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

fullmetaljacket said:
How quick and fast is that bad boy?
Click to expand...
Just doing baby steps for now. 440ci - 11.30 @125. Old fairbanks conv, 1.83 60' . Missing about 1000rpm at the stripe.
ATI treemaster in an envelope on a train incoming. Also need caltracs for said converter. Might be some more in the dominator calibration
 
RemCharger said:
Just doing baby steps for now. 440ci - 11.30 @125. Old fairbanks conv, 1.83 60' . Missing about 1000rpm at the stripe.
ATI treemaster in an envelope on a train incoming. Also need caltracs for said converter. Might be some more in the dominator calibration
Click to expand...
Sweet. That MPH is already hinting at lower ET's as I'm sure you will figure it out. With a decent 60' from taking advantage of that titanic rear overhang, that thing will really deliver the mail at the stripe. what's it weigh again?
 
fullmetaljacket said:
Sweet. That MPH is already hinting at lower ET's as I'm sure you will figure it out. With a decent 60' from taking advantage of that titanic rear overhang, that thing will really deliver the mail at the stripe. what's it weigh again?
Click to expand...
Weighs about 3450 w driver. It's a fairly peaky motor so could really use the rpms. Has 4.56s but not enough.
The 10" drums are about maxed out at this point too.
 
RemCharger said:
Weighs about 3450 w driver. It's a fairly peaky motor so could really use the rpms. Has 4.56s but not enough.
The 10" drums are about maxed out at this point too.
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3450 Lbs with you in the seat is darn good for such a beast. I suspect there's another 100 Lbs easily to be trimmed to give those 10" drums some relief. You've got glass anywhere? Is it a street car?
 
Thanks! Yes there's still lots of fat to trim. Has front and rear glass ( non negotiable). Still has the floor undercoating. Mirrors/ wiperblades, carpet.. for now I'll be putting a body disc's on it. Not a street car, but could be if desired. Still has turnsignals etc
 
The weight penalty shows up when you have to add a full cage, window net, heavy aftermarket block, wheelie bars, extra carb, big fuel pump, fire system. I’d bet that stuff is over 300lbs.
Doug
 
dvw said:
The weight penalty shows up when you have to add a full cage, window net, heavy aftermarket block, wheelie bars, extra carb, big fuel pump, fire system. I’d bet that stuff is over 300lbs.
Doug
Click to expand...
Yes my block added around 90lbs . But then you can go onto wheels and tyres . My PBRs are about 34 lbs compared to Gyear radials @ 23lbs .Then there is 10"billet aluminium street rims verse 8" or light race rims . At least my 5 point bar was only a swap for rear seat weight .

Tex
 
RemCharger said:
Thanks! Yes there's still lots of fat to trim. Has front and rear glass ( non negotiable). Still has the floor undercoating. Mirrors/ wiperblades, carpet.. for now I'll be putting a body disc's on it. Not a street car, but could be if desired. Still has turnsignals etc
Click to expand...
No I meant fiberglass panels anywhere. I agree, the front and rear glass shields should be left alone.

Undercoating? Depending on how much was applied will shed a good amount of weight and clean up the underneath. Not to mention make the under chassis more slippery in the wind. Scrub it all off.

Mirrors are for keeping Vampires at bay. Toss 'em LOL.

Who needs wiper blades and wiper motors when racing is done in dry fair weather. Flick 'em into the shelves for a rainy day.

Carpet? Red carpets are for celebrities to strut on. Swipe it out.

If a race car, either the classic removal/replacement of the hood with fiberglass could shed a nice amount obviously. Personally and only my 2 cents, I like steel or aluminum panel race cars that are lightened in unorthodox ways.
 
fullmetaljacket said:
No I meant fiberglass panels anywhere. I agree, the front and rear glass shields should be left alone.

Undercoating? Depending on how much was applied will shed a good amount of weight and clean up the underneath. Not to mention make the under chassis more slippery in the wind. Scrub it all off.

