I have an 85 Camaro and I am looking to lose some weight in the front end. I was thinking about taking the front wheel wells out. While looking to see what it would involve, I came to realize that the Shock towers are part of the wells. Is there a way to get around this? Maybe a relocation or some sort of after market tower? This car is becoming a drag strip car only. Thanks ahead of time for the "pointing in the right direction"!

 

The weight dis. on our Camaros are 58/42 or about that, if I recall, so I don't blame you.

But all I can say is - aluminum engine parts.

I can't see much being reduced up front, besides the obvious - A/C delete, battery relocation to the trunk, etc. Why do you want to take out the wheel wells though? That seems really non-conducive to the car as a whole.

 

For a couple of reasons. The car will only be driven at the drag strip now. So the little bit of debris is not going to be an issue. So now they are just in the way and adding to the extra weight in the front. I searched and searched the internet last night to see if there was a kit or some forum where this had been done, but I am coming up with a big ZERO on both. Any help or advice would be great!

 

There is a pic somewhere on the boards of a car with exactly what you're talking about but it's a home fab not a kit. Essentially a big round tube is taken from the top of the firewall, forward and curving down to the front of the sub-frame rail. The top of the strut is then attached to the tube. Looks neat and light but lottso work. Sorry don't remember off hand where I saw it. Search search.

 

The best way was already stated, aluminum heads, or all aluminum lsx. You can go with all tubular k-member and suspension up front, if you havent already take out all the emission stuff, a/c, heat, washer fluid tank, aluminum front bumper support, fiberglass hood, remove power steering for s10 manual box, etc. All that would drop some serious weight off the front of your car. I'm sure there's some other stuff I'm missing.

 

In the Northern California Section. a member named 3rdbird made a thread about reducing a bit of weight on his front end of his firebird. Check that out. Of course relocating the battery is nice, lighter fiberglass hood. Are thier fiberglass fenders out there for 3rd gens? Im sure you could cut the inner fender wells but you would have to put some sort of bracing back in there. I dont know if Id recomend it or not. aluminum engine components, as well as eliminating components will help. a tubular subframe deffinate weightloss. lose the sway bar etc....

 

Don't take those rubber panels out from the wheel wells. If you do, your car will rust in there.

 

If its a race only application it wont be seeing rain. cant drag race when raining

 

look at the aftermarket front K-members, I cant recall which company it, but one sells a light wight drag kit.

 

First can you go all out and hook up every time?

If not add weight to the rear to get your ratio in check, you'll go faster heavier if you hook better.................

front weight loss is hard, glass parts are heavy too, can move a batt but its not allot, Kmember is lighter some but dunno how they hold up to wheel stands. Maybe fill the front tires with helium.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Eventually, I will have a 383 stroker motor with an aluminum power glide. I was already planning on moving the battery to the back, removing the not needed heater and A/C, alternator, heavy a$$ starter, but I didn't know about changing the power steering over to an s10 steering. That is a pretty good idea! I'm still undecided about the fender wells, but I know they are heavy, and it sure wouldn't hurt to take them out if they it will drop 20lbs.

 

The S10 box is pretty common from what I understand, not only do you loose weight by removing the pump and all associated hardware but you loose some drag off the motor to which is always a plus. A fiberglass hood makes a huge difference, our hoods weigh around 67lbs, there's some glass hoods around 12lbs, thats a significant drop.

If your building a 383 chances are your going with aftermarket heads so try to go with something aluminum, thats 50lbs lighter than a set of iron heads. Alot can be done, just look around but so far youve got enough info to drop a good 200+lbs off of your car, its just all about what your willing to sacrifice.

 

I'm thinking that when I get done in the engine compartment, there should just be an engine, radiator, steering and a brake system. I shouldn't have anything that is going to be running off the motor, except the transmission of course!

Thanks again for all the good info! I cant wait to get started on this!!

 

When I swapped to a 350 I also added aluminum intake manifold, alum water pump, alum pulleys, hooker headers instead of stock heavy manifolds, 10" air cleaner, mini race 1 wire alternator, removed all a/c and heating components including blower motor and all ducting, removed all stereo equipment, relocated the battery, added race seats and a fiberglass hood. Doing so I shaved and distributed A LOT of weight.

Add in some aluminum heads, aluminum oil pan, aftermarket brakes, spindles, tubular K-member, control arms ect. And you can shave off a bunch more.

You can also do things like pin on fiberglass body panels, front end ect. As well as replacing heavy glass with lexan.

Relief of unsprung weight such as brakes, wheels, and hardware as well as rotational mass such as axles, and drive shaft will net the most efficient improvement.

Sorry to rain on your parade but you need an alternator. Even the best battery's like my grp 35 optima have a 90-100 min reserve. Which means it will run 90-100min straight with all power without an alternator on full charge. Much less if you are constantly starting the motor. Also you' need a starter buddy, replacing this with an aftermarket starter just for weight savings isn't going to be very cost efficient.

I would do some research before you start hacking, cutting and removing things you might regret. Get your motor set up right, and your trans before you start attempting to shred weight. Otherwise you really are doing it for nothing. The worst thing is a battered up third gen that never gets running.

