Weight Reduction Questions.

[SASHO91]

I've reached the end of my mod list that i wanted to do with the car. Yet i find myself wanting a tad bit more from the car. I dont want to dig into the motor to throw on some cams(allthough, I know it will wake up the car as it sits now, very much so), nor do i want to drop in a 3.2. So my other allternative is talking to Jenny Craig....

The car has a bit of weight reduc. done allready, but nothing major, and totaling only around 50ish lbs. or so...

First thing that comes to mind are the seats. The stockers, while nice and fairly comfortable, are just pigs as you all know. My buddy's DD is a 93-ish Integra, and i happen to like those seats(for some odd reason ), and i dont think they weigh all that much. ****, they cant be close to what ours weigh, i'd even venture to say that both of those seats probably weigh close to what one of ours does. So, i figure that would be first on my list.

Next, (which would have been first)would be lighter wheels. They would have been first as this "mod" would probably help the most in acceleration, however, with the price of the wheels being alot higher that seats, i had to put the seats first. Let alone the fact that the seats will pull off more weight. Anywho, so i figured that the wheels that im looking at will save me a total weight of around 16lbs. But the fact that its rotational mass adds to that effect. So that puts wheels down.

This is where i kinda come to a blank, if you will. I had been toying aroung with the idea of removing all the trunk carpeting and just spraying down some of the cheap under coating stuff to make it look "nice". Im not sure how much that trunk carpet piece weighs though, but i'd imagine that getting any weight off from back there (behind the rear wheels) would be a good idea. Along with that, i was thinking about pulling some of the non-need insulation/sound-deadning material from the car in certain places such as, under the rear seat, up by the firewall, and maybe a couple spots here and there. Again, im not sure it would be worth the effort, Lbs. per Hr.

Im not looking for a huge gain, i'd just like the car to be alittle slimmer, if ya know what i mean. As well as the last bit (removal of certain areas) i would also like to know if all of the mentioned would be worth the work (wheels, seats, trunk carpet).
TIA.

 

[St Louis SHO]

sound deadening material is worth removing.. probably save 30+ if you get it all out (under carpet, trunk, firewall, etc) if you do not care about heat / A/C, remove the heater box, condensor, and a/c lines. (not worth it unless you want the savings that bad)

 

[drivinhard]

The stock fronts together (both power) are 110 lbs. no joke. You can get a $220 Corbeau Forza that weighs 16 lb. huge savings, and if you drive at the track, you'll never go back.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Id say go with the wheels and if this is a DD keep the sound deadening stuff, and as far as the trunk carpet, it doesn't weigh much at all. The more weight you take off the rear the worse off your weight distribution is gunna be. If anything, you want the sort of cf hood, removal of the a/c system and even like you said the front seats, to pull weight off the front to get closer to a 50/50. Also I personally pulled the fluffy stuff off the tops of my front wheel wells. It weighs like a lb total, however it holds water. At least mine did, making it heavier and making it rust stuff so I ripped it all out.

Edit: I ripped out my stereo amps (the stock ones) that were no longer being used, I dunno if you've got any of them back there.

 

[SHOZ123]

Cobra or GT front calipers are half the weight of OEM. A smaller battery will work too.

 

[SHOtime2511]

best way is to just get some lighter seats.
that alone will get you to you 50lbs goal and then some.

 

[PAracer]

Through most vendors, seats have been climbing in price over the past couple years even though the options are about the same. Right now, the Momo Start seat is about the most economical fiberglass seat on the market. There are a host of wires that can be removed if you swap seats as well.

If you gut the trunk and remove the tar, that would cut 30 pounds or so. If you clean it up nice and paint it, the mod will not be as noticable to most people. The carpet inside the car has a dense fiber insulation underneath that can be removed. You can remove the airbag system and leave an undisrupted appearance. As has been said before, the hvac system is pretty massive.

Weight loss is a terminal. Once you get started, you won't b able to stop.

 

[SASHO91]

Id say go with the wheels and if this is a DD keep the sound deadening stuff, and as far as the trunk carpet, it doesn't weigh much at all. The more weight you take off the rear the worse off your weight distribution is gunna be.
Edit: I ripped out my stereo amps (the stock ones) that were no longer being used, I dunno if you've got any of them back there.

Uh, how is that???
With more weight back there, the more likely the rear end will want to come loose....


ok, maybe i need to clear some things up...

The car is A/C'less allready.
Cobra's over 11.6's allready.
I did forget to add the A/C part into my number, so the total is close to 90-ish lbs. And actually, maybe a bit more due to the single exhaust.

I do plan on getting an Odyssey PC925. Which should save around 15lbs.

The car is a DD, and i dont mind having alot of NVH. But if all im going to save is 30lbs for ALL of the sound material, then i'll look elsewhere.

