weight reduction ideas

[gotboost2jz]

I want to put my S14 on a light diet. I was reading through SCC magazine and saw that they swapped out the rear spindles in favor of n/a 300zx spindles and saved 7lbs per side. Has anyone got any other weight saving ideas such as this?

With that said though, I'm not stripping my interior (my lady isnt a trashy girl and i like my comforts). Also, please dont recommend me the obvious "buy carbon fiber everything" or "buy super light weight wheels". Those are obvious as sunlight and if I wanted to hear that, I wouldn't bother posting a thread lol

[racepar1]

Ummm, buy lighter everything is HOW you save weight. How are we supposed to give you advice if you don't want us to tell you what to buy? There are no miracle, magical solutions. Oh and BTW the weight saved by the z-32 aluminum rear uprights is gained back by the e-brake drum assemblies that are needed with z rear brakes, so you just come out even with that. I know you can run the rear uprights without the brakes, but the vast majority of us want z-brakes.

[Def]

You could remove the sound deadening. That's worth about 25-30 lbs across the whole car on an S13. It won't make that car that much louder really, as it's not like it covers all panels.

Lighter coilovers, stick to smaller brakes, composite pieces as you mentioned(my relatively cheap fiberglass S13 hood is ~21 lbs lighter than the stocker(stock = 40 lbs, FG = 19). Lighter seats are good, but honestly, the reclinable stuff out there isn't much lighter than S14 seats. Something like an E46 M3 has 100 lb each seats, so you save a ton going to aftermarket seats, but my S13 seats were about 30-35 lbs each IIRC, so hard to really save much there. Even a nice bucket seat will be up in the 20-25 lb range after you put some brackets and sliders on it. You can go through and remove unused wiring, but I doubt there is much on a "comfy street car" you would find yourself stripping out.

Really isn't that much more you can do and keep it a comfy street car because these cars aren't fully optioned, really isolated luxury cars. Take an E46 M3, just stripping it and putting in light seats will ditch about 400+ lbs, while in an S13 it's more like 150 lbs.

If you really want to spend some money you can replace non-loaded fasteners with aluminum since there are probably 100-200 M6 bolts that are barely loaded just holding on some little bracket here or there, but you're talking maybe a few lbs after spending quite a bit of money and replacing every single one.

[pwr-adr]

I took out every bit of sound deadening material, any and all tar aswell as the thin hockey puck stuff that goes up the firewall. According to my scale, I save 72lbs including the trash bags.. That is significant and you can notice a difference.

I also got rid of ac/heater everything. I went with z brakes front (aluminum calipers saves 4.7 lbs each) and rear (includes aluminum rear z uprights which do come in at 7.3lbs lighter than stockers).

I got rid of battery tray, useless brackets, 24 pounds of wiring, pop up motors, rear seats, hood bracing and a little bracing from the trunk.

I also cut out a bunch of circles out from the sheet metal in the interior, all of the circles are covered by the interior plastic pieces and I only drilled them out where it was safe to do so (saved 8 pounds there).

I never put more than a half tank of gas for it isn't good weight wise for economy around town.

I swapped an aluminum motor in instead of rocking the iron one wink: wink:
Aluminum driveshaft, lightweight fly, etc etc etc I know there is a ton of stuff I'm forgeting.. all the little things add up and make a difference despite popular belief. I loved being the fastest KA (all motor mind you) in town and even picking on a few 5.0's and s2k's here and there.

[n240sxfnatic]

you could go on a diet as well

[HS13KLS]

Originally Posted by n240sxfnatic

you could go on a diet as well

HAHAHAH!!!

funny, yea..
you arent goign to have a quiet, comfy street/track car.. and keep it light..

unless you took out your seats and put origin rear seats in or somthing( that you cant sit on )

[GSXRJJordan]

I took my S14 down to bare metal everywhere (that's pretty much how I bought it), and read that another guy with an identical setup (S13 SR, FMIC, lightweight seats, no interior, carbon hood, 1/2 tank gas) weighed in under 2500lbs.

Lets not forget bumper supports and crash bars in the stock doors - lightweight race car wouldn't have them, but most street cars do. I'm guessing there's 100lbs there, if you take out the window glass as well.

