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Hey chet, did you ever get a chance to weigh the dash when it was out?

 

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well 6 out of the 7 bolts went in and the 7th was offset by like .08 inches. It became frustratingly obvious when that last bolt couldn't line up to thread into the block. I debated milling out the bolt hole on the flywheel but decided against it as the flywheel was already balanced and i had no way to balance it after machining. So i took pics of the misaligned bolt holes with calipers, sent it to fidanza, and i had a new flywheel the next day.

 

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How do you like the Fidanza ? Any complaints?

THe first flywheel they sent me had the bolt holes machined improperly. I'm sure this is a rare slip up as fidanza is a very reputable company from my experience. They overnighted me a 2nd flywheel and it lined up perfectly. No complaints at all. The engine runs through revs real quick. The only thing i'll say is that i can hear the clutch basket chatter a lot more now, though it might also be because i have stiffer motor mounts now.

According to Kozmic, he doesn't recommend lightweight flywheels with big cam/big injector setups due to extreme difficulty in a proper idle. But i don't care

 

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MR is 100-200 pounds heavier than the GSR

Transmission alone is really only about 60-70 lbs heavier over gsr. The rest of the stuff is acessories, leather, and sound deadening.

 

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Probably wont happen. I am welding on the vibrant vanjen clamps instead of t- bolts and silicone couplers so I know 100% I wont have any boost leaks.

quest to save 1 lb? Tell us about these vanjen clamps, never heard about them.

 

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No worries.

You will love the Plazmaman FMIC, it really is stupid light and works very well, which is obvious as damn near all of the time attack teams there use the Plazmaman or Hypertune intercoolers.

I wish you could do some back to back fmic testing looking at IAT and a few other metrics. Anyone down to donate an ETS fmic for science??

 

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Chet, I've read this whole thread, and seem to remember you going from ETS, to AMS, to Plazmaman (sp?) fmic. I'd ultimately love to get a Plazmaman fmic, but don't feel like spending that much up front, what's the next lightest fmic that will be worth upgrading to over stock? Thanks!

I'm not sure you have a choice. Every aftermarket option i've seen is a bar and plate and they're all 22-25 lbs, maybe more for certain 4 inch versions.

 

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I still have yet to grow the balls to take an angle grinder to my hood supports. I'm afraid it'll get away from me and notch a hole in the hood

 

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I disagree with this, just because another company does something with their design doesn't mean it is the ideal solution. There are other factors that go into why they chose a 2 instead of a 3 point. Structurally a 3 point is going to be superior to a 2 point 9 times out of 10 but is the added weight gain/packaging issues worth it? That depends on who you ask and the application.

+1

let's not allow ourselves to be ignorant here.

On a related note, the FRS has a triangulated strut bar design. Technically a 3 point.

 

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To keep the strut bar from flexing. The attachment point doesnt have to be strong at all in order to keep the strut bar from flexing.

Come on, you should know this.

I was just pointing out that your logic on this matter isn't consistent. At least not to me. The load from the 2 14mm hex bolts is distributed through 6 6mm bolts. It is quite obvious this plate serves a greater purpose than channeling water. The issue here is we don't know to what extent. It could be insignificant, it could be measurable. I'm just being conservative on the issue and leaving the plate in entirely. 6 lbs isn't worth it to me. I also put my stock strut bar back on cause the cusco bar is soft as hell. So i gain another 1.2 lbs for additional rigidity. Before i took it off i could flex the bar with one finger....... Stock bar? Not so much.


On a related note, the two bars that form an X behind the rear seats also serve a purpose. After close examination of the sheet metal structure and their inherently weak spot welds, these bars definitely add rigidity to the entire rear 'hoop'. How much? I'm not sure. But at 1.2 lbs extra, its worth it to me.

Eventually when i decide to get hardcore, i'll probably end up fabbing up a front and rear hoop and have the strut towers connected in a similar design to the V-sport evo X. I'm not sure if i wanna go full cage and this should be a massive bang for my buck in terms of rigidity and light weight.

 

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16mm?

You mean 10mm bolt shaft and 14mm head?

yeah thats it. Seriously though. Explain that.

 

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The only reason it is there is to separate the engine from the windshield wipers and the possible water that is collected at the bottom of the windshield. Not as a secondary strut bar.

