What are the pro's and cons of an 11lb aluminum flywheel,and a 40lb billet flywheel? Which would be better for a 400-450hp 428 street truck?
Thanks

 

A light flywheel lets you engine rev up quicker (race track only). A heavy flywheel helps your engine move a heavy object (your truck) off the line quicker and pull better thru the gears (the real world).

 

Fourby, the 11lbs aluminum one is too light, and the 40lbs one is too heavy. Bear has got it right about the heavier one being better for the real world. But 40lbs is too heavy. I weighed the stock wheel from a '71 F250 2wd. It had a NP435 4spd, with an 11 inch clutch. The factory 'wheel weighed 25 lbs. There was a fellow on the net54 forum who put an aluminum 'wheel on a 428 powered mustang. He loved it at first, but later went back to the stocker. If the 11 lbs wheel was to light for a mustang, it will certainly be too light for a pickup. If you have the 40 lbs wheel, you could have some weight taken off from it on a lathe. DF, @ his Dad's house

 

I ran a 30 lbs flywheel with 11" clutch in my '69 Fairlane Cobra with 428CJ with tripower, toploader and 4.30 rearend which was mostly a race car. The heavy flywheel gave unreal hard launches. Carry the front tires for 2 car lengths in a 3200 lbs car. A 428 isn't a small block chebby and didn't rev that fast anyway. Car did run in the 12.50's though.

 

A heavy wheel will make it much more user friendly on the street. With the light wheel, it will be real finicky and harder to drive with no enertia from flywheel. It will be real bad if you have a stout cam with no bottom end power.

I switched my race car over to alum. wheel and it helped with launches, but on a street vehicle I think I would stay with steel wheel.

 

Ditto what all these guys said. I took a pound or two off my 390's flywheel when I did the motor. But I wouldn't go much further.

I had a Triumph TR7 4 cyl, took the 23 lbs flywheel, started cutting, and wound up with one that was only 15 pounds. What a big difference, but that little car (2200 lbs) with a 3.90 rear (yes, 3.90!) and a 5-speed had way too much gear at a launch. Lightening up the flywheel helped a whole lot...

But in a heavy truck? Don't do it.

 

Thanks for all the info guys! Are there any aftermarket flywheels available for the 428? The only one that I can find is the Hays billet 40 pounder, but it sounds like that would be to heavy.Does anyone have a Ford one that they would sell?

 

Hays and Ram I think are the two main ones you can get. I've never compared the two to see if one is lighter? I do run them in my FE's though(just not sure which is which in which vehicle-I have three)