Currently, I've added a passenger seat, and around 70lbs of sound equipment. I plan on adding aftermarket sound deadening (Cascade Vmax) until I'm happy with the road noise, and weighing then. I hope to be under 2800lbs with me in it (180lbs).

None of it's cheap, and it all takes away from "daily driving".

[Markdawg20]

Remove rear windshield wiper and plug the hole if your model is so equipped with one.

[Markdawg20]

Also, remove the windshield washer fluid tank It weighs like 3 ounces empty! You can also ditch the carbon canister, a/v stuff, egr stuff. If you clip your toe/fingernails, and piss before you go race this will help as well.

[!Zar!]

Originally Posted by pwr-adr

I loved being the fastest KA (all motor mind you) in town and even picking on a few 5.0's and s2k's here and there.

5.0... mustangs?

[MetricHotrods.com]

scrape the rear defroster off your window. yea, those little brownish metal lines.

im still laughing at the guy up there that said he swiss-cheesed his car.

[bejota180sx]

what the hell did you have in that KA to beat 5.0?! HAHAHA...

oh btw... wanna make your car lighter? i removed sound deading and if i have to do it again i prefer to lose 25 pounds on my body than doing that crap again! it looks nice i love how it looks all painted and clean but damm when i took all that crap and weighted it and it was only 25pounds i was like SHIT! i could have lost that in a few months at the gym! or getting anorexic again like old times! HAHAHAHA

best simple ways to lighten your car...
- carbon fiber or frp hood (maybe lighten/gut your stock hood like me helps a tiny little bit)
- carbon fiber trunk
- lexan glass
- gut the interior/remove sound deading
- take out AC (hey i said how to remove weight not keep it 100% useful)
- take out all the ac crap behind dash
- dumb stuff like take out spare tire and all that crap
- remove front/rear bar/bumper support (risking your life...)
- remove wiper assemblies in back and you could do that stupid ricer thing with only 1 wiper in front...

take it to the extreme and be paranoid about weight?
- titanium bolts,screws, nuts
- remove a bunch of electronic stuff and electric wires
- frp/carbon seats cound as lightweight (right?)
- people gut the door bars, or get frp/carbon doors
- and all that carbon/frp shit for the interior

NOW my advise? go on a diet its just easier than most of this dumb shit... i wouldnt do it again on any car... its not like you gain as much... unless you have a dedicated track car and want to make every second at the track count...

[bejota180sx]

you could also drill a bunch of holes everywhere and say its losing weight HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Matej]

Lightweight crank pulley, flywheel, and driveshaft.

[georgesal]

or just make more power

[ka24delover]

more power

[Kn1ves]

Originally Posted by georgesal

or just make more power

wrong, making more power doesn't reduce weight.

[gotboost2jz]

Originally Posted by Markdawg20

Also, remove the windshield washer fluid tank It weighs like 3 ounces empty! You can also ditch the carbon canister, a/v stuff, egr stuff. If you clip your toe/fingernails, and piss before you go race this will help as well.

i like the last suggestion. haha

anyway, im a 5'10" 165lbs military boy. loosing weight is not needed or even realistic to be honest. i commend you all on thinking outside the box though.

[bejota180sx]

get down to 140lbs youre gonna be underweight health wise but its a weight reduction!

and yeah like matej said, reduce weight at the engine... besides crankshaft,flywheel,pulleys... lightweight (ss or ti) exhausts,manifolds,downpipes reduce weight,pipes or anything like that... removing everything that the engine doesnt need emisions and stuff like that

if it has sunroof i guess removing it and shutting it closed would reduce that weight...

im not saying any of these weight savings is gonna help or actually improve anything, im just saying areas you could lose some weight; if it does anything i really don't know...

[Def]

You don't feel 10 or even 20 lbs of weight loss, but add that up over a few times and find the car 40, 50, 60, even 70 lbs lighter with a lot of effort and you can bet you will feel that.

Oh, I should add - lightweight battery. My Odyssey PC680 is about 14 lbs and it cranks my car up just fine(don't recommend it if you've got a bling-bling stereo). That'll save a good 15-20 lbs over the stock sized battery there.

