Jeepracer427
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is there anyway to lighten the stock gx390 flywheel?
Not more...but gets up there faster.will give me more rpms. more rpms=more speed.
Ok.
is there any way of reducing the weight of the motor?
With less rotating mass, the engine can change it's speed quicker - up or down - from idle all the way to redline where ever that is determined to be. Kinetic energy doesn't get started at any particular RPM. Even at 1 RPM the flywheel is storing some energy. The higher the RPM the more energy can be stored. The more flywheel mass the more energy can be stored. The larger diameter the flywheel, the more energy can be stored. And the slower it will accelerate and decelerate.
How much you notice the difference depends on the power to weight ratio of the vehicle, it's gearing, and so on.
For example. Let us say a mower flywheel weighs 5 lbs, and the engine internals weigh 15 lbs, totalling 20 lbs.
If we shave off 1 lb off the flywheel, we now have 19 lbs, so 1/20, or a 5% difference.
If we're smart and remove that weight from the outside edge of the flywheel, the gain is actually higher than 5% because weight towards the hub is less useful in a flywheel role than weight at the outside diameter. About 6-1/2% increase in acceleration/deceleration capability of the engine.
That means your engine can go from 1000 RPM to 4000 RPM 6.5% faster in this example.
But your kart won't accelerate 6.5% faster.
With a 15 tooth sprocket on the engine and a 60 tooth sprocket on the axle, that's a 4:1 ratio so the live axle would have capability to accelerate and decelerate 1.625% faster than with the original flywheel on the engine, using the same made up example above.
With a tiny engine that's not much of a difference.
On a full size vehicle that produces 500 HP and has a 1:1 5th gear, that is a noticeable difference. In auto racing that noticable difference might be a factor in winning and losing. This is why road racing cars (off-road rally cars, road course track cars, etc) often have short-stroke engines with button clutches. Less rotating mass far from the crankshaft centerline allows these engines to accelerate and decelerate quickly, which gives the driver more control of the car because he/she can shift through many gears keeping the RPMs up in the engine's peak HP range no matter what the speed.