulses, so an engine with a heavy flywheel will feel smoother. It also makes shifting smoother since there is less of an rpm change during shifts, and a heavy flywheel resists engine bogging during clutch engagement during a standing start. Since the Maxima is essentially Nissan's luxury sedan, they engineered it for smooth running rather than a .2 second faster quarter mile.

 

FYI, the VQs stock pulley does appear to have some dampening characteristics because:

1) There is a rubber ring sandwiched within the OEM pulley. This ring has even failed on one members VQ causing the pulley to separate in half.

2) My VQ is clearly not as smooth as it use to be once I installed the pulley. My VQ is still pretty smooth compared to a lot of cars I've driven, but I can feel more vibration at idle and a generally harsher feel of the motor as it winds out. I'm becoming a bit nervous because my VQ has an extended redline.

As for the VE, according to pictures in my Chilton's manual, the VE/VG use a similiar style pulley as the VQ and it's refered to as a "damper".

Clearly Nissan did a great job in making all these motors very stout and they seem to handle UDP and lightweight flywheels without engine failures like the LT1/LS1, Contour V6 (SVT), E36 M3, etc. It seems the compromise may be slightly reduced driveability and possibly a little more harshness.


Dave

 

Dave. I have a stock oem VE crank pulley in the garage. There is no rubber to be seen anywhere on it.

 

Here's a pic of the rubber ring and a failed crankshaft pulley on VQ (pics taken from this post http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ghlight=pulley

His finger is pointing to the rubber ring:


Here's the pulley after he removed it:
[/QUOTE]

Looking at the pics of the VE crank pulley in the Chiltons manual, there appears to well defined line approximately 1" from the outside rim of the pulley that looks just like the VQ's rubber ring plus it's in nearly the same location. Chilton's constantly refers to the VE's crank pulley as a "crankshaft damper". I've taken a hard look at my stock pulley (not rusted, in perfect shape) and to the naked eye it appears to be solid unless you know where to look. The ring is very narrow (couple mm's wide) and it's of a very hard durometer. Most dampers and harmonic balancers I've seen have a much thicker and softer ring.

Also, let's not forget that there is a difference between a damper and a balancer. A damper pretty much just quells annoying engine vibrations and usually means the motor is balanced, a harmonic balancer/damper is something you never want to remove because it keeps the crank from taking a nasty wobble.


Dave

 

Looking at the pics of the VE crank pulley in the Chiltons manual, there appears to well defined line approximately 1" from the outside rim of the pulley that looks just like the VQ's rubber ring plus it's in nearly the same location. Chilton's constantly refers to the VE's crank pulley as a "crankshaft damper". I've taken a hard look at my stock pulley (not rusted, in perfect shape) and to the naked eye it appears to be solid unless you know where to look. The ring is very narrow (couple mm's wide) and it's of a very hard durometer. Most dampers and harmonic balancers I've seen have a much thicker and softer ring.

Also, let's not forget that there is a difference between a damper and a balancer. A damper pretty much just quells annoying engine vibrations and usually means the motor is balanced, a harmonic balancer/damper is something you never want to remove because it keeps the crank from taking a nasty wobble.


Dave[/QUOTE]Yes i have my pully in my hands right now and it does have rubber in it,its hard to see but its there. I will probably have a 7500rpm limit this summer so ill find out how much it matters.

 

I also have a stock VE pulley in the garage. No rubber ring.

Our engines are internally balanced....
Its not like my mustang where if I took off the harmonic balancer the crank would snap.

James92se has a lightened flywheel and UDP on his car with no problems what so ever. He said it idles smooth as ever, etc.

If I can get a chance I'll take a picture of the stock pulley today.

 

Also about the flywheel:

VE Stock Flywheel:


VQ Fidanza Flywheel:


The VE Fidanza Flywheel weighs less ~1.5lbs less than the VQ Fidanza.

http://www.launch2k.com/mrgone/images/pics/IMG_3634.jpg
Thats a VQ Fidanza on my VE. The VE fidanza is thinner than a VQ one.

 

I've been thinking about ACT too plus fidanza , but now you're scaring me with that chatter... Could you expand?

thanks.

 

Exedy Stage 1 = <3!!!!

 

I heard the same thing about ACT which is why I went with a Spec. Of the 5 people that have driven my car with the Spec, all 5 were amazed at how smooth the clutch is. (stage 2, kevlar)

-Tony

 

Araffio, did you get the Spec Flywheel from Evolution? aka Shadow? Can't afford to wait any longer for this fidanza, time to get that blower ON!

 

I have a Spec clutch and Fidanza flywheel. I got the Fidanza new from Ossamah (Max4Speed) because he decided to steer away from performance mods before he installed it. I got the Spec Stage 2 Kevlar clutch from www.clutchdepot.com for a great price. They take 10% off the retail price, and shipping is free. They also sell Fidanza flywheels.


-Tony