I just bought an F1 Racing 11.7 lb CroMo flywheel
 

I'll be the guinea pig.

awesome. price?

I see it at 195 shipped from ebay. Let us know how it holds up.

I'm thinking about the 8.8 XTD here shortly. Hopefully yours holds good

I already ordered the 9.9 lb one and have been testing it around the neighborhood this week. It will get abused at MSR-H next weekend. I'll post up the results, but so far so good...ubber light for under $200.

Good to hear. Which brand did you go with jacob?

Lol. I ordered the 9lb XTD prolite for 1.6ls today.

I'll let people now how it works in a few months :p

Oh and it was for sale on ebay for 189 + 14shipped. Offered them 170 and a few minutes later I paid for it for 184 to our door.

Some of the flywheels will have the wrong thread 8x1.25mm instead of 8x1.0mm for the bolts that hold the pressure plate down. Just go to the hardware store and pick up new bolts. I would use some medium strength loctite too and possibly lockwashers if the factory uses em too.

I'd suggest being a little careful about picking up pressure plate bolts at the hardware store. Grade 8 bolts are typically used in inch sizes for clutches and flywheels in high performance applications. Metric grade 8.8 is well BELOW inch grade 8 in strength (116K psi vs. 150K psi tensile strength). A metric 10.9 grade bolt has slightly higher tensile and yield strength than a inch grade 8 bolt. No problem if your hardware store stocks 10.9 grade metric bolts but please don't risk grenading your pressure plate through your aluminum bell housing using run of the mill ungraded metric bolts to hold things together at 7,000 rpm.

And I thought I had done well by reducing my stocker to 16lbs....need to make one out of aluminium now. :vash:

I don't think the pp bolts are actually that high of grade hardware- they only torque to 20ftlbs. and only need to manage the torque force of the springs and pedal/slave. Maybe you're thinking of the flywheel bolts? I know the bolts that came with my aluminum fidanza flywheel were nothing exceptional.

I have a friend telling me to get everything balanced if I get that flywheel. Anyone have any trouble without getting theirs balanced?

I'd definitely put a machinist's straight edge on it before installing.

The 1.6 and 1.8 Miata motors are internally balanced, which means the flywheel assembly (flywheel, pressure plate, friction disk) and the dampener are neutral balanced. In "theory", one should have the flywheel assembly neutral balanced as a unit when replacing/swapping parts. I'm kind of struggling with whether or not I should do this when I replace my 1.6 assembly with a 1.8 stock flywheel and an ACT clutch setup. I think I can get away without doing it (stock flywheel and ACT clutch "should" both be neutral balanced) but I'll probably price out the balancing too. I'd really hate to get everything buttoned back up and then discover some "new" engine/driveline vibration.

Oh ok. I didn't know that

Ordered the same one.

Just ordered my XTD pro lite $189 shipped

Xtd prolite ftw! I'm rocking it. Cromo is cromo.

Just got my XTD prolite in. Looks great. Checked one of the old clutch to flywheel bolts and it threads in with 0 issues. The thread issue mentioned above as a possibility... they wouldn't thread into each other right? Having a brain fart moment.

Any updates on guys that have been running it?

Just got my F1R 12.7 pounder.
I'll be having its balance checked tomorrow.

I got the 11 lb one, I have about 450 street miles on it and about 100 "aggressive" miles on it, about 60 of those being at MSR houston, I am loving it, revs a little quicker and with the 6puck clutch it came with it shifts like a beast.

Took mine to the track this weekend, eveything broke but this flywheel.

Haha damn that sucks but also good too

Well I got it (F1 Racing 11.7 lb flywheel) back from the balancing shop.
Balance was within 0.5 gram which is their limit.
So was the FM stage 1 clutch's pressure plate.
So was my crank which I had balanced 5 years ago.

^This. You cannot reuse your old PP bolts.

10.9 Hardware store or bolt store are necessary.

BTW - I've had mine for eight months and I wish I went even lighter on the weight.

M8 x 1.25 x 20 mm bolts fit perfectly if you reuse the factory lock washers, despite being 2 mm longer than stock.

why 10.9? it's only torqued to like 20 ft lbs

I didn't know the torque value for one thing. As long as I was in there and there was a negligible price difference, I was using good quality components, especially for drivetrain parts. I'm not sure it was necessary, but I feel good about it.

Well 1500 miles later the flywheel and FM1 clutch work great.
Initially the FM1 clutch engaged way down near the floor even after their recommended adjustment procedure which maximizes stroke. (before procedure it wouldn't disengage and I got a bit of a panicky feeling). After about 200 miles it broke in some and got much better.
Clutch feel is good. Not too heavy underfoot.

Flywheel feels "pleasantly" lighter than the de-ridged (lightened) stocker, but not hugely so. The engine revs smoother than before (may be because it doesn't have a weak #2 cylinder lol).

I was considering getting my stock 1.6 flywheel lightened but the shop wanted liek 250 ish for it i was like mmmmmm wait on that.

I ended up ordering clutchnet performance disc with street pp and a f1 flywheel.

I may have the shop balance the clutch kit and flywheel but i'm not sure how to have the disc maintain its centralized position. would it make sense to leave the alignment tool in place? should the shop worry about that not me haha??

