I'm putting a new flywheel on my 1975 240d; will I have to balance-match the new flywheel to the old one? I have heard that the OM616 series engines are not balanced with the flywheel and so swapping flywheels will not screw up the engine's balance, but I want to make sure before putting the whole thing back together...

Goose,

This thread has popped up before. Someone here didn't want to spend the money and just slapped the flywheel on. They said there was no vibration. All I know is that the OM616 motor manual says the whole crank is balanced as a unit. According to the book the new flywheel has to be match balanced to the old one.

Peter

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For all of those interested, I removed the flywheels from both engines (I was putting an engine originally from an automatic car into a car with a manual tranny) and checked the balance on both of them. Both flywheels were indeed balanced neutrally. I finished putting the engine in yesterday and drove the car. There is not any vibration that I can sense. The fact that both flywheels were balanced neutrally may be good fortune on my part, but I guess there's no way of knowing for sure.

Goose,

Thank you very much for your input. I am faced with the very same situation. I am putting an auto in a stick shift car. The MB manual for the OM616 car states that you must match balance the flywheels. You are the second person to have done it without balancing anything. Does this coincide with the term"fly up" from a sci fi movie? Are we being duped by MB?

Peter

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