hammer, i had the carolina clutch stage II setup, which included a hybrid organic sprung hub disc. the pressure plate was a valeo.

the idle was set at 850 rpms on the chip, and it had the mild (very pleasant) lope that the LPE 74219 cam gives in a 350.

 

thinking about this, i would have to agree i wish i would have thought it through back when i had the stage II kit installed in my L98. all i ever listened to was the extra 10-20 hp to the wheels......but in my case it didn't turn out to be worth the the incredible extra bs that went along with it

 

I have the LT1, and yes, it's not as bad to drive, but most of the negatives still remain:

** Lack of pull off the line
** Horrible drone at highway speeds
** Noise at idle

 

yes, what bogus said which is bad enough for an LT1, and seems to be that much worse on my L98.

bottom line: i would never put an ultra light FW in again, stock engine or no stock engine. period. then again, if you're into circle track racing this would probably be a good idea on an LT1. but 99.99% of us don't do that.

 

What do you mean "drone at highway speeds"? You talking about gear rumble when you're in sixth gear and just idling along?

I'm just not sure I understand what you guys mean when you say it doesn't "pull" as well off the line. Mine revs up so much quicker, it feels like I've put in 4.11 gears. I have to really pay attention in 1st or I'll bump right off the rev limiter.

When I test drove an LS2 GTO a while back, I was totally making a mess of things when I tried to match revs on downshifts. I then realized it's because I was used to my car revving so quickly. I just have to blip the throttle to bring the revs up a grand or so. By the way, I think the GTOs have a dual mass flywheel as well.

Now, with the aluminum flywheel the engagement is a little trickier, and not as forgiving if you're slow with the throttle uptake, but I still don't see how the performance is worse.

 

I have had a fidanza for several months now. It isn't heavy, therefore, doesn't keep momentum when letting the clutch out. That, in turn, makes launching more difficult. I used to could just let out the clutch w/o giving any gas when I had the camaro flywheel installed with the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch. It makes accelerating from a dead stop on a hill more difficult. I have a lot of areas like that where I live. Hopefully, over time, I'll get used to it and won't be so conscience about it everytime. It makes it worse since I worry about it everytime I get in a position like that. I had a whole lot of problems getting used to it for the first few weeks even on flat areas.

It also chatters like a bia. I don't like that at all. It's embarrasing at drive thrus and anywhere else for that matter. People look at me like the car is a pos that's about to blow up. I hold the clutch down long enough that my leg starts shaking to prevent the looks. I only let the clutch out in neutral when no one is around. I've wondered if it affects the knock sensor at all.

So far, it hasn't hindered my 60ft times at the drag strip. Even with the twice as heavy camaro flywheel, I was bogging the car and burning the clutch with MT Streets. I get 1.8 60fts with Goodyear street tires, nittos, & MT Streets. Same 60ft no matter what. But, it's much easier with nittos and street tires. A lot of that depends on how well the track hooks. As for dropping revs during shifting, I don't take my foot off the gas at all when shifting at the strip....and sometimes on the street. The Fidanza hasn't helped nor hindered my 8th mile times, I haven't been to a 1/4 track with it yet. I don't think it'd make a difference for me. I don't believe it makes much of a difference in rwhp dyno readings unless you have 500hp or more. Even then, it's not much.

I don't plan on changing the setup anytime soon even with the problems noted above. I'm gonna test it out for the first time at an autox next weekend. That's where it's suppose to shine. I think it'd work great if I had gears.

 

I'm still kind of up in the air on this now. I guess I'm not sure if I told everyone I'm going to be putting this flywheel into a '93 LT1 that's somewhat modified, flowmaster exhaust, hyperchip, k&n modded airbox, I believe it has a larger throttle body on it as well and have dyno sheets showing 375 at the rear wheels so I'm not totally sure what else it all has done to it, it's pretty loud and seems to lope so might have a cam in it too. Sounds like on the LT1 from other people the aluminum may not be too bad to go with. How loud is the gearbox chatter? I would highly doubt it's as loud as the exhaust noise in my cockpit. I can barely talk on my phone in my car because it's so loud, so a little gearbox noise I don't think would bother me. Is the chatter going to cause excessive tranny wear or be bad for main bearings though? Thanks for everyone's input.

 

It really does not matter how modded your car is... the aluminum flywheel is NOT a good choice for the street.

 

in addition to what bogus says, consider this: your exhaust may be loud (mine is too), but you'll still hear that damn can of rocks and pronounced flutter (the can or rocks is the worst of the two) inside the cabin.....and outside as well. you're taking a risk -- and you have the black tag ZF -- this spells NOISE to me.

again, from a daily driver performance aspect, from our experience (L98 modded and LT1 relativelt stock), it sucked in both situations. that's us though -- i hope you don't opt to do it only to find out you're very unhappy. i sure wish i had the forethought - bogus too - to have not ventured into this mess to begin with. its solvable - just takes time and money.

 

Hey, would any of you guys that hated the fidenza still have it? If I could get one cheap I'd like to try it, then I wouldn't be out that much if I hated it. I think it would have to be for an LT1 though, I don't think the older ones would bolt up.

 

sorry sterjess, i sold mine 5 months ago.

 

if I could afford to replace mine, I would... but I can't, so I am stuck with it.

Why are you having such issue with this? There are SEVERAL people here saying the same damned thing? What part of "they suck" don't you understand? I am sooo confused...

 

I guess I haven't decided yet because I've read reviews going both ways on the aluminum flywheel. Although, I think just because it costs so much I'm going to go with the steel camaro flywheel and get it machined. I don't think I ever heard a response back about match balancing the flywheel, what would have to be done to achieve this.

 

I think I explained match balancing above.

It's where a machine shop balances the new flywheel to match the intentional inbalance on the original flywheel.

 

Cool, that makes sense. I'll be ordering that flywheel soon here, clutch is startin to slip a little more now. Thanks for all the info bogus.

 

anytime!!! good luck!

If you have questions, please, ask!!!!