Resurfacing a flywheel (1994)?

[Rusty]

Has anyone resurfaced their stock flywheel? If so, has it been successful or have you had problems with it?

First, I know that the stock flywheels on the ZR-1's are not supposed to be resurfaced (says so in big, capital letters in the service manual). However, I've been in touch with Jim at Powertorque Systems who said that he has a pretty successful resurfacing procedure for less than $100. Based on my communication with Jim so far about clutch parts for my '94 ZR-1, and great recommendations from this forum, I'm inclined to put some faith in that statement. On the other hand, the shop I spoke with that may do the installation on my new clutch parts from Jim said, very emphatically, that the flywheels should never be resurfaced and that I'm setting myself up for failure and expense if I try to do it.

So now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not keen on spending $1,500 for a new flywheel if I could spend less and get my original one resurfaced, but I also don't want to do something I'm going to regret just to save some money in the short-term. For reference, the car has about 90,000 miles on it. I don't drive it very hard in general, but I suspect that several of the previous owners were far less gentle with it.

[CosbySweater]

I would honestly cruise eBay for a spec flywheel or fidanza, and a better clutch and pp setup, it will help that motor spin up faster while still being daily drive able, got the spec for my current lt5 project car for 200 bucks brand new, also get the flywheel and pp balanced as a unit, and with the insert type flywheels no need to resurface them ever, just buy a new insert

[scottfab]

I didn't "resurface" but did rough up the surface with with a block and sandpaper. I just started the engine and pressed it against the surface.
That was 13yrs and 40,000 miles ago. All is still fine.
Of course too my flywheel had no deep scratches in it.

[Paul Workman]

I didn't "resurface" but did rough up the surface with with a block and sandpaper. I just started the engine and pressed it against the surface.
That was 13yrs and 40,000 miles ago. All is still fine.
Of course too my flywheel had no deep scratches in it.

Dittos on the sanding, if not too badly grooved or burnt. Pete suggested to me to using a piece of wood, long enough to reach across the FW, wrapped with some emery cloth to re-surface the FW. Otherwise, my personal recommendation would be to consider the Fidanza approach; a very nice "seat of the pants" aluminum FW with replaceable friction plates. (I love mine!).

Options.... And, if you do the work yourself, $$ ahead too!

[RHanselman]

I resurfaced the stock unit on my twin turbo. Works just fine and I'm 620/575 rwhp/tq.

[LGAFF]

I think power torrque systems refinishes them

[Marc Haibeck]

A new dual mass flywheel from GM has approximately .010 inch dish. It’s lower in the center than on the OD. I don’t know why it is finished that way. A worn flywheel might have .025 inch of dish. Also, the top half is floating on a bearing. If it were to be machined, a tool is needed to hold the top not the bottom. Maybe GM thought that it could not be machined correctly and to keep it simple they recommended not trying it.

Years ago I noticed that Lingenfelter Performance was machining them flat and they worked perfectly. So I started doing it. We have done about four of them and there have been no issues. You can have Jim do it.

[Pete]

I also resurfaced 3 flywheels no issues.
Took them to a machinist.

There you have it,total of 7 resurfaced with no issues.


Pete

[Rusty]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! I'm happy to hear that people who've had the flywheels resurfaced have been happy with the results. I'll plan to go ahead and have Jim at Powertorque Systems do the resurfacing for me. Even shipping it to him from Canada and having it shipped back will be lots less than buying a new one.