ChrisFormula355

Well yeah, so I got bored tonight,and decided to put my new digital scale to use. I managed to rip another 44.5 pounds out of the car. Today's weight reduction includes the rear carpet and padding, the wiper blades (motor is long gone), the hatch struts (I have no spoiler so I don't need struts), the horns, and some miscellaneous wiring along with the alarm system that no longer works. Last time at the track I got 2,970, so I figure I'm right about 2,930 or so right now. Need to lose another 50 pounds to get into the 2,800s. Any ideas? This is pretty much a track only car that sees street duty only for late night racing or weekend joy rides to work. I was thinking of removing the rear bumper and replacing with a small aluminum beam, but I'm concerned about traction. The car already has no traction, weight loss needs to come from the front, not the back any more. Engine is already setup with aluminum heads, intake, pump, ect..ect....

I had this idea......can I run the power steering box without the pump?? I have 165R15 skinnies up front so I don't think it would be an issue with manual steering......that could be another 20 or so pounds I could remove.

(BR)G-Machine

There is a post up now with the aluminum bumpers in here.... if it is only track duty you cold emiminate it all together. If you crashed or got rear ended you bodywork would get toasted, but if you crashing on the track maybe bodywork is not you biggest problem.

Maybe it is really dangerous, but I dont think a steel egg crate is going to mean life or death. Not sure here.

MrDude_1

im assuming the back seat is out.... did you remove the seatbelts?

theres always the front and back bumpers. athough you may want to fab some kind of support for the nose afterward.

passenger seat is kinda heavy. esp if you have leather.


what about a fiberglass hood?

btw, dont worry about weight loss.... just do more weight transfer off the launch. its better to weigh less and transfer more, then it is to weigh more and transfer less.

what about a tubular Kmember and A arms?




then again, a LS1 would take almost 100lbs off the nose....

Synapsis

He doesn't have leather seats and he already has a fiberglass hood.

Chris, if you're going as far as removing wiper blades for weight, I can already see stuff to remove in that picture. How about the vent grills on the firewall under the windshield? The plastic wheelwells? Do your side mirrors actually work, if not.. take em off! Put a manual steering box in it (if it doesn't leak I can use the old one. )

You'd be in 2800's easy with a lexan hatch window.

MrDude_1

a smaller catch can wouldnt hurt.... (water is heavy)

take out the entire dash... remove the heater/blower duct assembly, extra wires, basicly everything under there besides the gauges and ignition.then either put the stripped shell over it, or leave it out.

pull up the carpeting, and lay down some of that "lightweight" carpet in its place....

umm, start cutting away extra metal... like where the speakers mount in the sail panel, ect.

call PA racing or ProFab.. one of them will sell ya a Kmember for $250 + shipping.

Intensity_Z

i'e been on the weight reduction quest also, i found that gutting the dash drops 20 pounds, harwood makes fiberglass doors for plexi or lexan manual crank windows that'll drop almost 50 lbs, they also make fiberglass fenders,front bumper support and rear bumper supports, assuming you relocated your battery you can cut out the battery tray , fender wells, pa racing k-member with a-arms, skinnier fronts, and anythign aluminum you can put on your engine instead of cast iron or steel

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

yeah, go with a s-10 manual steering box. Then you can get rid of the pump. Should get you close.

Also, how much gas was in the tank when you weighed at the track? Maybe put in a fuel cell and get rid of the heavy stock tank.

ME Leigh

What do you have for exhaust. You can save alot of weight, reducing its length. Also run a light muffler. What about your torque arm, replace it with a tubular piece.

ChrisFormula355

Exhuast is not getting touched...I just spent a SIGNIFICANT amount of money getting it custom fabricated not too long ago. I know its heavy, but it makes serious power. Its hooker super comps with TRUE 3inch duals with an X pipe behind the crossmember and 2 3inch magnaflow stainless mufflers.

And yes, I have a fiber glass hood, I have no pop up headlights (replaced them with "driving" lamps), front carpet is still in place, but dash pad is gone (replaced it with a gray dash carpet cover), torque arm is stock, gas tank is stock, and the battery hasn't been relocated yet.


here's another idea I had.....I need to pull my tank anyways to remove the stock in-tank electric pump (I have a holley blue pump mounted inline), so I was thinking about getting an LS1 plastic tank..could this work?Would I shave weight?

I don't want to go to a S-10 box because I heard its way too many turns lock to lock and that would get scary at the track. Couldn't I just run my power steering box lines together and take the pump off?

heres what the interior looks like right now. I'd actually like to ditch the entire dash, but I still need the fuel level guage, the oil pressure guage, and the dash lights for them.

ChrisFormula355

Hrmm, I just went down and read that.........me thinks Synapsis needs to have a first welding project with aluminum tubing and put that big expensive welder to use........

I just found this in an older thread...I think this is what my next project is going to be this week:




yet another idea i just had.....what about the electric hatch pull down....is it easy to swap for a manual lock mechanism? Does it save any weight?

jtmiller92

iTrader: (42)

You can go to a full pin on hood and get rid of the hinges and front hood struts.

