The Elephant In The Room: unloading the load from a B-body.

[fullmetaljacket]

While region #1 is coming to a conclusion unless there's an elusion to other tricks, a big block fuel pump can weigh as much as 3-1/2 Lbs with push rod and all at the very front of the car. All this can be switched to the rear of the car with the use of an external electric fuel pump or in-tank unit. Not necessarily removing the weight, but repositioning it for more effective weight distribution.
My fuel pump weighed 3 Lbs with push rod. Electric in tank unit weighs a little more, but placed in the right place.

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Another hidden shred of weight loss ideas sits right there smack in front of your face. It can't get any easier than these made out of simple flat stock aluminum with three bolt holes drilled out. What are they? Lifter valley tray bars. The steel stock pieces like the ones below stand in as perfect templates and weigh 3/4 of a pound total. The aluminum replicas are at 1/4 Lb.
Shaves 1/2 Lb right there. That's 8 ounces right there towards the goal of 1600 for a total of 100 pounds shaved.
Let's not forget the 6ix mounting bolts in aluminum.
All in all, this practice extends the joy of the hobby/sport/emotional rescue a bit longer.

 

[gooser]

i made 4 sets of these back in 77 used aluminum bolts for the hold down

 

[fullmetaljacket]

i made 4 sets of these back in 77 used aluminum bolts for the hold down

You beat me to 'em by 13 years. Darn it.
You Motor city guys are mad scientists and the whole state is the laboratory since there are so many machine and specialty shops everywhere. LOL.
I didn't even have a car back then never mind a Mopar. But I was surely watching them closely.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Though it can not be seen here,,,, if anything, intentionally, the strut rods are T-6061 aluminum and then painted with a combo of cast iron color with a dusting of stainless spray paint to give them that new steel look.

Both stock struts are 6-1/4 lbs. Aluminum types with aluminum lock nuts and cone head washers are 3 lbs. Shaves 3-1/4 lbs there.

The aluminum tie rod end sleeves also have the same makeup treatment. They are super beefy and yet lighter.
Stock sleeves are 2 lbs total. Aluminum types 1 lb. Shaves 1 lb.

Bottom 90/10 shock bolt and nut is Titanium. Stock bolt and nut are 1/4 Lb. Titanium type 1/8 Lb.

Center link is chromoly tubing center section welded and pinned to the factory ends. Stock link is 5Lbs. Tube type 3 Lbs. Shaves 2 Lbs.

Upper A-arms are chromoly and weigh 8-1/4 lbs for the pair. Stocks types are 10-1/2 Lbs. Shaves 2-1/4 Lbs.

Lower arms are bone stock with a coating of bronze/copper paint and a dusting of gold. They are not boxed in.
It would cool if they were Titanium or at least chromoly in a stock shape/form.

 

[Mopar John]

So back to my GTX weight loss story!
As I mentioned the GTX was over 3600lbs new in street trim.
I knew all along making the car lighter would make it faster!
But back in 1998 when I started racing at "ROUTE 66 RACEWAY" in Joliet, Illinois things ramped up.
They had a very good scale at this new track.
The first time I weighed the GTX there it weighed 3385lbs!
So that is when I started my weight loss log and making notes.
I would jot down the item with the old weight and new weight.
Then I would show the difference and new accumulated total.
So my attached pictures show those log sheets.
The first item is that I went with a higher stall convertor and it dropped 5 lbs of rotating weight.
The old convertor weighed 31lbs and the new convertor weighed only 26lbs!
Lee has been talking about zones on his plan but I think rotating weight trumps any zone?
MJ

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Have not posted for a few days because I was out of town with the GTX at IRP racing!
So the next item on my list was the transmission blanket.
I had an old Lakewood blanket that was stiff and full of transmission fluid.
I was hard to install and I went with a TCI transmission shield.
This change resulted in a 4 pound loss in the right area of the car!
The pictures are of new parts so you know what I'm talking about.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

A brace like this one between the K-member and radiator front valance weighs almost a pound at 13.70 ounces with fasteners and all.