[Hashiriya415]

why weight reduction?
some of my ideas
remove all speakers, stereo. that's how I roll, everyone that rides with me always says why don't I install a stereo, do you have to have a stereo?
1 windshield wiper
remove airbags
remove blower motor and replace with a computer fan, seriously that saved me like 5-10lbs
no carpet, you can afford shoes right?
motorcycle battery, that's about 20lbs
I took lot's of time removing wiring, door sensors, S13 automatic seatbelt wiring, basically after all the unnecessary S13 crap I shaved around 20lbs
no rear brakes, only if you think you are doing the right thing
no power steering
remove unnecessary wing, side skirts, if you have a bigger aftermarket bumpers
racing shoes, they are so light you don't even feel your wearing them, sometimes I just drive with no shoes
sun visors, just relax and enjoy the sun
cut bumper support, or remove completely, you make big money when someone hits you, cuz my zip-tied bumpers will fall as soon as another car touches them, they fall off and money gets transferred
lighter exhaust, stainless steel headers, catback, or even titanium if you got the money
aluminum shift knob, custom aluminum e-brake
shaved off the 4 S13 side markers
remove fog lights
remove 1 horn
short intake
intake manifold
small K&N oil filter
1 quart less engine oil, even 2 worked on my friends B18 that I raced with, but he had royal purple so that's why it didnt blow probably
half quart less, tranny oil
brake fluid right at the low line
use old brake pads almost worn out, that's about 5lbs for all 4
remove power antenna
if you have a KA, go with SR20DE
lightweight pulleys
cable and lever, for trunk and gas door, after you remove this you can't open the gas door unless you kind of bend the little latch inside, so basically on mine now, I hit it and it opens.
instead of screws and bolts that hold unimportant things just make little weld
carbon fiber driveshaft, light and increases safety
coilovers with aluminum body, so far haven't found anybody making them, someday I'll try making some
2 piece brake rotors
aluminum brake calipers
somebody really needs to make the front and rear sub frame out of aluminum
glove box. Passenger "I'm just gonna put this in your glove box, hey were is it?" me "glove box, never heard of it"
gauge cluster, just get tach and temp gauge
custom aluminum clutch/brake/gas pedals
lighter tires
knife instead of gun
acid dip doors hood trunk

[bunnathp]

^lmfao. knife instead of gun =)

[Maximamike]

Originally Posted by Hashiriya415

1 quart less engine oil, even 2 worked on my friends B18 that I raced with, but he had royal purple so that's why it didnt blow probably
half quart less, tranny oil
brake fluid right at the low line
use old brake pads almost worn out, that's about 5lbs for all 4

That's probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[Matej]

When I bought my 240 it came with two huge 15" subs in the back, haha.

The car felt a lot faster after I took them out.

Since then I've removed about everything I could. The things I kept are the stereo and front speakers, bumper supports, door panels, center console, and dash. Even though those things aren't necessities, I like them. It's all about what you want to keep and what you don't care for.

Now that I can't really remove anything else, I plan to slowly start buying lightweight parts. Except for wheels and aero. Big heavy wheels and aero are top priorities, I'm just making the rest of the car make up for them, haha.

By the way I'm not doing this to go faster or whatever. I just love the awesome gas mileage, and how nimble the car feels. Plus I want to drift with an n/a KA on 18's.

[BustedS13]

if it's your daily driver, and you like being remotely comfortable, then don't even bother.

that is the best advice you will receive on the subject.

[Kalashnikov]

One of the most common and best weight reduction is to STOP Freaking EATING.

[ranger240]

cut the roof off.. while youre at it.. no windshield either.. make the first s14 speedster

[trsilvias13]

Originally Posted by pwr-adr

I swapped an aluminum motor in instead of rocking the iron one wink: wink:
Aluminum driveshaft, lightweight fly, etc etc etc I know there is a ton of stuff I'm forgeting.. all the little things add up and make a difference despite popular belief. I loved being the fastest KA (all motor mind you) in town and even picking on a few 5.0's and s2k's here and there.

You swapped in an aluminum motor and you are the fastest KA in town? IIRC, they dont have an aluminum KA24e/ka24de. Unless you are talking about owning a honda and having a K motor?

[!Zar!]

Anyways, aren't there like a billion other weight reduction threads?

[projectRDM]

Yes, there are. And we've covered every single possible detail before in those threads. People act like they've found something new just because they've never stripped a car before, but those of us who've had these things for 15-20yrs have already talked about every conceivable idea to lighten the chassis. There's nothing new to it.