8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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23rd April 2012

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Custom machined flywheel!

Even though I haven't been posting it doesn't mean I haven't been working. The time since the last posthas probably been the most time consuming and crucial work in this entire project. Throughout thisproject, several custom parts have had to be made. This includes engine mounts, transmission mounts,mounting of the shifter, the adapter plate, as well as some creativity with the exhaust headers. Aside fromperhaps the adapter plate, nothing was as intense as the parts made in the last 2 weeks. The parts made(not including tooling) were the carrier for the pilot bearing, flywheel dowel pins, and the flywheel itself.

Here's a little bit of background on each part:

The pilot bearing is crucial because it supports the end of the transmission input shaft inside thecrankshaft. Without it, the shaft would be an unsupported cantilevered shaft that would quickly fail.Unfortunately, the pilot bearing for the LS1 is much smaller than the DeLorean's and sits way to far intothe crank shaft. The pilot bearing carrier is a piece I designed to solve this problem. It presses into thelocation of the original LS1 bearing, then flares out to fit the DeLorean bearing, and hold it in the properlocation. There are pictures of its manufacture and finished product below.

Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Initial piece being machined on the lathe.

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Complete on one side. All thats left is the step.

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Machining the shoulder

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Complete!

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Bearing carrier with the original LS1 bushing, the DeLorean bearing, and flywheel spacer.

The other part was the flywheel. The flywheel has been the bane of this project from the beginning. At thebeginning of January I called McLeod Racing in California to help me get a flywheel that would fit insidethe DeLorean bellhousing and mate to the LS1. After repeated calling, getting passed around, finallyworking with the president and still getting no where, I had had enough. It was clear that nothing wasgoing to get accomplished working with them. I dont want to sound like I didn't try, I absolutely did try towork with them. I guess one single college senior doing a custom one off isn't really worth devoting manyresources to. After wasting 8 weeks I had to find another option.

Next I worked with a company was located in the UK doing GT40 replicas. Admittedly, this would havebeen perfect as they not only sell a compatible flywheel, but also clutch, bearing carrier, throw out bearing,and adapter plate. Unfortunately cost and timeline eventually stopped this from happening. The cost of theparts, plus shipping to the US would have been outrageous. Plus coordinating exact dimensions and ideasvia email was quite difficult.

Finally after a lot of headache, I decided to make my own flywheel. The material is hot rolled A36structural steel. I chose this because its much stronger than the original cast iron and very machinable.Also it was cheap; really cheap. The 70lb plate I bought was $25 from a local scrap yard. The process ofmaking the flywheel is shown below.

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Raw 1.25" A36 Hot rolled steel plate

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Raw stock for tooling

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Turning tool being made

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Plate on the mill to bore out the center hole.

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Center drilling the center hole

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Drilling center hole

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Boring the center hole

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I tried to mill the circle out using a hand powered rotating table, but it was decided that that was far to dangerous.

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Considered using a mill to cut off all the corners for a less interrupted cut on the lathe, but ended up being far to difficult.

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For the tightest tolerances possible, I decided to have all the holes drilled using the CNC machine. The crank shaft holes are being drilled

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Pressure plate holes being drilled

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If you look close, in this photo, you can see the different ways I tried to turn this into a circle. Two different mills, an oxyacetylene torch, aplasma cutter, and a band saw.

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Finally a friend was able to waterjet it into a circle.

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Mounted to one of the lathes to make it a true circle

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Finally a circle

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The Cincinnati lathe was not big enough to hold the flywheel true enough so I moved to one of the big lathes. This LeBlond lathe was usedfor the rest of the work.

8/12/2015 Part Fabrication: How to make a flywheel

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Facing the backside down.

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Cutting the step for the starter ring gear

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Cutting the inside surface.

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Backside complete.

This lathe was perfect because it was the only lathe with a chuck big enough to hold the flywheel from theoutside, so the center portion could be turned.

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Facing the front side

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Cutting the step for the clutch

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Cutting the center hub step.

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Complete! front

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Complete! back

Once complete, the ring gear needed installed. Dave Swingle at DMC Midwest recommended simplyputting the flywheel in the freezer and the ring gear in the oven. With over .015" interference, this wouldcertainly be necessary

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Flywheel in the freezer overnight

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Ring gear cooking at 350

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/6sBLHshcU50/T5TdOWOB1wI/AAAAAAAAApg/vTo6CD8W4H8/s1600/IMG_1633.jpg]Ring gear installed

When I went to install the ring gear, I was holding a mallet, ready to tap it into place. Wasn't needed at all.The ring gear went on as though I was playing ringtoss. Then, after 30 seconds, it had already shrunk somuch that it could not be removed. Certainly was important to work fast.

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My fabrication is complete.

Even though it was made from a plate, I still wanted to be sure the flywheel was balanced. One localautomotive engineering shop in town had the ability to dynamically balance flywheel's so I had them do so.This pic shows where they removed material to balance it.

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Flywheel balanced

Next I wanted to have the friction surface properly machined for engagement with a clutch. Smythautomotive put a beautiful finish on the surface for me.

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Flywheel surfaced.

The last thing for the flywheel was the dowel rods for the pressure plate. A quick phone call revealed thatthese were no longer available from DMC and were not easily found online. In the end, I decided to simplymake them

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Raw steel rod

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Turning down

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Rod complete

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Cut and chamfered into dowel rods

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Dowel Pins installed

And thats it!

Posted 23rd April 2012 by Nicholas Roedl

5 View comments

Paul J March 28, 2013 at 2:40 AM

Hi and thanks for posting all this info, it's really helpful for someone like me, looking to do the same withan Alfa replica project. Did you get the finished flywheel balanced ? You don't mention about clocking inthe flywheel between different mounts in the 3 jaw chuck. There's some great machining going on hereand I'm sure you have it covered but thought it worth mentioning. All the best. Paul. UK.

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Nicholas Roedl June 9, 2014 at 6:51 PM

Yes I had the flywheel dynamically balanced after it was machined. The 7th photo from the bottom of thepage specifically talks about it and shows the material that was removed in the balancing process.

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Anonymous June 10, 2014 at 3:16 PM

Hello Nicholas, I am impressed with your flywheel you made and would love to make one for my customapplication, if you would be so kind could you please contact me illenium77@aol.com I like to speak withyou personally thanx you for your time best regards Andy

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SQLPoet August 28, 2014 at 2:29 PM

Nicholas,

The title of your thesis paper implies that there is a kit one can purchase?

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Nicholas Roedl July 24, 2015 at 10:58 AM

My thesis was to design the components required for a kit for me to use, but not to produceand sell a kit. I do hope to produce a kit for purchase in the future but it will still be a whilebefore it is available.