I dont have a large budget so I most likley will not be balancing the whole rotating assembly like the guys said before I would be concerned about the flywheel. Everyone and their momma knows that resurfacing the flywheel when replacing the clutch is the best thing to do to prolong the life of the clutch disc itself. As far as if goes since the rules have not been written in black and white regarding the clutch and flywheel I would imagine that resurfacing to prolong clutch life would be justified and if anyone wanted to protest it then the flywheel be removed and weighed to show no signifigant weight savings. Just to play it safe ill run the stock flywheel that has been resurfaced and what ever clutch kit I want as long as its the stock diameter.
Flywheel
I did some reading on balancing today. Apparently straight 6’s are pretty well balanced by their very nature. Therefore dynamic balancing for us is more of a “nice to do” instead of a “need to do”.
The articles I read said that if you just make sure that the rods and pistons are of similar weight, you’ve got a 90% solution. In all the engine madness I went thru this year, I didn’t even consider dynamic balancing. I was doing everything the first time and operating off of the sum of all of the questions I asked and suggestions I rec’d. And no one said "Scott, be sure to get your motor dynamically balanced. It’s unlikely there’s a shop this side of Atlanta that can even do it.
Scott, We were afraid if we suggested this, you would have put the rods on a bathroom scale?
Just for reference, I have 2 flywheels. I happened to be somewhere with them where it was convenient to weigh them.
Flywheel A: 18.375 lbs
Flywheel B: 18.6 lbs
in general our rules allow for BMW-prescribed maintenance procedures to be done on the parts. So, if the BMW service manual says the flywheel can be resurfaced and states the minimum thickness allowed (the specifications) then I would say that resurfacing is ok. Just my $0.02.
Also, it is very hard to keep up with threads and discern requests for rules changes, so if you have a suggested rule change please email it directly to Carter with your suggested change and how it will benefit the whole specE30 community (there is a Contacts link on the left panel).
cheers,
bruce
Bruce, thanks for the appropriate response. This should be the ending to another chapter of “as the spec turns.”
Regards, Robert Patton