Farm Equipment - Steel flywheels?

Steel flywheels?

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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
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URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52632
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Topic: Steel flywheels?

Posted By: ALLISMAN32
Subject: Steel flywheels?
Date Posted: 25 Jun 2012 at 10:27pm

Just curious for a answer from some of the veteran pullers on here. If one wants to use a steel flywheel on their 226 4cyl engine is there a flywheel from an automotive application that will work or is an individual looking at machining one from a blank chunk of steel? If a automotive application is available what is it and what must be done to make it work correctly? Thanks in advance!!!

Replies:

Posted By: wi50
Date Posted: 26 Jun 2012 at 11:04am

What chassis are you planning to use? A D-17 would be a little easier for a few reasons.

There's nothing automotive that is a bolt up fit. I have made a few billet steel flywheels for these 226 type engines, I machine a step in the flywheel so it fits tightly over the crankshaft flange, and I use studs to fasten it to the crank.

Positioning the ring gear is the big issue if useing a stock type starting system. A guy could make a flat flywheel and then put the ring gear on stands, or start the engine from the front pulley or direct drive aircraft starter.

I have made them with a step like a standard flywheel dimensions to place the clutch and pressure plate, ring gear all in original locations within the tractor so everything works as intended.

For my own tractor, I made a two disc clutch setup, but that's another story and was a fair bit of work.

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"see what happens when you have no practical experience doing something...... you end up playing with calculators and looking stupid on the internet"

Posted By: ALLISMAN32
Date Posted: 26 Jun 2012 at 10:21pm

The chassis is a wc. Maybe i dont even need a steel flywheel yet but was thinking to compete against some friends with much larger displacement olivers and an m farmall the poor wc will need to speed up or santa needs to follow through and place bigger sleeves, pistons, stroked crank under the tree this year. All the local pulls use slam sleds now where wheel speed seems to win out. There are a few mph classes but they start at 5 and go up from there. Seen pictures of flywheel failures and really dont want to hurt anyone trying to win 50 dollars and bragging rights. Never had a cast flywheel fail in a car after revving them pretty hard but there again it only takes one time and as i get older im trying to think wiser. Right now the engine runs around 2290 no load. Engine made something like 65 horse with the work my brother and i did on it in the past. Just finished making a header and custom intake for it , did some testing and tuning this past weekend and holy cow did that help a bunch. Have purchased a different cam that we need to install yet and assuming some engine speed would also work good with the cam. Thanks Marty , really enjoy seeing your projects!

Posted By: Dave in il
Date Posted: 27 Jun 2012 at 11:18pm

How about a transmission blanket?

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AGCO My Allis Gleaner Company

Posted By: Ken(MI)
Date Posted: 28 Jun 2012 at 7:58pm

The reason automotive flywheels don't fail is because all cast iron is not created equal, and automotive flywheels are not the 40,000 lb. garden variety cast that Allis used for theirs. A steel flywheel is cheap insurance if you are going to twist a 226 very tight, I've made quite a few, and just duplicated the original out of cheap 4000 series steel, I don't follow with the ring gear thing mentioned above, I made mine just like the cast version, only out of round stock, Not much of a project really, compared to boring, stroking, and head work.

Posted By: ALLISMAN32
Date Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 4:13pm

What do you get out of a flywheel Ken if you have any that are for sale? What kinda weight are you looking at for a steel flywheel that duplicates an original, would a heavier one be better for lugging torque when the going gets tough? At what point then should one think about updating to a steel wheel? In my mind 3000 rpm's is the point where one should seriously upgrade on one of the little AC engines but maybe im being too much of a worry wart.