[blykins]

I've been talking to a CC member about supplying some drivetrain parts to him and I'm sure that he thinks I'm overbearing and nuts by now, but someone told him that it was ok to use a cast iron factory style FE flywheel in his 482 FE build.

If anyone out there is running a SBF or FE with a cast iron flywheel and is making over 250-300 hp, please see about upgrading to a steel flywheel.

I have never seen a 482 make under 535 hp and with those kinds of horsepower and torque numbers, there's not that much from keeping that cast iron from coming up in the car with you. Fiberglass is very thin and most new bellhousings (Quicktime, Lakewood, etc.) have had the bottoms chopped off in order to gain ground clearance. A good friend of mine put a 445 FE in a pickup truck and after pulling the trans to change the clutch, found some flange cracks on a newer cast iron flywheel. This was with a 450 hp engine.

I have seen 3-4 threads on the FE forum alone about exploding cast iron flywheels. Older flywheels are probably stress cracked. Newer ones will develop cracks at some point.

Again, I'm sure the forum member thinks I'm an overbearing anus-face for being so matter-of-fact about it, but I don't wanna see anyone lose their legs or tear the back off their engine block. It's that serious.

I mainly posted this to offer somewhat of an apology to him, but also to make the note to everyone out there, that if someone has built you an engine and bolted a cast iron flywheel on it, you are at risk.