Well no, there's a pretty clear cut distinction between when ally becomes a poor choice. SMIC vs FMIC debate is a bit different. For a car involved in any motorsport, especially drag, an alloy shaft will weaken and twist in a short time. A steel driveshaft is a MUCH better compromise for weight vs strength. If your answer here is "I don't plan to do any track work, it's just for the street" Then why chase for an ally shaft? Steel driveshafts can easily be made locally, and will last for ever, and should be cheaper. A well made ally shaft that will last should be more expensive.
I agree only about your premise that if track work is involved the the debate becomes a little bit more clear cut. For street use I still believe both SMIC & FMIC debate is somewhat comparable to Steel & Ally. I know Ally gets a bad rep but from talking to mates that have run them, they never had any negative feedback about them. Maybe it was an earlier generation, who knows. Its a matter of preference to me, as long as its Street use. I would be completely fine and actually prefer Ally, but I wouldn't feel comfortable take that same Ally shaft mated up to a high horse build that sees plenty of track time though. Only my opinion expressed here. I'm not looking to argue. MoulaZX
Your right, I guess it won't really matter for a regular streeter. Although I'd just go for a replacement bearing in that case, $90 and your away. I've twisted 2 ally driveshafts on a 2str. The second was the replacement under warranty Granted though, had some healthy HP numbers there...I also snapped a conrod on that motor. Moved back to steal after that as CF was too pricey, but in hindsight that was a good move.
My car is a tt 2 seater manual. It mainly see's street duties but gets on the track occasionally. I like the idea of the weight savings of the Ally shafts but will steel be better? Im not chasing huge horespower from my engine but i am aiming for around 250kw when i finnish with it. Carbon is just too pricey and i dont like some of the stories posted about them on this forum. I know steel is still much lighter than stock but i want to know if anyone has a car similar to mine and its use that has an Ally one with no dramas?
Well for off the shelf driveshafts, price won't be any different, the ally will be lighter, and 250rwkw should be ok for ally. It comes down to you, people will come on with good reviews, and I've given my bad review.
I'm pushing 230RWKW and its running as I said before an Aluminium Shaft. I definitely loved how much more lighter it felt on take off from a stand still on a slightly inclined road. With the factory two-piece shaft that was on before, going Ally made a huge difference to me. I will not comment on Steel, never run a One-Piece Steel shaft. From memory the Ally shaft was stupidly light (If I was to venture a guess about 5-7kg maybe compared to about 18-20kg for the factory two piece), I picked up the box when it was delivered and immediately thought 'shit, did they forget to even pack the thing before taping this box up?' I only had very minor fitment issues with was solved quickly, if not for the fitment issues would have taken all up about 30-60 minutes to change the old one and put the new one in, easy solo job. Just be careful not to drop the thing on yourself lol. MoulaZX
Well I will find out. I have an alloy shaft here for the race car. I expect 350+ RWKW when its finished. So if its going to twist IT WILL.
So basically its going to go something like this right...? | | | V :br: | | *CRACK! THUNK, THUNK, Thunk, Thunk...* | V | | | V | | | V :help: Sorry, lol. I just pictured all of that soon as you said "IT WILL". Let us know how it goes. MoulaZX
In the black zed, about 380rwkw. The first one twisted launching at the drags with MT's The second one twisted when I dropped down a gear to overtake on the street, both full noise launches, and I always run very good tyres. And they won't snap, they twist. All I noticed was a really weird vibration after the launch, and on visual inspection they were clearly twisted...not as bad as those red liquorish things...but yeah, you get the idea.
Well THERES your problem... lol. <--- 230RWKW And I was under the impression they tend to 'break' at the join between the Aluminium shaft itself and the end pieces which are Steel. MoulaZX
I had a customer with 400Kw launch control, traction control, twin plate clutch and 175 semi slicks, the ally shaft did not live long in that car. Remove ally shaft and sell it to a lower powered Zedder then fit a High tensile steel one to yours = many happy miles and skids To balance it out I was running ~300Kw and did literally hundreds of drag racing runs and burnout displays, a bit of track work with zero issues on an ally shaft. Removed it and fitted a steel one once power levels went up towards 350 kw, still tempted to put it back in though.
So there you go, you should be fine if you don't run semis or slicks lol. If the tyres don't spin, there's nowhere else for the power to go and the alloy shaft would be the weakest link...
Mark Williams makes tailshafts for most applications including Prostockers ,and a lot of them use Alloy shafts . Important to use the right grades /sizes for your apps.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op2EwWESFB8&feature=related http://www.markwilliams.com/driveshafts.aspx
Fact, I don't think the off the shelf ones are strong enough...either that or I just got a shit batch with my 2
