what he said!

 

You seem like you really know your stuff. Thanks for all the info!

Now is someone going to talk me into (or out of) buying a lightweight flywheel??

 

if you're complaining about noise now, a lightweight flywheel is only going to exaggerate the issue. But on the up side, the engine in NA form is much more lively, much more responsive

 

If you're looking for a faster rev go with the lightweight flywheel. You lose torque that way but a light weight upgrade flywheel will also give you some room for torque mods. I just ordered a stage one competition clutch from z1 performance inc with an ultra light flywheel (12.9lbs). I will lose torque power but the flywheel supplies me with another 40-50% torque capacity in upgrades. Aka the new flywheel will be able to handle any kind of mod I put on it, short of twin turboing.

 

I just recently purchased a throw out bearing and pilot bushing.
I was tossing around the idea of buying the nismo one since its a nice needle bearing and my first thought was, well a bearing should work better than a bushing.

After talking to some people and getting some opinions on the matter, i decided to get the oem brass bushing. Why?
Because when the brass bushing starts to fail, all you get is some unpleasent noise.
When a needle bearing fails, it can grenade and send the needles everywhere.
I kind of like the idea of some brass just wearing down instead of the chance of having needle bearings thrown everywhere.

Also +1 on the noise not being a Pilot bushing, when i had my trans out i grabbed the input shaft and turned it back and fourth, i quickly realised that the amount of backlash on the gears is what makes these transmissions so noisy, especially when dry, it sounds like a trainwreck.
thicker oil can dampen the noise. A lightweight flywheel will add chatter tho, causing the backlash noise to be even more noticable when starting from a stop.

Just my .02