Way back in the '90's while dumpster diving in back of a fabrication shop, a friend found a few aluminum braces and other misc pieces. While not exactly looking the same, it does somewhat resemble the stocker to the untrained eye. Needless to say, only after a little massaging with a body work hammer, it was redeployed in place and weighs in at 1.80 ounces including with aluminum fasteners.
In this big city, whenever aluminum whatever's/whichever's are found laying on the streets, it comes to the shop to analyze its metallurgy and how it can be adapted into new use. Below: stocker up top and the newbie on the bottom.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Have not posted for a few days because I was out of town with the GTX at IRP racing!
So the next item on my list was the transmission blanket.
I had an old Lakewood blanket that was stiff and full of transmission fluid.
I was hard to install and I went with a TCI transmission shield.
This change resulted in a 4 pound loss in the right area of the car!
The pictures are of new parts so you know what I'm talking about.

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Hey John. Funny, I was going to use that same TCI aluminum shield and then ended up with a Kevlar CSR composite one instead.
Still had to massage the tunnel a little bit, but it cleared in the end and cleared the scales lighter than a blanket. A tad lighter than the aluminum piece as well but have no exact numbers being that I was adding weight. The added weight was good insurance against an angry transmission.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Pertaining to '64-'65 cars. Though the factory deleted these under fender splash guards to reduce weight on the A-864 and A-990 race Hemi package cars, it increased wind drag in its place by then allowing air to be directed and trapped in the door jams and kick panels. Both guards with rubber seals and mounting hardware weighed in at 3-1/2 Lbs. The fabrication of aluminum types would have caused too much time in the outcome, so they were deleted all together.
In this case with drag being the culprit, a slick trick is to paint all those areas with a slicker paint that has some sheen and slip to it such as gloss or satin black. Gloss being the best so as to allow under chassis air to slip through more efficiently.

 

[Mopar John]

Hey John. Funny, I was going to use that same TCI aluminum shield and then ended up with a Kevlar CSR composite one instead.
Still had to massage the tunnel a little bit, but it cleared in the end and cleared the scales lighter than a blanket. A tad lighter than the aluminum piece as well but have no exact numbers being that I was adding weight. The added weight was good insurance against an angry transmission.

Lee,
Later on down my list I also went from the TCI aluminum shield to the CSR composite shield.
The CSR shield also counts as a flexplate shield.
MJ

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Lee,
Later on down my list I also went from the TCI aluminum shield to the CSR composite shield.
The CSR shield also counts as a flexplate shield.
MJ

MJ
I was at one time going to fabricate a flex plate shield out of 6AL 4V titanium based on the fact that Trick Titanium in Detroit was fabricating explosion proof housings for the stick cars out of the light ally, but hold and behold CSR stepped in to the game.
While on that area, here's a stock torque convertor dust plate at 3/4 of pound not counting hardware. A fabricated aluminum version with a few cooling slits comes in at 1/8 Lb.
It was later chosen to remove it all together and get more air for cooling the convertor and shed the weight altogether.
An aluminum corrugated mesh or net sheet would probably be best to protect against foreign matter kicking into there.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

K-MEMBERS ONLY next.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

"K"pasa...

 

[fullmetaljacket]

"K"pasa...

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What's up Itis?
I just saw you on the LIE yesterday around exit #54 or somewhere about.
This shows an example of what will be discussed when there's a chance to post on K members. Big city buzz.

 

[Badvert65]

When I removed the K member from my 65 Belvedere, I discovered about 5 pounds of dirt and gravel up inside it. Cleaning it was the easiest way I ever cut weight from my car.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

When I removed the K member from my 65 Belvedere, I discovered about 5 pounds of dirt and gravel up inside it. Cleaning it was the easiest way I ever cut weight from my car.

For some reason, K's pile up the pounds with their attire consisting of road dirt, grime, grease/oil and horrible weld flash. I never weighed the stuff from my own K, but I do remember that it was wet and heavy.