If it was meant to be something structural, it would have a much more rigid design and wouldnt be held on by 6mm bolts, lol

then how do you explain the 16mm hex bolts at the center of the strut bar?

 

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Here is a howto if you want to remove window wipers + black plate assembly

http://www.evoxforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222538&page=5

But i must warn you. I posted a response in the thread regarding removal of the black plate.

I've got my wiper assembly off and from the looks of it, that black plate acts as a 'seconday strut bar' further tying the two strut towers together, not to mention the strut brace bolts onto it. After visually inspecting everything in this area, i'm going to put it all back on minus the wipers.

I don't recommend removing the black plate in fear of sacrificing some chassis rigidity.

I do not recommend removing the black plate unless you have a cage.

I removed my wiper motor + assembly and total weight loss is 10 lbs including hardware.

 

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Yeah considering 10 lbs = roughly 1 whp at least for straight line performance I really don't like to spend more than $50 per 1 whp or shedding 10 lb.

That's $500 for 10 whp or 100 lbs...

$2500 for 50 whp or 500 lbs...

Or $5000 for 100 whp/1000 lbs. That seems to be a good rule of thumb for a street car in my book although

whaaaat?1 If that were the case, then we would barely be able to do anything in terms of weight reduction!! My personal limit is $30/lb on pure weight reduction items, and $50/lb on items relating to unsprung/rotational mass. Girodisc rotors are actually above the $50/lb limit, but i'm making an exception once my stock 2pc rotors die.

 

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If ultimate weight savings is your goal why not replace the exhaust with aluminum versions? I know Al doesn't do heat cycling well but who cares if your car is a track car?

Also start looking into replacing brackets with aluminum or carbon versions with significantly more holes.

An aluminum cat back is probably fine, but i wouldn't reccomend an aluminum test pipe, and no one makes an aluminum downpipe for good reason. I run an aluminum driveshaft and i want to keep as much heat off of it as possible. Aluminum is really good at transferring that heat, while titanium is much better than steel in insulating that heat. I think a TI full exhaust is only 3 lbs heavier than AL, but you'll get loads of insurance on your driveshaft and it'll actually be able to withstand rocks being kicked up.

Carbon isn't cost effective in weight reduction here. Not only that, it'll all be super custom, super expensive, and only provide marginal gains over aluminum in most cases. Hence the reason why he still runs the gutted stock AL hood & fenders. They're awesomely light. And free. Sure, he can go balls to the wall with carbon, but i'd be willing to bet he'd only shave about 50 lbs if he redid everything, except it would cost upwards of 10k.

 

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Also, can you add some info about your new strut bar setup? I noticed its different

 

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More weight reduction info to contribute.

AMS DP - 15 lbs
ETS Test Pipe - 2 lbs

Tomei titanium DP - 3.6 lbs
Tomei Titanium Test Pipe - 0.8 lbs

I just lost like 13 lbs

 

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Hey chet, i assume you got rid of that huge metal bracket that holds the ECU and a good portion of the engine harness & battery terminal? Would you mind posting a pic of how you've got that whole thing secured?

 

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Seeing as this is the most comprehensive weight thread on the internet, I've decided to add this information here

Weights:
Stock front motor mount - 1.8 lb
Stock rear engine mount - 3.2 lb
Stock driveshaft /w hardware - 41 lb
Stock SST flywheel - 12.6 lb
Stock driveshaft damper /w hardware - 2.6 lb
Stock dry Motor (no manifolds, no fluids, no accessories) - 258.8 lbs

Boomba Billet front mount - .8 lb
Boomba Billet rear engine mount - 2.2 lb
Bill Englewood Aluminum driveshaft - 26.4 lb
Fidanza/ssp lightweight SST flywheel - 5.8 lb


Total weight i just saved: 26 lbs. I also want to point out that 21.4 lbs of that is rotational inertia, which should be a BIG deal. Full review of the fidanza SST flywheel to come in the next 1-2 months.

Also want to add weighing the stock engine was hard because its so large and i'm not sure if the whole thing was situated on my scale properly. Use that number with a grain of salt.

 

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Is that shield on the throttle body for heat?

There's some silicon behind that shield. I'm sure heat and corrosion could be a factor in the life of the throttle body, but i said fuck it. It only weighs like 2 oz so if you're worried, it would be best to leave it on. The hair on your head weighs more.