Flywheel spacer thing

[rotarievtec]

This may be a dumb question but i searched and found very little info on it. I got my clutch and flywheel put on today and i looked down and this little fucker was sittin right there on the ground. I was wondering what it's purpose is and do i need it. Im running m50 nv and stock i m20 flywheel shaved for clearance with a g260 if that helps. TIA.

[rThor432]

It goes between the bolt heads and flywheel. It isn't designed to be a spacer but rather evenly distributes the torque of the bolts. I am not sure how 'critical' it is to have this installed-- I've never installed a flywheel without one. I would think that it isn't a big deal on a steel flywheel (compared to the bigger deal that it would be with an aluminum flywheel).

[rotarievtec]

When i pulled it off it was between the flywheel and the end of the crank not between the bolts and the flywheel.
The info i have found on it is the typical i know this guy who has a brother who's sister's dog type of stuff or it's 50/50 whether people are running it or not.
I remember reading somewhere that you need to use it with an aluminum flywheel but didnt say anything about a stock i steel flywheel.

[rThor432]

Yeah, it shouldn't have been between the crank and flywheel-- [in case you didn't notice] you can tell by the 8 shiny circles where the bolt heads were once spun against it.

Personally, on my car, I probably wouldn't worry about it at this point. But that's me. If it is a steel flywheel and the torque is right I couldn't imagine it giving you a problem.

[drulle]

don't sweat it... it should be fine as long as you torqued and used locktite on flywheel bolts

[jrdeamicis]

Put it back in.

[Jand3rson]

It goes between the bolt heads and flywheel. It isn't designed to be a spacer but rather evenly distributes the torque of the bolts.

This. Put it back in. It's there for a reason, and a DAMN good one. This is your flywheel you're talking about. One of the most critical areas on your car where you're going to want to make sure that the proper parts and torque specs are used.

[browntown]

There is a lot of unnecessary crap in an e30. I can't tell you one way or the other but my instinct is that it is not necessary if you were able to torque the bolts up to their specs.

[rotarievtec]

They were torqued to spec and red loctite was used.

[rThor432]

^^I don't mean to bug you about it, but for future reference you should use green loctite on the flywheel bolts. I usually recommend new flywheel bolts (which come with proper threadlock on the bolts), but I've reused them for my cars before. The purpose of loctite in this situation is to keep oil from potentially escaping the crank case past the bolt threads. Red is pretty hard-core for those.

[Matt-B]

put it back in, i went to the trouble of getting a new 1, just in case

and bolts come with a sealer ya

[graphikg]

I didnt put it on my flywheel, but mine is the upgraded 13 pound one from the F1 racing gripforce company. I called them and they said I didnt need it. But it did come off of my shaved m20 flywheel originally. I cant say to take it off or put it on; but knowing me, I would be thinking about it everytime I get in my car that it is not on there, and I hate those types of thoughts.

[jrdeamicis]

Loctite red? Maybe you are going to live without it :)

[rpob5t]

From my understanding its just a gaul plate to keep the bolts from roughing up the flywheel, and of course you can think of it also as a large continuous washer to spread the load on the flywheel. I inadvertently left mine off (had the car on the ground) when I replaced a broken trans. Everything was loctited and torqued to spec, I ran it for years with no issue (my car is primarily an auto-x and track toy so it definitely gets driven hard most of the time) and replaced it the next time I had the trans out (for my M52 swap).

As others said it is there for a reason and Ideally you should probably have it in there, but provided that you have everything torqued and installed properly you should be fine until you can address it properly.

[cmybimmer]

I swapped in a 5-spd on my buddies e36 vert and when we put that spacer on top of the flywheel, the bolts would only thread about 2-3 threads and we didnt feel comfortable with that... We ended up tossing the spacer and bolting the flywheel the way it was. Runs fine with no problem.