 

It really depends on how far you want to go on this. My car with 3/4 of a tank of gas with my 195lb carcus weighs in at 2900 flat. (i've got slips to prove it) I pulled EVERYTHING out from my engine bay that wasn't needed. I also made my own front crash bar out of stock square aluminum. The crash bars alone took out 75lbs off the car. (both front and rear) I'm running the manual S10 box which free's up a ton of weight too. Like I said it really depends on how far you want to go. Here's what my engine bay looks like.....go to the third reply and it's mine

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...-ur-305-a.html

 

well rob it doesnt show your engine bay in that thread no more! but that is a pretty impressive weight ya got on that car. I did a manual steering box on my dodge but on my DD camaro i just dont wanna deal with it haha.

 

Replace your front impact bar with a aluminum peice, head lights & headlight bar, im taking you gutted the intetior? Replace side windows witn lexan peices, or just replace the whole front clip witb a pin on 1 piece fiberglass unit. Doing all that fab work for 20 lbs is crazy. I would just use a fiberglass front clip.

 

I think you guys are right. There are plenty of other places that I can lose weight, and still keep the front fender wells in place. Glad I asked before I started cutting.

"Sorry to rain on your parade but you need an alternator." blackbmagic... No I don't. Even with all of the set up time to make a 12 second pass down the 1/4 mile track, I would never use 90 mins of battery reserve before hooking back up to the battery charger. Oh yes, and the starter! I didnt mean I was not going to have one LOL I just meant that I would be using a smaller and much lighter one! Sorry for the confusion there.
robertfrank, your engine compartment is just what I was looking for clean and almost empty, Looks Great!
Thanks again Guys!! All of your input has pointed me the right way!!

 

dont forget.. fiberglass hood

plastic head lights..(i picked up 4 sets back in the 90s. they never seem to burn out..lol and are 3 LBS lighter then the Glass lights.

dont know if they make them anymore
every thing for the wipers can go. i dont drive mine in the rain.ever
and it's been what 18 years now..dont even miss them..

and if you have $1500 laying about.. a full tube K member and A arms with Coil overs.

this makes a good start..

 

You could lay off the pasta...

 

Well that's not constructive haha.

 

I LOVE PASTA, but its not me that I am looking to shed the weight from, I mean, hello, I only weight in at 215lbs, standing 6'5".

Anyways, I removed the Dash so that I could get the heater and ac stuff out. Started removing the Power Steering, removed the radiator overflow and the washer fluid jugs, removed the AC cooling radiator, the radio, door speakers, center console, and the parking brake handle today. The wires that run behind the console gave me a pretty rough time. All in all though, not a bad day.

 

this has alot of the part weights and other sugestions
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...on-thread.html

 

Yes there are fiberglass fenders. Duraflex makes them and they look nice! Im not too sure what the weight difference is though. And I too am removing a lot from my front end. Im making mine a weekend warrior which will see no rain so I got rid of the washer fluid reservoir, pump, wiper motor, wiper blades and all the wires and brackets associated with them. It took off bout 35 or so pounds! I also deleted the A/C, the smog pump, Heater core, heater blower motor and all the hoses that went with them. Im not sure how much weight that all was but Im guessing around another 40 lbs.

 

By the way, how do you remove the front bumper support? I couldnt find it in a search. Got a thread? Or pics? And what is an s10 manual box? These two things have totally peaked my interest! Help me!

 

I too had to learn about the s10 manual steering box. I started another thread about it. But this is what I learned. s10 chevy trucks, from 84 and newer, the 2.6 4 cylinders (I think that is right), came with a Manual steering box. The 84 and newer come with a 4 bolt pattern that will bolt right up to our third gens. So we can lose the power steering stuff. And since we are running skinny tires in the front, steering will still be easy.

 

yup with the skinny tires steering wont be bad at all. my dodge has 5 inch wide tires in the front with a manual box and really the only time the steering is bad is like real low speeds in a cramped parking lot. but also the old mopar steering boxe's are like 5 turns lock to lock haha.

 

you really don't have to worry too much about having skinny tires and turning. I'm running 245/45/17's up front and I don't have much problem at all.

 

Well all that is left to take out of the engine compartment is the power steering pump. There was a bolt hidden by a bracket that I didnt see, until I was on my back taking the steering arm loose. The dash is removed, and all of the wires that I could get cutters on have been piled up in my garage. Car almost looks naked.

 

If anyone wants to get rid of aluminum drums Pm me. (sorry for the thread hijack btw) I went to my local yard and could not find any today..

 

Front weight reduction, can take out quite a lot of stuff, all the AC components, if its a dedicated drag car the heater box as well, all the emissions equipment, tubular K member and A-arms, small rims/tires, mini starter, alternator can be lost if its just drag car, electric WP(not sure if its actually lighter but its less drag on the engine, and with no alternator or PS pump, and an electric WP you can in fact omit the accessory belt system entirely), rack and pinion steering is lighter than pitman type, dashpad is surprisingly heavy, fiberglass hood of course, or better yet CF(in addition to being lighter than fiberglass its more rigid so less material can be used thus making it yet even lighter, also pin on is better than bolt on as it is lighter due to not needing to have extra material for rigidity, meaning you can also remove the hood hinges/shocks and the latch mechanism and pull cable)
Fiberglass fenders are a waste the difference in weight is minuscule, because of how thick they have to be, steel ones really are not heavy at all.
Can also remove headlights if its dedicated drag car, windshield wipers, can switch to lexan windshield for pure drag car, a manual trans would drop about 100 lbs of the car, though its rather widely accepted that automatics are better for drag racing.
You can remove the crash bars, fiberglass doors for a pure strip car.
List goes on and on....pretty much remove anything not essential to driving, or can be replaced with something lighter