by Terry Sayther
Clutch failure? Lemon Bummer?? Nope - a clutch failure is an oppotunity! How does a part failure become an opportunity? When you can make the car better or faster, of course. Walk with me now to the junkyard, land of obscure factory parts. We'll be searching for a 14 pound steel flywheel from a 1982 528e to replace the 27 lb unit in the e30 325i. And while we're at it, let's find a clutch disc from an e36 325i, because it too is lighter, since it has none of the spring hub crap in the middle or the e30 disc. And, of course, a used 325i pressure plate.
We had some trouble finding the flywheel in a mountain of others, but find it we did. Installation is a direct swap. The disc for the e36 has to be installed backwards for clearance (Big thanks to Logan Wilson at North Bay Bavarian for that idea) and all this drops the clutch and flywheel weight in half!
And that, boys and girls, makes the engine rev faster!
Results of flywheel experiment: It really does rev faster! It's a kick
in the butt!