Shark Racer

Don't hold your breath on that one, especially if you're starting out with a light duty radiator.

I'll still keep my ears to the ground though.

TheSkunkWorks

For those who may have seen the article a year or so back where they striped a C4 down to the bones, but didnt' gain anything, the problem there was they neglected to recalibrate the suspension (heights, springs, shocks, bars...) for the significantly lighter vehicle they ended up with.

69427

Not that big of a deal. Just takes a little time and effort.

Shark Racer

That was in response to "a documented case of auto anorexia".

69427

Are you talking about another C3, or that C6 that the guy kept shoveling money at?

Shark Racer

At the end of the day, if someone is really serious about losing weight there's going to be some money shoveled. I'm not trying to make this about new cars vs old cars, merely saying it's not the first time someone's documented weight loss on the net. I appreciate Bee Jay's threads. It's the Halltech car. Carbon fiber, lighter seats, braille batteries, coil-overs, headers, no cats, some other stuff that I can't remember.

Bee Jay

Can you give us a link to that thread please. Maybe there are some good ideas we could use on C3s.
Bee Jay

Shark Racer

Here's a huge thread on a competition between Halltech (manufacturer of cold air intakes) and Katech (engine building group that supplies stuff to the Corvette Racing team):

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...challenge.html

Jim's build thread: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...-underway.html

Bear in mind that I haven't tracked that project for a while... and it definitely looks like they're more than willing to dumb big buckets of cash.

jcloving

Bee_Jay,

Could you do a separate thread outling all of your weight savings projects thus far with links to those threads? Maybe with a table too showing your new vs. old weight?

Thanks,

John

RobbSalzmann

Hey, I have a battery like that in my motorcycle!

Bee Jay

I drove the car today. I went to work, a couple of meetings, and lunch. I must have started the car about 10 to a dozen times. Cranks right up every time.The volt meter reads 14 volts running and 12 volts not running. Easiest 25 lbs lost since I went to aluminum heads and headers.
Bee Jay

Will's'74VetteL-82

That's really cool! What did you do to make those battery cable adapters?

Will

scottyp99

What are you running as far as cam timing, compression ratio, and spark timing? Just trying to get an idea whether it's a hard start or not. This might be a mod that I would think seriously about. I don't drive my car in cold wheather, so that's a plus. I will be interested to hear how it's doing a few months from now. Thanks for serving as guinea pig, Bee Jay,


Scott


Scott

Bee Jay

LT4 hydraulic Hot Cam, 10 to 1 CR, lightweight gear drive starter.

scottyp99

OK, so it's not some worn out, 8:1 engine that you could start with a double A battery, that makes the whole deal sound even more promising.


Scott

mikeCsix

Battery trivia:
Its the CCA rating of the battery that starts our cars and when all is working well, we don't use the full rating of the battery. My guess would be between 50 and 100 CCA's would be required to start one of our modern high compression engines with a starter in good operating condition. If I had a current meter I would check to see what the actual discharge current is but in its absence I have to guess.

The Kirkland battery is probably somewhere around 600 CCA's and the Deka is about 300. Enough capacity to start the car when the battery is new but as it ages, CCA availability decreases due to wear on the battery plates, even for the AGM batteries.

My point is this, to get the same life span out of the Deka batteries, you may have to use 2 of them in parallel, roughly matching the CCA's of the Kirkland battery. There is weight savings, but less of it. A single Deka battery should operate just the same, same charging voltages, etc, it is the heart of a 12 system. The cell voltages are close to the same as a lead acid battery too, so the same charging system will work for both. With a single Deka battery though I expect it will not last as long as the Kirkland lead-acid variety due to the basic capacity differences between them.

Tangelo79

Have you weighed the car recently Bee Jay?? Just got my car put back together with AFR alum heads, alum rad, lightweight starter, and monospring and its 3120 lbs now with 1/2 tank of fuel.

I plan on your light weight door mods, a-arms/coil overs, lighter brakes and seats...trying to get to around 2,900 lbs. Any other weight trick you have learned would be welcomed!!!

TOM B1

AGM batterys are very good but do have ther down falls.
We tested them at work in our fleet of big rigs, good points are fast starts, long lasting, no acid smells. less chance of exploding.
Bad points are slow charging, will draw down to 0 volts and stay there as acid batterys will draw down and come back a little. When dead you cant put a fast charge on them as you must charge them at lower amps and voltage for longer times. apples to apples the AGM batterys are very heavy, average about 20lbs. We had trucks that would not start in winter because the dome light was left on over night and our 600 amp Start All
was worthless. AGM,s hate cold weather. We changed back to acid batterys.
Helpfull hint,,, KEEP THEM CHARGED! dont let them go dead.
Oh yea, I do run them in my classic cars, with reserve

Bee Jay

I weighed the car today. I'm at 3120lbs!

Tangelo79

3120 awesome!! Exact same weight as mine! Have you done brakes yet? From what i can tell a light aluminum hat rotor and aluminum caliper like Wilwood's will drop around 100 lbs.