Front end weight loss suggestions

[a_ahmed]

Def mentioned this in the bn hatch thread that our cars need weightloss up front the most, which is true.

I figured why not share your ideas in here?

Not trully front end, front end.. but I shaved about a good 50lbs from the firewall section removing all the junk underneath, modifying dash, removing all sound deadening of firewall, removing door covers, cutting/redirecting/moving unused/no longer needed harness wires, etc... I am about 90% done with that section other than floor sound deadening and carpet which are maybe another 20lbs I figure.

In the front I got rid of the stock bumper support bar, got a brailleauto battery although I plan to move it to the back, alot of emission crap is gone, other than that not too much.

I figure cutting alot of left over metal brackets and harness work may drop more weight.

A vented carboon hood, fenders, bumper.

I will be installing my custom moded supermade popup removal headlights which will shave at least 20lbs i suppose?

What else do you guys suggest? Discuss it. What have you done, what do you plan to do, etc...

Companies rarely ever advertise the weight of hoods, fenders, etc... its ridiculous. How to really know what's truly lightest?

[jmauld]

Al. Flywheel
Lightweight pullies
Remove AC
Header
Custom Lightweight Intake Manifold
Remove mechanical fan
Lightweight Battery
C.F. Hood
Get rid of the pop-up headlights in favor of something that's mounted permanently
Lightweight rims
Horns
Remove all unused brackets
There's a 1-2lb piece of dead weight on the firewall behind the engine.
All emissions stuff
Washer fluid canister, pump, hoses and wiring


I'm a safety nut so getting rid of the bumper support doesn't sound smart to me.

[racepar1]

First off, don't buy "carbon fiber" anything if you can avoid it. Almost all of the "carbon fiber" stuff that is available is actually fiberglass with a few layers of carbon on top. Regular old fiberglass parts are actually lighter.

Other ideas:
-remove hood hinge and bracket from rad support, replace with locking aerocatch pins
-remove rear hood hinges, replace with pins (racecars only)
-relocate p/s resovoir to pass side of engine bay using sohc resovoir (kade)
-electric p/s pump
-relocate charcoal canister to passenger's side
-relocate all fuseboxes to pass rear seat
-re-route wiring harnesses to the passenger's side of the car
-custom aluminum front subframe to replace engine crossmember and tension rod brackets
-custom aluminum front spindles (would be SUPER nice)

I personally wouldn't remove the charcoal canister from anything but a dedicated race only car. There's just no point, it hurts nothing, weighs little, and helps the environment. Why not run it? As for the bumper support, completely removing it is not a good idea. It's only not great because the bumper sags and is all floppy. I went nuts on mine with a plasma cutter, it weighs a few lbs now. Having it there though makes my bumper nice and sturdy. Besides it gives me a good place to mount things like a tow hook and support struts for a splitter. As for safety all that is really there for in the first place is the 5-10mph crash tests.

[Def]

I have no front bumper support, but was going to make something out of some aluminum channel. Shouldn't weigh more than about 5-6 lbs and be much stronger than the stock bumper support.

I can't see lightweight pulleys making much of a difference, maybe half a lb... lb tops?

I saved 21 lbs with a cheap eBay fiberglass hood(stock hood was about 40 lbs, this hood was about 18-19 lbs). The battery tray was about 2-3 lbs(surprisingly heavy), and moving the battery back to behind the passenger seat was pretty big.

I really need to weigh my car now to see where it is weight wise.

[Bumnah]

Would the front bumper support bar be good for structural rigidity though? I mean it does bolt to both frame rails....

[Cory]

Pop up headlight motors are 4lbs. I removed mine and tack welded the linkage to the radiator support.

I need to do a CF hood and get a different intercooler. My intercooler is 20lbs.

[Def]

Would the front bumper support bar be good for structural rigidity though? I mean it does bolt to both frame rails....

Maybe a little bit, but I doubt it. The "rails" going out to the support are pretty weak and long. Plus it's not really triangulated well up there. It's pretty easy to turn a rectangle into a parallelogram.

[jmauld]

I can't see lightweight pulleys making much of a difference, maybe half a lb... lb tops?

I checked my spreadsheet and unfortunately, I bundled them with the mechanical fan. Removing that fan and swapping to unorthodox pullies saved me 9.5lbs. The biggest weight savings with the pulleys is obviously the crank pulley. Also the main advantage of the pulleys is the HP gain, and the extra willingness of the engine to rev. The small weight savings is just icing.