I would highly recommend that you do not get anything from clutchnet. Ask Braineack how he tried to cheap out and ended up doing a clutch job 3 times in a week.

Really? Scott, wanna chime in?

Shuiend is an alarmist IMO. I've had several Clutchnet clutches without issue as well as dozens of other on here, including during that GB. Brain and I think one other person just had some bad luck. That could happen with any company. I wouldn't label it as a regularly occuring issue.

There were far more then just 2 people during the groupbuy that had issues. All I can say is changing a clutch is a PITA. I rather not skimp out on a clutchnet clutch and have to redo it anytime soon. The extra money for a ACT or FM is well worth it to me.

yeah, back in 2008 we did a GB. like half the PPs that us members got wouldn't disengage. It was at least 5-6 members. Newbsauce was one.

I kept the disc, returned the PP for a refund, and bought an ACT PP...had no issues after that.

Clutchnet=F1???

I bought an F1 clutch and flywheel kit from Gripforce. The PP wouldn't disengage. I've now used the F1 1.6 light flywheel with both an ACT PP/stock disc and a full ACT HD pp/disc with perfect results. What Lars said, I wouldn't do a cheapie PP/disc again.

My twin plate clutch organic disks were made by clutchnet. For all their inability to coherently convey information I wanted, the disks were produced and worked flawlessly.

Any more news to report on this? How is it wearing in? How have you been treating it?

I am currently running on the FM "heavy" flywheel and FM1 clutch after swapping out the twin plate clutch for a more daily drivery feeling car.

So far it's holding the ~250whp just fine and is a lighter pedal than my wife's civic's stock 100k mile clutch pedal. engagement is wherever I want it. Currently about an inch off the floor and there's more available.

My friend just installed an F1 clutch with this PP and it wouldn't disengage. Paid labor a second time to have a "real" clutch put in. What is it with these PPs that some dont work properly?

Could you post pics of the FAILED PP? Is there any signs of what or why it failed? Could it have been caught before install?

That is exactly why I will not use a cheap clutcch. I only want to do the job once and paying extra for an ACT or FM to gurantee I won't have have to do it twice.

just in case there was confusion: F1 :ne: FM1

I could post a pic of my PP over the weekend. It has to be a dimensional thing, the PP looks fine from a physical standpoint. IE, there are no broken fingers or anything.

The guy from Gripforce was a real douche about it when I called him, too. He basically told me that there was no way I would get my money back for it, even if I sent it back, so I didn't bother wasting my money sending it back. I'm sure I would have gotten better after the sale service from Emilio, but I double cheaped out on it: 1. by getting the F1 parts and 2. by not at least getting them from 949. I'll be doing ACT for the time being, I've now had three and they have been perfect.

i bought the 1.8 etd kit off ebay ( i think its the same) 6 puck sprung, its in my track car, i really didnt baby it much for break in, ive been beating on it and it hasnt slipped yet, pressure plate appeared different from my clutch master but they feel about the same. it came with the prolite flywheel as well, its was a nice kit for the money, if all goes well il buy another kit for my other project car

I have the F1 with an exedy sport PP and clutch an I loved it.
Saddly it lasted only 2000 miles. Not that the clutch assembly failed, but I failed to put some sticky stuff on the flywheel bolts to keep the oil in the cranck..
And now oil is getting out on my expensive upgrade...
I haven't decided to pull either the engine or the gearbox.. But even soacked with oil: no slip. I did not push it though.. Right after discovering the spill I have put the car asleep for the winter. When I have time I'll fix it. Can I just clean up the clutch and re-use it? As it have done no more then 2000 miles and I did not drove it to destruction. But I don't know if I'll get all oil out of the clutch.

Any advice?

I've got the fm flywheel with an exedy stage 1. I figured the chinese can machine something flat, but mechanical I'll leave to the japanese. So far so good. The thread pitch on the holes is different from stock though. I found that out when i did a motor swap haha

I would highly doubt there has ever been any problems with the FM (Flyin Miata) kits of any stage. However, the real question is probably whether the cheap ebay "F1 Racing" clutch kits are worth the risk. Who makes em? SPEC?

Also, if I'm understanding the thread correctly, some people are playing it safe while still saving a few bucks by going with the ebay "F1 Racing" flywheel paired with a nice name brand clutch kit, right?

Thanks,
Robert

I would go with an Exedy or an FM clutch, not the F1 clutches.
Ebay F1 clutches have a bad rep... I'm not sure tho if this only applies to their puck clutches.

I noticed some hardened spots on the flywheel after I had to pull the tranny again. Little sealant was in between the rear main seal and the cranck, causing oil spill. So the clutch took some oil (again). Besides that it is all great. The engine revs a bit too easy making it weird to take off. I rev the engine too much, take my foot off the gas, letting the clutch go and put some throttle back on. As if I can't drive well at all. The engine does not stall easy though. Clutch feels like gripping good.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm definitely not going to use an F1 Racing clutch, now, the next question is this, are the F1 Racing flywheels ok?

Thanks again,
Robert

I've been running the 11lb one in my rotrexd 1.6 for 8k now with zero problems on the street and track.