Mirrors are for keeping Vampires at bay. Toss 'em LOL.

Who needs wiper blades and wiper motors when racing is done in dry fair weather. Flick 'em into the shelves for a rainy day.

Carpet? Red carpets are for celebrities to strut on. Swipe it out.

If a race car, either the classic removal/replacement of the hood with fiberglass could shed a nice amount obviously. Personally and only my 2 cents, I like steel or aluminum panel race cars that are lightened in unorthodox ways.
Click to expand...
No fiberglass except the scoop. The front clip went through extensive acid dipping and trimming. As lite as steel can get, and, it's steel :)
The wiper arms, mirrors, carpet etc is all for esthetics. Kind of a stock look. Plus it's a working car, sometimes need to see who's coming up behind ya.
Hope the caltracs shed some weight, because a Dana is going in at the same time :(
 
RemCharger said:
No fiberglass except the scoop. The front clip went through extensive acid dipping and trimming. As lite as steel can get, and, it's steel :)
The wiper arms, mirrors, carpet etc is all for esthetics. Kind of a stock look. Plus it's a working car, sometimes need to see who's coming up behind ya.
Hope the caltracs shed some weight, because a Dana is going in at the same time :(
Click to expand...
The Cals will shed some pounds with a Mono-leaf, but the Dana will add it back in along with some insurance.
I love the acid dip panels. Exactly what I would do in spite of fiberglass all over the place and no other options from the factory.
I wonder if any stock car big track lightening tricks could be applied being that those Chargers were used extensively back then.
That car, which is probably a tad longer than mine will fool a lot of folks if attention to detail is considered as far as weight removal.
 
OK, I weighed a brand new 20:1 manual steering box. Out of the box it is 12 pounds 7.1 ounces (12.44lbs)
I have a used 24:1 box currently in my Belvedere that I will weigh when I get the chance.
YRMV
 
5 Point Roll Bar VS a 10 Point Cage
Since DVW mentioned the weight penalty about the safety upgrades,
I thought now would be a good time to share what happened with me.
Way back in the early 70's I showed up at US30 Dragstrip near Gary Indiana to race my GTX.
When I went through tech inspection ( yes they had it back then! )
They wouldn't let me race that day because I had removed the seats and installed
a drivers fiberglass bucket seat only.
They informed me that I would need a 4 point Roll Bar!
Well there was no Jeggs or Summit back then so I starting looking and
finally found a bolt in 4 point Roll Bar from a guy that had a Charger.
I installed it and finally got to race.
Years later I added a drivers side bar to foot well 5th point.
So In 2005 I went to my local chassis shop and told them that I needed a 10 point cage.
They told me I could get a steel tube or chrome-moly tube cage.
The labor for either was about the same but they said the chrome moly would be lighter!
That's all I had to hear and went for the chrome-moly 10 point cage.
I asked them to weigh the GTX before and after.
When I went to pick up the GTX the guys were all smiles!
The weight of the old 5 point bar was up there!
The weight of the GTX went from 2984 down to 2956 a LOSS of 28LBS!! WOW!
I am now legal down to 8:50 and up to 150MPH!
MJ

IMG_2010.JPG
 
So I made a little time tonight to remove the steel radiator core to vertical support brace. It's basically an L shape thingy with a strengthening dimple on the crest of the 90 degree bend. Here it is in the stock mounting location.

1-1.jpeg
 
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fullmetaljacket said:
After removing it, I weighed it against its new aluminum sibling. The steel weighed exactly 1/4 Lb. The aluminum one weighed 3 ounces.

View attachment 1719495
Click to expand...
You sound like a politician or tv huckster using 2 different terms to make the difference sounds bigger than it is. You lost 1 ounce on that bracket, correct?

I’m not knocking your efforts, it just struck me as late night infomercial speak.
Travis..
 
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