Well, I should know something some time... The McLeod FW's AndyF mentioned were the ones I was thinking about, and I went ahead and got one. That solves the "problem" I had deciding which way to go with my 5-speed conversion, and gives me an SFI FW as well.

JCC, my car sounds a lot like yours. 3.23's out back, and 26" tall tires, FWIW. Do you have the 3.09 gears in your trans? The situation you're describing is the one I hope to avoid. Smaller engines need more inertia in the FW to get the car moving easily, and it seems like the 340 keeps getting lumped in to the "smaller" engine category. Even knowing what I know about my engine, I worry some about how it will behave, but it's not a weak engine at all. All my experience to date is with cast iron ~30# OEM flywheels, but I've always thought I could live with something lighter. I just wasn't sure if I'd want to cut that weight in half on a daily basis. Knowing that it's NOT on a daily basis made pulling the trigger a bit easier. Knowing that 1st gear is a good bit lower helped, too.

Having driven my car with a close-ratio 833 with a 2.45:1 first gear before, it's a booger to launch even with 3.23:1 cogs out back. I may ultimately end up with 3.55's in back depending on how the OD and autoX shift points play out, so I really don't think the light flywheel will be a big issue. At least I'm more comfortable than I was...

Would still be happy to hear about any other experience out there, though.

Clair