Rage13

you can pull the dash and still have gauges

and pull everything else for that matter.. if its not needed to run, its gone

1984z28irocz

if you dont care about street legal, im sure the exaust pipes wiegh about 200, rear seats arent really needed,get a fuel cell instead of the tank, (dont weld off the tank!), dont need door panels, you could jerry rig those up. yes? no?

CaptPicardsZ28

Here's some ideas for ya Chris... http://www.hardtail.com/techtips/weight.html
Got them from Hardtail Racing web site. One of the TGO members here runs it. I believe he hangs out in the organized drag racing forum.

MrDude_1

the LS1 tank, while it weighs less, it holds more.. and the weight diff is VERY slight... maybe half a pound. you would have to run more gas for the same fuel height, increasing weight.

for the power steering delete, just disconnect the hoses block off the ports on the box, and remove the pump. on a surp belt system, you can go from the alt to the waterpump to the crank, totally bypassing the pump... all without slippage.

a idea for a street/strip car is to run a shorter belt and just bypass it at the track.

as for relocating the batt... sure it helps WHERE the weight is, but it ends up weighing MORE.... pickup the long heavy duty cable needed to run up to the starter from the back of the car..... its not light.

KAOSRacing

You will loose a little weight, less than 3.5 pounds, getting rid of the electric hatch pull down but the manual setup is not a bolt in swap.

Take a look at the bottom of http://www.teamkaos.org/racing/pics....&area=interior to get an idea of what I did to replace electric with manual. Note that I did keep the remote hatch release.

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

Just blocking off the line and removing the pump will be worse than the s-10 box. I though about doing it, an talked to some guys here at thirdgen about it. The manual s-10 box is ok for the track, just not as friendly on the highway as PS. You should have no trouble with the s-10 box at the track.

Synapsis

What does he care what his fuel height is except for fuel gauge readings?


People relocate the battery to the rear to put more weight over the rear wheels for traction. Sure the cable weighs a bit, but hooking up a little more weight is better than spinning a little less.

MrDude_1

you need some fuel in there to keep the pump submerged under launch.

so a wider tank would hold more for that same height

and the fuel weighs more then the weight loss from the tank.

therefore it wont help him lose weight.


edit:
i disagree... $35 spent on a "dynabatt" equiv battery would drop 15+lbs off the car and not add weight of the cable.

and if the weight of the batt was all that keeps you from spinning, you need to seriously look at your suspension/chassis setup. or your tires.



edit2:
btw, the fuel gauge is a percentage, so it wouldnt throw off the gauge anyway.

deadbird

ChrisFormula355

hahah, yeah, deadbird has the right idea I'll have no in-tank pump, I'm pulling my stock tank to get RID of the factory electric. My holley blue pump is MORE than sufficient in delivering the needed fuel pressure to the 870 HP double pumper.

MrDude_1

cool.

then a smaller custom fuel cell would work.

athough, i donno how you plan to stump the plastic fuel tank.. lol.

if you kept a swinging pickup inside the tank, you would still ahve the same prob with the fuel level..




anyhoo, i see more weight you can take off.... why do you have a clutch pedal with a auto ?

ChrisFormula355

Because T-5s suck nuts when your motor makes 400+HP I was tired of powerspinning through every gear and worrying about broken clutchs, shearing off gears, ect.......The Th350 is by far faster, got me my first 1.7 60 ft at the track, and lets not forget.....it cost's $400 to replace brand new (rebuilt, hah, brand new for me) from checker!

The reason I keep the clutch pedal in is because I don't have a nuetral safety switch, so when I go to the track and he asks me to start it in gear, I just take my foot off the clutch, haha.

MrDude_1

or you could spend $3 at radio shack for a microswitch, and then extend the clutch switch wires over to the shifter and wire one up.

then remove the dead pedal. its weight.

ChrisFormula355

yeah but see that requires thinking

ChrisFormula355

Ok, part 2 of my quest started today.................

Decided to go with some of the suggestions on here and I removed the plastic inner wheel wells, the plastic emissions ball underneath where the canister used to be, the hood grilles, and the antenaa assembly inside the fender well.....................................are you ready for this?? 4.0 pounds! hah. Well better than nothing.

I also removed the rear bumper cover and ATTEMPTED to remove the rear bumper in preperation for a modified tube bumper, but I couldn't get to the damn bolts with my dual 3inch exhaust!! argggggg. Oh well, I'll do it when the exhaust and transmission come out next week for the transmission job.

colonboy14

iTrader: (7)

I thought these cars weighed like 3,500 lbs stock. What have you done to lose all this weight?

MrDude_1

my car, a "heavier" convertible camaro, with leather seats, amps, tools in the trunk, and full everything weighs 3400lbs.

Synapsis

And my car, bone stock, weighed 3550. So what'd you do to yours?

