do lightened engine parts = bhp
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi all I'm looking at buying a lightened duplex timing chain setup.

Now my friend is also buying 1 for his car which is a great big 30ltr v6 and he says it will give him approx 10bhp increase, so my question is what do you think i would get if anything.

Also what other parts can we save on weight to get bhp or is this all a mith lol

I doubt you'll see anything, i think its more to do with less rotating mass which gives a better throttle response, freer revving etc

No

Um ok but it would be a better engine overhall as you say better reving would make it better to drive

Not directly anyway, lightening your crank and con-rods may let you run more RPM and hence fit a wilder cam which may make your peak BHP higher. A timing gear will do virtually nothing.

Another thing to consider is that light components in your engine mean that less work needs to be done accelerating the engine components themselves and hence more work can go into accelerating the car. That doesn't mean your engine has more BHP tho. It just means its doing less work with the same energy.

<3 Physics

Ok so if i only ever fitted the lightened timing chain let say and nothing else the engine could rev smoother which lets be honest theres only maybe £15 between them so its worth it doing just for that

I would say you will see more or less exactly no difference but in principle yes it should help a little.

I lighten all parts of the car to an inch of their life and when you add it all up you have one hell of a difference.

As a single item it with make absolutely zero difference.

You can't make power by lightening things. Lighter rotating mass will allow the engine to accelerate faster, but when driving, the weight of the pulley is not really a significant part of what you're trying to accelerate.

If your mate gets even 1bhp I'll bum a fox!

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Ok guys thanks for your reponse I appreciate it alot

Cheers Tony

Same here mate made my day lol well put wil

Showing off again Will just because you live in the sticks, normal townies would say bum a dog,lol

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It wont increase power what so ever.

The heavier and bigger (Across diameter) rotating components are the more they store energy when being rotated. Resulting in less energy to chuck the car down the road.

Simply put the lighter the component and the smaller its diameter the better.

With small diameter items such as camshafts it doesn't really make much difference much the same as if they don't spin very fast.

This effect is relative to the gear you are in. The lower the gearing the more effect it will have. The higher you rev the more effect it will have.

Putting all this on a 3l v6 with gearing for say 70 in second at 6000 rpm its not going to make a difference.

Then consider that the cam gear is going to be rotating at what is it half engine speed. Its small in diameter and not too heavy to begin with anyway.

All in all, not going to really make a difference.

Flywheels on the other hand do make a difference. They are large diameter and fairly heavy. Its why race cars and motorbikes run small diameter multi plate clutches and flywheels.

If you want to read into this a little bit look up rotational dynamics. Take a closer look at moments of inertia.

The best place to loose weight on a car in this sense is flywheel -> wheels and brake disks.

Hi sam the flywheel is being lightened by a friend so all good there. I understand what you are saying and also how people remove as much waste steel as they can to make a difference I hadn't planned on going down this route but Im affraid the more I read the more questions I have and the engine build starts to change lol.

Thanks Tony

While looking around I found this site mini weights .Co. UK seems to list most engine part weights

Tony

Theres a topped thread on here
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=452099

Edited by Carlzilla on 27th Jan, 2015.

The biggest difference will be for the valve train itself. Less inertia should mean less load to stretch and wear the chain and sprockets. On the flip side the damping effect of a heavier pulley may be useful. The effect is going to be less than a straight weight comparison, as nothing will be removed from the circumference.