4DLuvOfSpeed

What can I do to make my '79 lighter? So far I've almost taken out the whole A/C (approx. 60 lb.) and I ordered a VBP composite rear spring (approx. 35 lb. difference in unsprung weight). That's +/- 95 lbs. I want to take off 200-250 lb.. I have a few other ideas in mind and need your comments:

1) Tranny. I'm doing a 4-speed conversion. Going with a T-10, which is 50 lb. lighter than the stock 350 auto, according to corvettefaq.com. Is there a production tranny that also bolts in and is lighter than the T10?

2) Heads. I'm still a newbie so I don't know jack about my stock L-48 heads. Are they aluminum? How much do they weigh? How much weight can I save on average if I go with aftermarket aluminum heads?

3) Flywheel. When I do the conversion I'll probably go with a 15 lb. Hays aluminum flywheel. That's over 15 lb. shaven off of rotational weight.

4) Crate engine (future). IF I end up with a ZZ4 or something similar from AR, approx. how much lighter will my car be?

That's all I can think of for now. Any other suggestions? Other than the A/C (which was a mess anyway), I don't want to strip my car of anything, just replace original parts with lighter ones. I'm fixing up my car as a frequent street driver with autocrossing/road racing in mind.

norvalwilhelm

Have you got rid of the spare tire, installed light weight rims, even tires can be liter. I totally removed all metal from the front of my car and drill hundreds of holes in it, acid dipped alot of the parts, left others out then powedercoated. My front vacuum tube lost about 19 or 20 pounds alone.
I have centerline autodrag mags and would like to replace them with something more modern but they are so lite. :)

MikeC

If you are planning on autocrossing make sure you know the consequences of each modification..... With the mod's you've planned above you could be in a mostly full race car class.

No your car does not have aluminum heads...... I think you loose around 35 lbs for aluminum heads.

I believe there was a weight loss thread a few months ago..... Check the archives.... it was fairly indepth.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=326967





[Modified by MikeC, 12:59 PM 3/17/2003]

John Dirks

Norval,
When you drill holes in everything in the front end, does that weaken things to much? A drilled out vacuum tube can't have much vacuum, what did you do there?
I would like to lighten up my car too but don't want to weaken it structurally.
Any other tricks?

bence13_33

Here are a few ideas. Personally I'm trying to take as much weight off of my front end as possible.

- Aluminum Radiator
- Aluminum Heads
- Aluminum Water Pump
- Aluminum Intake
- Mini Starter
- Headers

I'm not a big fan of aluminum heads. The only real advantage to them is their weight. All things being equal a cast iron set will make more power. I just switched from my original starter to an AC Delco mini-high torque gear reduction starter. I shaved 15lbs off of the front end. The mini starter weighs 8lbs and my stock starter weighed 23lbs.

You're not going to get much lighter than a Super T10....it's an aluminum case. Light rims like Norval mentioned would also help. The composite rear spring is a great addition...just remember to keep your exhaust AWAY from the spring!

norvalwilhelm

Sure it weakens the parts but other then an impact from another car in which case regardless my front end is gone why worry about it. I am very fussy about my car but drilling holes in everything doesn't both me. My vacuum tube is gone with hundreds of holes the ends cut out and acid dipped. I use the motor directly as a vacuum source and you will see my light go up or down at a normal rate and the motor does not change idle. I do not have vacuum brakes.
In a beam the middle of the beam does nothing expect hold the beam together. In theory you can cut the entire middle out and it wouldn't weaken the beam. It is like throwing a ball in the air straight up. It comes to a complete stop before falling to earth. A "I" beam has heavy flanges top and bottom. The bottom flange is under compression and the top flange in under tension. In order to change from compression to tension the forces must equal zero. I am hoping my front end sees the same type of loading.
So far so good.

LFZ

ok...here are inexpensive ways...first take out the passenger seat, door panels...radio.. spare, and anything with weight...buy and use the lightest oil....run no more than a 1/6th of a tank full of gas...hit the gym and loose 25 lbs....then you might shave a few miliseconds on your track time and gain about .07 horsepower on a dyno... :jester well...all the other good ideas were already said..... :thumbs:

Vetterodder

Good suggestions from all. I've done all and lost over 200#'s. Aluminum heads were the greatest loss at about 60#. Keep in mind that as you take weight off, bosy height will rise. Mine began to look like a 4X4 unitl I lowered it. Power to weight matters much more than just total power.

Schmucker

Remove the spare tire and assembly.

I think today alone I lost about 10 lbs of grease that I pressured washed off of my control arms and tranny crossmember. :lol:

groovyjay

I've lost over 330 on my 79. I'll do a fully detailed list of the mods I've done, as soon as I get back to finland. :cheers: