Anyone know what a 1984 factory hood weighs? I have heard the 84 model is heavier due to the cross fire ducting.

 

Anyone running any light weight wheels that are NOT drag race only? If so what are they, what size and how much weight did you save?

 

GM OEM Magnesium Wheels from C5 Corvette.......

 

What kind of weight reduction from the 1984 wheels?

 

Not sure about putting them on 1984.....offset issues...need spacer??

Wheel weights are:

17x8.5 fronts =16-17 pounds
18x9.5 rears = 19-20 pounds

Somewhere I have the actuals including total with tires....

You might be able to use the 17's all around????

 

I put some 215-65-16 on the front of my car in place of the 255-50-16. I think that alone saved 5lbs each wheel. I'll bring the list in on monday. I weighed 7 different tire and rim combos. I do remember the front runners saved 40 lbs over the stock 255-50-16.

Mike

BTW, I just took out all my carpeting and replaced it with Autozone carpeting. I had to buy 4 rolls @ $9 ea. It took some time to cut and glue all the pieces in, but it looks great and is much lighter. I'll get all the old carpeting and insulation on the scale this weekend. I bought sumitt's new pro seat ( plastic) it's 20" wide, the same as the orig. I'll weigh the difference this weekend .

Next for me is front bumper and rear bumper.

Goal is 2800 lbs with driver ( 160 lbs) without the muffs ( they weigh 60 lbs) and i can take them off in 10-15 min. I already have the battery in the back and last year with a race weight of 3130 with mufflers i had 51% on the rear tires. I still have PS/PB, PW,PL, heat. I don't have A/C. I also have a very short and simple belt set up if you wanted to delete the A/C, AP,Tensioner...for almost free.

I agree this is a very good thread to us speed junkies.

Mike

 

Mike I admire your weight reduction methods. Keep us informed.

 

- front runners ( drag lights, 26X3 light weight front runners)-21 lbs
- 26X10X15 slick only-21lbs
-steel rim 15X8-25lbs
-steel 15X8 rim and 26X10 slick-46lbs
-26X11.5X16 ET STREET-19lbs
- 28X9" Slick on 7" steel rim-42lbs
-29X10.5WX15 on 15X10 draglite with tubes-50lbs
-225X60RX16( 8" wide) on stock 8.5" rim-47lbs
-255X50X16( 10" wide) on stock 8.5" rim-50lbs

- The 8" wide front tires save 6lbs total and the front runners save 52lbs.

I will weigh the stock rim and 26X11.5 ET street as soon as i get it mounted.

Mike

 

wanna' bet?

...not a good idea. ...unless the hole is tiny...and then what's the point? I did this to one of my old MX bikes back in the '70's and it wasn't worth the effort. Your time is better spent reducing weight else where....like eliminating the AC?

Larry
code5coupe

 

wanna' bet?

...not a good idea. ...unless the hole is tiny...and then what's the point? I did this to one of my old MX bikes back in the '70's and it wasn't worth the effort.
You're willing to take weeks to remove, drill (rifle-drilling is a type of drill and not suitable for this), and replace the now-weakened bolts, but not willing to remove the sound system and AC?!


Larry
code5coupe

 

I wouldn't spend the time to rifle drill....but that's just me.

 

Mike 1985, I'm interested in the belt setup. Can you post a good description or some pics even?

 

Do a search on my username - I just recently posted some pictures of how to delete the AC and use an electric pump;

 

I don't have any pic's.

I had my stewart warner alum pump reverse rotation propeller replaced by them to a regular rotation propeller for FREE( or just buy a short style regular sbc WP. So my serp belt goes from the crank to the top of the waterpump and right to the ALT in the stock location, then across the top of the PS pump pulley and right back down to the crank. I use one of the old style alt. adjusters ( sloted curved deal) to tighten the belt. I'll have to check the belt length for you.

Just basically go from the crank to the top of the WP in a normal rotation and you'll easily see how everything else can go. Now you can eliminate everything from the right side of the motor.

I hope that helps.

Mike

 

The heaviest bolts are the ones that do important things, like holding the engine and tranny in and mounting the suspension to the car. I am assuming that you aren't advocating drilling or messing with any of these bolts.

This entire exercise is interesting, but in the real world one has to measure your success by how much weight you remove per how much you spend or how much manpower you put into it. If you have an unlimited budget or don't have a real job, then you can try to pare ounces by doing things like drilling non-essential bolts to save a few ounces.

All of the rest of us have to prioritize what to remove and how much to spend doing it, and that has to be traded with the other side of the equation, how much does it cost to add power....

I have driven a couple of Lingerfelter modded cars and the power was awesome.... Also the amount of wheelspin was awesome to, they couldn't put down all of the power that they had. This was in a C4 convertible, with no hatch weight over the rear axle...

If you are going to seriously reduce the weight and get more speed that way, I would lay out my list with the weight of item AND an estimate of the location of the weight in the car, along with the cost and time to do the work.

Pilots regularly calculate a cg for their airplane and you can use the same procedure on a spreadsheet and by putting in the weight, and location relative to a fixed point on the car, you can calc the change in axle weight for each item. If you remove 500 pounds from behind the rear axle (just an example) then you will be light, but you won't get off the line worth a darn. If you look at moving the battery for example, moving the battery to rear bin behind the seats is really attractive. If the battery weighs 40 pounds (again just for an example), and it is located at the back end of the car (say 25 inches aft of the rear axle centerline) then the weight of the car is the same, but the on the rear axle will improve by almost 10 pounds as compared to just locating it over the rear axle. Similarily I would put a priority on removing weight ahead of the front axle centerline, since removing that weight will actually add weight to the rear of the car. Removing weight at the back of the car should be the lowest priority. For running Pro Solo's we found that if we ran with the spare out of the car and with lower fuel loads, we were so much slower off of the line that it didn't pay off. If you are running with drag tires on a treated strip you may be able to do more with rear weight, but were you take the weight out is in many cases as important as how much you take out..

Finally back to bolts for a minute. If you really want to get weight out of the bolts, there are aircraft bolts made to NAS 624 thru NAS 644 that have smaller 12 point heads and are stronger than anything you have in the car now. You can match them with NAS1805 double hex self locking nuts. This will save a lot more weight (although it is expensive) than you ever will get out of drilling the existing bolts and it is likey to be a lot safer. Or, if you are really greedy you can go to titanium (almost half the weight of the steel bolt use NAS1261 to NAS1265 if you want stealth, they are 6 point conventiona looking fasteners, or use the NAS1271 thru 1280 for lighter 12 points), but at a pretty steep cost. If you have a aircraft surplus outlet near you that is the first place that I would look. In Dayton there is a place called Mendelsons that has a lot of aircraft surplus hardware from Wright Field and there are other surplus outlets around the country were you can get high strength light weight aircraft hardware for pennies on the pound (literally, it is sold by the pound). Fastener indexes can be found on the SPS web site

 

the lexan windows hmm would I still be able to pop the hatch or does it just replace all the shocks and all that stuff and not move?

thanks alot your friend
Sean

 

so far I have removed the spare tire, jack, entire A/C and heat system,
lt headers, no cats, muffler elims, no egr/air system.

I bet its a good 250 lbs! and I really wanna go to that lexan rear window(eventually) and remove all the junk under the carpet.
how do I take out all of this junk anyone have pics of it?



I bet i could sell my rear window, shocks and hatch vent for about $175-$200 which would pay for alot of it.

also i have a 1996 auto

Thanks alot your friend
Sean

 

vette weight savings.

stock carpet-35
insulation-13
storage covers 5lbs ( i just ran the carpet right across them and secured it with a velcro strap)
total 53
minus 5lbs for new carpet (autozone)
48 lbs total savings.

the stock rim with the 26X11.5X16 ETSTREET is 40 lbs..6lbs each less than the 15X8 steel rim with the slick.

PLastic seats saved 35 lbs

I still have bumpers to do..sure wish blown 96 would have posted some pic's....anyway using 45#'s for both bumpers and 60#'s for the mufflers I should be right at 2940 with a 160 lb driver. We'll see though.

Mike

 

i wonder if atlanta drag way has a scale...
I really wanna weigh my car see how light I am now..
thanks guys...
hmm with that lexan rear window and the interior gutted...thats about 100 lbs right there!
well 100 lbs more and i think ive alread taken about 250 lbs off.
sweet


I am guessing I have to take seats out to do this....?


thanks alot guys your friend
Sean

 

If they don't then try to find a truck stop by you with CAT scales. You can get a front and rear weight, plus a total weight for $8 here.

Now i know some of you will say this is not that accurate, but i'll have to disagree for now, because if you read the back it states that if you get an overweight ticket after weighing on their scales they will provide the attorney to you for free, now if their scales weren't accurate i doubt they off this in writing. Anyway i plan to try and get the car weighed on individual scales and the CAT scale next year to see if there is an actual difference.

Mike