I just stripped the 2nd gear teeth in my WRX tranny yesterday, so I've got alot of options here...

First off I thought I'd go with the RA gears, aftermarket clutch, and flywheel, but now I'm not sure I want to shell out that much dough on my car.

So my other choice would be is to go with a stock tranny and retain the stock clutch. I either want to lighten the flywheel or install a lightweight pulley. So my real dilemma is, is it more worth it to spend $250+ on a lightened flywheel, or should I keep my stock one and later on down the road just put on a lightweight pulley for $100 or so? Which is going to be more noticable and better in the long run? I'm open to suggestions of any sort (what would you do and why, and if you have either of these, any noticable problems?) I will not lighten both of these, only because I have heard of problems with lightening too much.
Thanks,
Smitty

 

Hmmm...21 veiws and no responses? Anybody...? Moderators?

 

You would notice the flywheel way more than the pulley.

 

Do you think it's worth 100 or 200 more dollars?

 

What year is your car? If it's a 2003+, RA gears are a waste of money unless you like the ratios. 2003+ Subaru WRXs come with RA width 1-3rd gears, so RA gears are a waste. Getting a lightweight flywheel will probably make you throw a missfire CEL, plus if you drag race, it will ruin your launch. Pulleys are fine, but it isn't something you will really feel.

 

Really? so the 03 + tranny is stronger than the 02? is the 02 the only one with the weak tranny?

 

For the flywheel, yes.

 

My car is an 03. So are you saying that the 2003 and up have the same ratios as the RA AND they are strengthened or that they just have the same ratios? I'm not buying them for the ratios just the hardened gears, that's all. Please let me know asap because I was going to order them today and I must pay for them. If what you say is true I will order another tranny like mine. I understand that if I go with too light of a flywheel (under 10 lbs.) I may misfire and throw a cel, that's why I'd probably stay in the 13 lb. range.

Ericdare, I think I'm going with a lightened flywheel. Thank you for your help!

 

https://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97430

Here is a thread about the flywheel and how much of a difference it makes.

 

The 02 and 03 ratios are the same. The 03+, 1/2/3 gears are RA width though. This is more than likely in response to the stripped gears of the 02s, the most common gears stripped being 1/2/3. Most aftermarket sets have better ratios and are cryo treated. While I don't want to go into the whole cryo issue, lets just say that cryo treating of gears has ZERO evidence of doing poop to gears. Other methods such as heat treating or shot peening have quantitative positive aspects. Cryo gears are listed as "better" or "tougher", whereas a shot peened set can be listed as 20% tougher than OEM.

I recently found out about the RA width gears through a highly respected transmission retailer. This was further confirmed through Rallispec's site: http://www.rallispec.com/Transmission%20chart.htm

Sadly, RA gearset retailers are trying to keep this on the downlow or are ignorant.

Even if you get a "heavy" lightweight flywheel of say 13-14 pounds, you may still throw a CEL, so don't buy one unless you can live with a CEL as the 14# flywheel that works fine in Bob's car, may be CEL city in your car.

These other articles I wrote may be of assistance:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=665334
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?p=9878792

 

i did both.

 

Thank you for the link, Unibomber. Very good info indeed in there! Ride5000, you did both the lightened pulley and flywheel? What's your setup? And you haven't had any problemos?

 

silver, check my www link in the profile. so far no problems.

BUT

i have a utec, and i use flat foot shifting regularly. as a result i ALWAYS get misfire codes, so i have turned off the CEL in the utec parameters.

so i can't tell you for sure i've never gotten a misfire code due to the flywheel and pulley.

ken

 

Hmm that sounds pretty sketchy, Ride. Isn't it bad for your car to keep misfiring like that? I mean, aren't the long term affects pretty bad?

 

actually, no.

you wouldn't want real misfires in a cat-equipped car, since it dumps raw fuel into the exhaust, which is very hard on them.

misfires due to launch control OR a too-light flywheel/pulley combo are NOT real misfires. they are just intepreted as such by the ecu.

hth
ken