 

[dvw]

I scraped 7.5 lbs of rubber out of the rear wheel wells this year.
Doug

 

[fullmetaljacket]

K-members can weigh as much as 28-40 Lbs. With the very rare AFX (17 Lb) 1965 $tainless K's or the mysterious magne$ium K's being non optional, non available or supposedly non existent, there isn't too much that has been done to stock K's to reduce its weight with the exception of a few things on hot cars.
* Common in serious programs is the removal of the steering box and its mount shelf and replaced with a rack and pinion set up.
* Common is cutting and boxing the K's main underpass bridge for oil pan clearance as can be seen in Itis's creation. DVW's version puts us all to shame though.
* Uncommon is the trimming of the continental shelf pinch welds that connect both bottom and top clam halves and re-welding it shut. Again, DVW shames us with this effort.
* Most common depending on flexibility of the race class is cutting the motor mount shelves off, thus deleting the use of common motor mounts in place of a front motor plate. Unsurprisingly, DVW serves us with a Three-peat with this effort.

Most if not all plates are aluminum with their mounting end tabs and hardware being steel, so with that thought, a motor plate not shaving much weight is partially arguable. The steel tabs welded to the side longitudes are rather small, so not much weight gets reintroduced there. As most of you know, an engine plate is usually made out of T-6061 aluminum and are at least 1/4 to 3/8 thick to take the brute force of an engine trying to do the Chubby twist.

Down below, the pair of motor mount brackets with insulators and mounting hardware weighed exactly 5 Lbs. The passenger side motor mount shelf after removal from the K weighed 2-1/2 Lbs and the drivers side weighed a little less at 2 Lbs for a total of 9-1/2 Lbs just there. Different cars with different motor mounts and shelves will weigh differently.

The aluminum plate weighed 4-1/2 Lbs with the end tabs and titanium hardware for a total savings of 5 Lbs up front. The meaty mig beads might have added a few ounces though. LOL.
The resulting fruit wasn't the weight removal, but the allowed reasonable amount of engine setback and height adjustment that creates a favorable weight distribution and instant torque apply to the chassis. Tighten and torque down your dentures though.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

(6) timing cover bolts. T-2024 aluminum.
The weight savings isn't much at all, All 6 stock bolts were 3.65 ounces. Aluminum types are 1.20 ounces. This project leaves no stone unturned.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

One big nut at the starter relay. Stock nut is 0.45 of an ounce. Aluminum type 0.04.

 

[bearman]

K-members can weigh as much as 28-40 Lbs. With the very rare AFX (17 Lb) 1965 $tainless K's or the mysterious magne$ium K's being non optional, non available or supposedly non existent, there isn't too much that has been done to stock K's to reduce its weight with the exception of a few things on hot cars.
* Common in serious programs is the removal of the steering box and its mount shelf and replaced with a rack and pinion set up.
* Common is cutting and boxing the K's main underpass bridge for oil pan clearance as can be seen in Itis's creation. DVW's version puts us all to shame though.
* Uncommon is the trimming of the continental shelf pinch welds that connect both bottom and top clam halves and re-welding it shut. Again, DVW shames us with this effort.
* Most common depending on flexibility of the race class is cutting the motor mount shelves off, thus deleting the use of common motor mounts in place of a front motor plate. Unsurprisingly, DVW serves us with a Three-peat with this effort.

Most if not all plates are aluminum with their mounting end tabs and hardware being steel, so with that thought, a motor plate not shaving much weight is partially arguable. The steel tabs welded to the side longitudes are rather small, so not much weight gets reintroduced there. As most of you know, an engine plate is usually made out of T-6061 aluminum and are at least 1/4 to 3/8 thick to take the brute force of an engine trying to do the Chubby twist.

Down below, the pair of motor mount brackets with insulators and mounting hardware weighed exactly 5 Lbs. The passenger side motor mount shelf after removal from the K weighed 2-1/2 Lbs and the drivers side weighed a little less at 2 Lbs for a total of 9-1/2 Lbs just there. Different cars with different motor mounts and shelves will weigh differently.

The aluminum plate weighed 4-1/2 Lbs with the end tabs and titanium hardware for a total savings of 5 Lbs up front. The meaty mig beads might have added a few ounces though. LOL.
The resulting fruit wasn't the weight removal, but the allowed reasonable amount of engine setback and height adjustment that creates a favorable weight distribution and instant torque apply to the chassis. Tighten and torque down your dentures though.

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Are those bolt heads shave down