ChrisFormula355

3,550 with you in it?? Ok whether or not that weight is with you or not...I have this question for people that do post it like that...why in the **** would you post weight specs of you+car? Unless you are made out of fiberglass or metal, you don't belong in the curb weight numbers.

CaptPicardsZ28

:werd:

Synapsis

That's without me in it, asshat. :P

That's including the spare, jack, A/C, etc....

onebinky

iTrader: (1)

I pulled the pump in my camaro. Just plan on VERY hard turns when your not moving, and yes, it still takes effort to turn even on the highway. After a little getting used to it, it's not to bad. My manual steering ranger feels like butter compared to this setup though.

I just removed the pump and lines, put 1.5" of line in each fitting and brazed them shut, put a couple oz's of fluid in the box so it has some lube, then installed the homemade plugs. It's been a year and about 5000 miles, and no issues yet.

But like the other guys said, if your going for weight reduction this isn't the way to go. the pump, lines, and cooler weigh probably only 10lbs. Most of the weight lies in the steering box itself. If you got the s-10 box, you could probably get at least twice that right off the front of your car. From what I was reading, articulation is a little less than stock but it HAS to be safer than what I'm running. I'm planning on converting as soon as a yard around here gets an s-10 that's not smashed in the front.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i bought a reman'd S10 manual box and it is definately like butter compared to running the power box with no pump hooked up. the car feels much better to drive at higher speeds as well. i'd recommend buying one for weight reduction.

onebinky

iTrader: (1)

Good to hear

Do you remember what you paid for the reman one? Did the thirdgen pitman arm work, or did you need to buy the S-10 one? What year box is it?

Thirdgen89GTA

iTrader: (5)

My GTA came in at 3,389lbs according to the factory invoice. But that was the "shipping weight" which is with about 3 gallons of gas if the article I read is to be believed.

According to an article from 84, when the cars left the plant GM filled up the PS, Coolant, Oil, Tranny fluid, and put 3.4 gallons of gas to go through testing, and allow the new owners to get to a gas station.

So If thats true then shipping weight should be full fluids + 3.4gallons of gas.



EDIT: Apparently I didn't include the shipping weight in that image. But the shipping weight was 3,389lbs. Which isn't bad for a fully loaded GTA.

Air_Adam

Do you have power windows? If so, dump them for cranks. I'd imaging that would drop a few pounds pretty fast.

(I just skimmed, so if its been said - )

Justins86bird

You basshead, take out those 2 18"s you have in the back. j/k

Put a notchback on

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

I think that most people will be suprised to find that cranks don't save any weight over power windows in these cars.

MrDude_1

however crank windows do make it impossible to roll the window down with the door shut if you have a roll bar.

Synapsis

Funny thing is, he found this out the hard way. In Chris' car, the driver's side is a manual crank and the passenger's side is power.

If he goes to a manual steering box it won't be as hard to move because he has skinnies on the front.

If his girlfriend drives it instead he'll lose an easy 50-60 pounds right out of the middle of the car.

MrDude_1

heh, i missed this question earlier...

it was dead stock, the only thing removed was the spare tire and jack... and in its place is a 10" sub box, sub, two amps and misc wiring. all together, probly weighing more then the jack and tire i took out.

with me in the car its 3615lbs. with me out its 3400 even. (guess how much i used to weigh )

ME Leigh

Do you know what the steering ratio is by chance. I'd go with a manual box for the weight reduction and simplicity, but i still want the quickest ratio i can get.

Leigh

pre

My car weighed 3340lbs without the MSD box, coil, Edelbrock Panhard rod. This includes AC and no real striping of the car.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

i paid whatever www.autozone.com charges in your area code for an 86 4cyl. S10 manual gear box. I reused the factory pitman arm and it worked out beautifully. You also get charged for a core if you don't have one, but this box did come with a lifetime warranty as well.

z28monster

iTrader: (1)

my titles says my car weighs 3116 pounds so take that guys lol... that an lb9 iro-c with just about power everytihng and ac....

Synapsis

The titles on all my cars say they weigh 0.

Fear me.

330hp_91RS

#1 Fiberglass hood if you don't already have one

#2 Fiberglass FENDERS

#3 If you don't want to remove the whole dash, take that dash pad off and get some thin galvinized sheet metal or aluminum or whatever it is and make a pad/cover. It'll look cool and that dash pad is really heavy if you have ever taken one off, (I'd say like 12-15 lbs easy.)

#4 make an aluminum bar in place of the front bumper if you have not done it already.

if you have not done any of the above ( i bet you have a fiberglass hood tho) then that will save you over 100lbs.

KAOSRacing

Have you ever weighed a factory fender? I weighed one from an 86 V6 car and it was 12 pounds. I know at least one company's glass fenders weigh 12 pounds each.

Fiberglass fenders should be way down the list for weight savings mods.

MrDude_1

yea, the fenders on these cars are stamped steel skins... not heavy at all.

the thinner cheap offshore stamped replacement fenders are even lighter then fiberglass and OEM... athough they dont always fit great.