I'm having a friend here in town install my flywheel. He's a mechanic at a local German auto shop, and he often uses the shop after hours for his own personal car work (including friends' sports cars and tuning). He hasn't yet done a 350Z flywheel install, and he had some questions I wanted to pass along here for those that might know.

1) Flywheel bolts. He said it's common for folks to replace the flywheel bolts when swapping out flywheels. Would you all recommend this, or is it unnecessary?

2) Any other caveats or potential problems to watch out for? He's done lots of tranny work, but not on the 350Z. He's not really worried, but is basically just looking for any little tidbits of info that might help prevent any unseen difficulties with this particular car.

Thanks.

 

bump

Anyone have any info?

 

bump.

 

*****.

 

I was hoping the Performance Nissan guys would be able to speak up here, since they've done a lot of these installs. Maybe they are on vacation for the holiday?

 

no need to replace the flwheel bolts.. they can be re-used on our car...

only flywheel that requires new bolts is the Tilton flywheel since it needs shorter bolts...

just make sure the clutch is mounted to the flywheel properly and the crank pin is in place...

which flywheel and clutch? i dont remember the torque spec's for the flywheel bolts off hand...

its a good 6 hour job if you havent done it before...

yeah its mamorial day weekend closed on monday

 

We can swap the clutch in about a hour and a half so it shouldn't take much longer to do the flywheel... The Z trans is pretty easy to remove. The only problem that we had on mine is the pivot ball inside the trans for the clutch fork snapped in half when tightening it down....
Jason
MRC Motorsports

 

Thanks for the info guys.

Jason, I have the JWT flywheel, and am just keeping the stock clutch. (Car only has 5k miles on it and I don't do drag racing or forced induction. I just couldn't justify the cost of a new clutch.) My friend doing the install is a mechanic at a local auto shop, and he's done lots of tranny work like this... just never on a 350Z. (His auto shop is a German car place, and he also does Japanese import work for a local tuner place during his personal time.) He put the car on the lift last week and inspected everything to size it up, and he figured 4 hours would probably be about right. I hope he's right!

J's350z, thanks for the warning on the pivot ball/clutch fork. I'll mention that to him so he can keep an eye out.

 

flywheel bolts is 60 torque lbs

 

just changing the flywheel will get rid of all the shifting complains people always talk about...



enjoy it!

 

Got it installed last night. Definitely shifts quicker. Easier to rev match, and if I don't match it up perfectly on a downshift, it doesn't jerk the car around so hard. Very nice.

The only issue now is the gravel noise under load at low rpms. Gonna take some getting used to. That, and I'm getting some sort of vibration at about 2250 rpm when engine braking. I'm guessing we routed the exhaust pipe too close to something and it's making contact at that rpm.

 

Other than that vibration it's nice to hear that everything turned out good I'd like a lighter flywheel than JWT, but I don't want it to be impossible to drive. I consider myself a very manual savvy person, but my GF likes to drive the car sometimes too. I wasnt something 100% streetable.

 

Drove around a lot today. I'm surprised at how little difference the lightweight flywheel makes in daily driving. Starting from a stop is barely any more difficult at all. Hardly noticeable. Perhaps starting on a steep uphill might be more difficult, but nothing else really is.

 

how bad is the noise exactly?
with a short shifter, you can feel the shorter throws which is the benefit, with this flywheel, what are the positives?

how much is the average install cost would you guys say?

 

The benefit of a lighter flyweel is less power loss in the drivetrain (i.e. more power to the wheels.)

 

I'd personally say that the #1 benefit of a lightened flywheel is the improved and quickened engine response when shifting. Makes fast shifts much easier and smoother, especially downshifts.

 

The noise isn't too bad. You get used to it. It's much easier to accept since you know it's *supposed* to be there. It doesn't happen much, really. Only when giving the car a lot of gas at low rpms. (below 2700 or so) If you start off gently, you won't really hear it at all.

As far as price, I had a friend do the install for me one evening and it took him about 4.5 hours (since he'd never worked on a 350Z before). We sat around and yapped our mouths the whole time, so I'm sure he was going slower than normal. Someone who's done this particular job before could probably whip it out in 3 hours (or less if they are really fast). Many shops probably charge about $75 per hour for this sort of thing, but that will vary greatly depending on the shop. This should give you an idea of what to expect, though.

 

So how is acceleration compared to stock? I am interesting in this mod but want to have as much of the facts as possible.

 

A bit quicker, but it's not a huge difference. You can feel the difference, but it's not a huge amount.

 

Thanks for the reply!!!!!!