[jmauld]

Here are the weight savings that I was keeping track of at one point.

coilovers 16
front sway 5
spare tire 31
jack/tools 6
antenna 2
mats 8
header 15
exhaust 28
horn 1.5
fan/pullies 9.5
intake 4
fog lights 5.5
cruise 2
battery 16
Flywheel 9
Radio/speakers/amp 8

The numbers are the weight saved. So for example, where you see "header", the aftermarket header was 15lbs lighter than the stock header. These were weighed on a bathroom scale with me holding them, so that the scale would be in it's normal operation range, although definitely not calibrated.

[a_ahmed]

Def what hood is that? Is it vented? I figured something to relieve lift and pressure plus weight savings would be all win. So many of these aftermarket hoods are actually pretty heavy so to hear that, that's pretty good.

It's so expensive otherwise someone could go about weighing each hood that's out there until we figure out what's the lightest... and yeah the 'carbon fiber' hoods are actually just good ol thick frp with overlayed carbon for look.. not real dry carbon... real dry carbon i bet would be like 5lbs-10lbs tops... sick.

[a_ahmed]

jmauld was that on an sr or ka? the mechanical fan and unorthodox pulleys. Was it the whole set of pulleys? Where can we get that now a days btw? What did you replace the fan with also? I know the stock fans blow best with the plastic cover... most of these aftermarket electric ones suck from what ive seen. Ford 3.8l Taurus fans from the early 90s gen apparently flow well.. dunno how much they weigh and how to optimize for good cooling.

[a_ahmed]

How much would horns honestly weigh lol? Can't be more than 1lbs no? How about some aftermarket ones then haha... I'm not getting rid of my horn (obviously).

Racepar1: "-re-route wiring harnesses to the passenger's side of the car"

I want to reroute all this inside the passenger side under the dash or something as much as possible. How did you do it? I was hoping to relocate the harness that runs driver's side wheel well due to clearance with the tire (it actually started cutting uh oh... so I had to modify some stuff and now it's not but still). I tried to look at where it goes and well it goes through the front wheel well hole into the fusebox... but there's no unplug of sorts... and back into the cabin through the wheel well near the legs... again... to the other fuse box but there is no unplug. ????

[jmauld]

jmauld was that on an sr or ka? the mechanical fan and unorthodox pulleys. Was it the whole set of pulleys? Where can we get that now a days btw? What did you replace the fan with also? I know the stock fans blow best with the plastic cover... most of these aftermarket electric ones suck from what ive seen. Ford 3.8l Taurus fans from the early 90s gen apparently flow well.. dunno how much they weigh and how to optimize for good cooling.

It was on a KA.

I removed the mechanical fan and rewired the stock electric AC fan. This worked fine for the better part of 3 years before I pulled the engine out.

[jmauld]

How much would horns honestly weigh lol? Can't be more than 1lbs no? How about some aftermarket ones then haha... I'm not getting rid of my horn (obviously).

My car came with the factory security system, so it had two horns. One in the regular spot and the other inside the engine bay. There was also a bracket attached to it.

If you're serious about weight loss, no part should be overlooked. You could even go as far as shaving/drilling material off of brackets that are used to support stuff and that may be overbuilt.

[racepar1]

If you're serious about weight loss, no part should be overlooked. You could even go as far as shaving/drilling material off of brackets that are used to support stuff and that may be overbuilt.

ALL unused brackets have been removed from my car. My chasis can never again have:
-spare tire
-rear interior
-rear seat
-rear seatbelts
-stock seatbelts (the sliding ones, manual OE belts still work)
-properly suppoted evap box (the non-a/c duct uses one less bracket)


IF you cage your car there are three other places that you can remove weight.

-panel/tarpaper on firewall
There is a big metal panel spotwelded to the cabin side of the firewall and there is a layer of tarpaper sandwiched between it and the actual firewall. Only one spotweld on one of the underdash brackets is actually welded to this panel. I say the car must be caged because this actually adds a bit of rigidity to the firewall.

-rear firewall (coupe)/rear seat bracket things (fastback)
If you cage the car all that is no longer necessary. You just have to build a firewall out of some aluminum sheetmetal to run a fuel cell.

-spare tire well
IF you have a cage and you have a fuel cell you can cut this out and replace it with an aluminum sheetmetal panel.