Where can I get a flywheel made?

[Alister]

My son and I (in a moment of madness) bought a RX8 with a duff engine. The original intention was to rebuild the engine and put it back on the road, unfortunately the engine is worse than we thought. We knew we were in trouble when we took out a spark plug and found metal filings in the hole. :-(
So after stripping the engine it looks like one of the apex seals went bang taking out the rotor, rotor housing, front plate and centre plate.
With so much damage it is going to be silly money to rebuild (over £1500) the rotary engine and will still have all the issues of a rotary, such as thirsty, no torque but worst of all not suitable for short journeys to the shops and back so not very practical.
Sooo
We are replacing the engine with a VAG 1.8T. Initially standard but eventually it will be tuned up to 250hp. I know about most of the issues doing this conversion and have sourced bits to resolve them, now we are looking for someone who can make us a flywheel to allow us to match up the 1.8T to the RX8 gearbox.
Anybody out there know of an engineering works able to do such a job?

Cheers all
Alister

 

[rtbcomp]

There was a firm called Milner Conversions that did this sort of thing for 4 x 4 s, IIRC they are/were based in Buxton or Matlock.

 

[hillman]

Try,
http://ttvracing.com/

 

[bc30se]

as it is a Turbo Flywheel, don't change the weight of it...

 

[hooblah]

Turbo or not makes no difference. 1.8t's came with dual mass flywheels and many people put lightweight single mass flywheels on. Never heard anything bad about them.

 

[Fazerruss]

Why do you need a flywheel making? Can't you just use the standard vag flywheel and pressure plate then get a friction plate to match the splines on the first motion shaft of the rx8 gearbox?

 

[MattF]

There was a firm called Milner Conversions that did this sort of thing for 4 x 4 s, IIRC they are/were based in Buxton or Matlock.

Were/are they part of, or same as, Milner Offroad? They're based in Matlock and do parts/spares for the import 4x4's.

 

[captain-destructo]

i know someone thats in the middle of something similar
only they are putting a peugot diesel in
and knowing him it will proberbly run on veg oil!!!!

 

[Henrik]

Sounds like an interesting project.

I like the look of the RX8's myself, and they are supposed to handle alright, but with the engine issues I'll never buy one.

Would have one as a project car, though... Would be interesting to drop a hayabusa engine or similar in (mated to original gearbox, perhaps).

 

[Alister]

Thanks for the replies guys
To be honest I am only going by what my son says at the minute and he thinks we need a flywheel. We're planning to get the gearbox out of the RX8 at the weekend and take it from there. We actually bought a MOT failure Audi A3 1.8T just for the engine but it meant we could get the full loom and ECU at the same time, and we were also able to label all the connectors while removing it. Will probably hold on to the rest of the car until we're certain we don't need anything more but the engine is out now.
Had a quick look at http://ttvracing.com/ and they look like they could help and will try Milner as well.
There are a few threads on the internet where others have tried this but not many end up with a working car which either means they didn't succeed or they didn't bother to update the thread at the end. Either way it ain't easy, mating the gearbox is only the first of several big obstacles, cutting and welding the bulkhead to allow the engine to fit, fabricating engine mounts and sorting the CANBUS wiring are the other biggies.
Not sure I fancy a Disesel in an RX8 and a Hayabusa would probably struggle with the weight. I was passed by one on a track day once but it was in a small kit car, went past me like I was stopped though.

 

[Wedg1e]

Not sure I fancy a Disesel in an RX8 and a Hayabusa would probably struggle with the weight. I was passed by one on a track day once but it was in a small kit car, went past me like I was stopped though.

A couple of hundred horsepower is a couple of hundred horsepower, just depends how hard you enjoy revving engines to extract it

 

[agrimog]

in the real world, horsepower doesnt make cars go fast.....its torque that does it, hp is a figure derived from the torque produced at certain rpm's

 

[Henrik]

Agrimog, there's this new dangled thing called a "gearbox" on the market now

 

[ibrooks]

That's one of the things that I'm wondering about. What sort of revs would the rotary lump have been doing to move the RX8 at 70mph? Unless you change something in the drivetrain then whatever engine you fit is going to need to do the same RPM.

Someone fell foul of this when putting a Ford V6 into an MX5. All seemed to be going fine until they went for a road test and found that with the engine screaming it would only do about 60mph - it got there quick though.

Iain

 

[normspanners]

MX5. arnt rotors btw and mx5 as standard dont rev that high ??
A guy I know specializes in rotories I can put you in touch he builds rally engines
he knows them inside out.
I would do away with the DMF fit aSMF and just convert the clutch.

 

[MattF]

Someone fell foul of this when putting a Ford V6 into an MX5. All seemed to be going fine until they went for a road test and found that with the engine screaming it would only do about 60mph - it got there quick though.

That must've been a guttingly disappointing test run for someone. One of those simple oversights which has such a drastic effect. You can fair feel for them.

 

[MoreWellie]

two things

1. make sure the rx8 engine and vag engine rotate in the same direction. I knew someone put another engine in a Honda S800, finished the conversion, started it and found he had 4 reverse gears and one forward

2. sometimes you get lucky, we have just mated a Lexus V8 to a land rover gearbox and found the PCD centres were on the same spacing so we were able to have a land rover flywheel machined to take the lexus starter ring and do it that way

 

[rory1]

morewellie - would that be the lexus 4.0 1UZ to a landrover gearbox? if so id like some more info if you have it. ive been looking at this for my comp safari racer PM me if you like rather than clutter up this thread.

rory

 

[garethp]

MX5. arnt rotors btw and mx5 as standard dont rev that high ??
A guy I know specializes in rotories I can put you in touch he builds rally engines
he knows them inside out.
I would do away with the DMF fit aSMF and just convert the clutch.

I used to have an MX5 and seem to remember the red line/limiter was 7250rpm which isn't that high

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Running at 250hp you'll probably be better with an aftermarket clutch anyway so i'd be inclined to contact a maker of such an item and ask that the centre spline is made to suit the mazda gb spline.

Dan