so if iwent with a different flywheel maybe around 17 pounds instead of 9 pounds. do you think that would be a little better?

 

Well, I'm probably a bad person to ask, but here goes anyway.

From my perspective, unless you're going to be (off road/on track) racing your car a significant percentage of the time it is being driven, you should leave the flywheel alone; the cost and the labor will be a complete waste of time and money versus the (virtually) zero gain you'll see in performance and the accompanying loss of drivability and smoothness.

 

alright. well i wouldnt have any labor costs because i would do all the work with me and my dad. so thtall makes more sense to me. thank you. do you know if my engine is externally balanced or internally balanced?

 

I'm not absolutely sure about this but it's usually 4-cyl engines above 2.0L's that require internal balancing, and I'm pretty sure the 3i's do not have the balance shafts the 2.3's do. So I would have to say that your Protégé is externally balanced.

 

All engines are "externally balanced" to a degree (via the harmonic balancer and the natural damping affect due to weight of the flywheel); specific to the Mazda3 engines (at least those sold here in North America), the 2.0 liter does not have any internal balance shafts, while the 2.5 and 2.5 both do.

Edit: Oops! Just read Virgin1's post and remembered we're talking about a Protege here and not a Mazda3. With that in mind, it is quite certain that your engine is not equipped with internal balance shafts.

 

ok thanks alot guys. that helps me with my decision. not to be smart but do you work as en engineer for mazda? just wondering

 

No, formerly of Mercedes-Benz (North America) though.

 

i only ask because you seem to know your stuff about mazda. but thank you alot

 

You're welcome.

FWIW, even though I've never worked for Mazda, there are certain principles that apply to pretty much every engine type, and while I'm not fully "in the know" vis-à-vis all things Mazda, the discussion we've had here is pretty much universal for all 4-cylinder engines.