> > How many people are in the market for a flex plate?
> > Paul Lamar

all of us. - jofarr, soddy tn

Is your right foot included? :) Well that is one.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

*From:* hurrant karibian
    *To:* tracy crook <mailto:tcrook@rotaryaviation.com>
    *Sent:* Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:28 PM
    *Subject:* Flywheel

    Will an RX8 automatic flywheel [drive plate] and counterweight work with the PRSU
    I bought from you?

The counterweight will work fine but the only flywheel [drive plate] that works
without modification is the 1986 - 1991 RX-7 auto flywheel [drive plate].  When we get
time we plan to make an adapter plate that will allow use of the RX-8
flywheel [drive plate].

Tracy Crook

----------------------------------------

Hi Paul
sorry for asking dumb questions.
What do you mean with a flex plate?

Drive Plate , Flywheel or similar?

Kind regards
Thomas

---------------------------------------------------
There are no dumb questions. Back in my youth we used to
call these flex plates. Mazda decided to call them Drive Plates.
For the last seven years on here confusion reigned as people
were calling them all sorts of things such as flywheels.
Since there ARE flywheels on manual transmission engines
and Drive Plates on auto transmission engines you can imagine
the confusion. Especially when it came to the RX8 engines as there
initially was a big difference in the normally aspirated engines power.
The low power, auto transmission engines had four ports and the
high power engines had six ports. That really confused the heck
out of some people as it used to be the other way around.
A four port engine would generate more power than a six port engine.

Well Mazda threw us a curve and the new six port RX8 engines had
more port area than the old four port RX7 engines. Hence more
power. The bigger the ports, the less pumping losses and the more
the power. In 2007 Mazda finally did away with the four port engine
and now all RX8 engines are six ports. The power still varies however
but it is varied by other means such as intake manifold configuration.
People would buy high power, six port, manual transmission, RX8
engines and suddenly realize they needed to spend another $400 or
$500 on Drive Plates and counter weights so they could bolt up Tracy's
psru. All is not lost however. If you have a low power, four port RX8
engine with drive plate and counter weight you can get gobs of HP out
of it if you convert to a p-port. No need to spend $400 to $500
for a drive plate and counter weight.

There is lots of confusion about this so I looked up the proper
nomenclature. Page K-156 1994 Mazda RX7 workshop manual this
device is called a "Drive Plate" and not a flywheel.
Chapter K is the automatic transmission chapter.

In chapters H & J in the manual transmission chapters page H-18,
J-12 and elsewhere it is referred to as a flywheel.

In the Mazda RX7 1986 to 1991 Haynes Repair Manual page 190 it
is also referred to as the driveplate.

So regardless of what Tracy calls it, we will, in the future,
refer to it by it's right name which is Drive Plate.

The reason this is important is there is a huge difference in the
weight of the drive plate and the flywheel. The drive plate
is much lighter and the Drive Plate is the only part that works with
Tracy's psru. The flywheel does not work.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

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