I guess i'll go with some lightweight Wheels, Seats, and maybe look into a flywheel (however, future plans will X that idea---Stg.3Clutch) The total weight savings, minus flywheel, would probably be around 70-80lbs. Maybe i'll rethink the sound material part of it. Alltogether, my savings would be around 160-ish.... which i think would be decent enough and give the results im looking for.

What other misc. parts can be pulled off that are not really needed i.e. Brake dust sheilds, brackets, etc..???? maybe i have missed some.

 

[PAracer]

Uh, how is that???
With more weight back there, the more likely the rear end will want to come loose....

A nose heavy car will want to swap ends more readily. Think about friction. Normal force (weight on rear tires) times coeff of friction (property of the tires compound and design) equals frictional force. If centripital force exceeds frictional force, you will slide.

ok, maybe i need to clear some things up...

The car is A/C'less allready.
Cobra's over 11.6's allready.
I did forget to add the A/C part into my number, so the total is close to 90-ish lbs. And actually, maybe a bit more due to the single exhaust.

I do plan on getting an Odyssey PC925. Which should save around 15lbs.

The car is a DD, and i dont mind having alot of NVH. But if all im going to save is 30lbs for ALL of the sound material, then i'll look elsewhere.

I guess i'll go with some lightweight Wheels, Seats, and maybe look into a flywheel (however, future plans will X that idea---Stg.3Clutch) The total weight savings, minus flywheel, would probably be around 70-80lbs. Maybe i'll rethink the sound material part of it. Alltogether, my savings would be around 160-ish.... which i think would be decent enough and give the results im looking for.

What other misc. parts can be pulled off that are not really needed i.e. Brake dust sheilds, brackets, etc..???? maybe i have missed some.

If I DD my SHO up here in the north east. You can do it in Texas. See my sig for what I mean here.

 

[SASHO91]

Yeah, but i actually like my interior...
and i saw your thread about the cage... Very nice.

how much weight went back into the car. I mean obviously it made the car feel 10ft shorter.... somewhere around the stock weight, maybe alittle lighter??

 

[PAracer]

Lets see: approx. 35' of pipe. 1.75" dia .095" wall. Steel is .284 lbs per cubic inch
Comes out to about 59 lbs (about the same as the passenger seat). I don't remember exactly how much pipe I used, so the 35 feet is overestimated.

The car is still under 3000 lbs. The rear doors still have motors, internal sheetmetal, and real glass. The hood is same as original without the mat. Trunk lid is unmodified. The dash has not been modified other than pulling wires, radio, hvac, airbags. I have a good bit of weight left to pull.

Yes, it feels a ton different than my mothers mtx.

Reality is that the plastic panels don't add much. Headliner is only a few pounds. The car can look stock yet be substantially lighter than stock. Might be educational to take your car to a race shop to be cornerweighed before you really get into the project.

 

[PAracer]

I can post few few pics of How I mounted my seats if you would like. I was able to use scrap aluminum to get the job done. Cheap and quite rigid.

 

[SASHO91]

Funny that you bring up glass.....I was toying with the idea of replacing the Sun/moon roof and small quarter windows. But there are other places to look at before those. still though.


When you say "it can look stock, yet weigh less" ... are you refering to the interior and pulling out stuff to a degree, or are you talking about from the outside?

EDIT: i didnt even think about it till now, but i could cornerweigh it at school.

 

[PAracer]

It could look stock for both sides. You can gut everything from the dash and put panels over the old a/c unit and radio. It would look like nothing really major happened. The door panels weigh only a couple pounds a piece. Half of the weight of the carpet is in the padding underneith. Kind of an Rmodel SHO

 

[SASHO91]

So basically pulling out all of the sound material but leaving the carpet? If thats the case, then i'll wait for the seats to come in before i do that.

****, maybe i'll pull the carpet and LineX the floor.

 

[PAracer]

Hey, there was a time when carpet didn't come standard.

 

[SASHO91]

the more i think about it, the more i like the idea....
I think it would look pretty cool.

All that would need to be done--put a piece of insulator under the center console so that you dont end up throwing it out of the car while your driving....

I know its been said before, but what is the total weight of the carpet/sound material including the trunk? If it knock off atleast 50lbs-ish i'd do that for now and see how i like it.

 

[PAracer]

More like 30-35 I believe. Don't throw it out until you completely strip the tar from the floor. It can be a tough job.

 

[shomesomesho]

Yes, it feels a ton different than my mothers mtx.

I can attest to that.

Once you're into sub-3,000 lb. territory, the SHO is a whole different animal.

You will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[warmonger]

when removing rotating mass every pound is equal to five..so if you drop 6 pounds per wheel your car will "feel" or accelerate like its 120 pounds lighter...a common first mod on the probe boards,the stock wheels for the pgt are 23-26 lbs depending on year and finish of the wheel,so they would run the rx7(fd) wheels,the 93's are 13.8lbs a piece...so a simple swap would make the car accel/brake like it was lighter