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My weight reduction

320K views 1.1K replies 174 participants last post by  chetrickerman  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Code:
 Disclaimer I am not liable for any things you may do to your car
Do not post in this thread how its a bad idea to remove the crash beams, airbags, etc. My thread doesnt need to be filled with crap

BTW, it is NOT illegal to remove the crash beams or air bags

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/adaptive/inoper/Fre_ask_ques.htm

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/problems/studies/bumper/index.html




Due to popular demand, I have been asked to make a list of the things I have removed, replaced, or modified to reduce weight on my Evo. I wont be able to remember everything right away so I will update this post as I remember more stuff. I still retain the dash, plastic covers for foot wells, carpet, door panels, head liner, and rear seats for a semi stock look since I drive my car on public roads.

I wont post the weight of parts removed because I did not weigh them.

So as my car sits on Aug 7, 2012

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weight with a full tank of gas and my 25 pound son in the back as of Aug 18, 2012

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Pics of my interior:

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My engine bay as of Aug 13, 2012

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My cars weight and engine bay as of Aug 5th, 2013

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The Removed list:

- all crash beams (front, rear, and crash bars inside the doors)
- all airbags, airbag control unit, airbag sensors, and all airbag wiring
- A/C compressor, condenser, lines and core. Replaced with AMS A/C delete pulley
- fog lights, replaced with JDM fog light deletes
- all plastic panels on the front bumper (air guides, etc)
- weight below intercooler and below where the driveshaft and transfer case meet
- stock hood latch and gutted stock hood and trunk lid
- all sound deadening (in cabin and in trunk)
- entire sound system (head unit, amp, sub, all speakers, and all wiring)
- all trunk crap (carpet, plastic, fiber board, etc)
- steel frame from the rear back rest and fold down arm rest
- all floor mats
- steel plates that hold the stock head unit in place
- all brackets/bolts that aren't used or I modified them to be lighter but still as strong (far too many to list)
- stock plastic fender vents
- all fabric insulation in engine bay, firewall, and most of it in the cabin.
- unnecessary heat shields
- driveshaft tunnel heat shield and fuel tank heat shield
- black metal plate underneath the windshield wipers (no clue what its called)
- rear black plastic panel
- steel brackets above the rear strut tower
- at least 10 pounds of unused wiring from components that were removed

The Replaced list:

- stock driver and passenger seats with Bride FRP bucket seats with buddy club low seat rails
- stock steering wheel with a Works bell hub and Momo steering wheel
- front crossmember with AMS lightweight front crossmember
- stock springs/struts with JRZ RS1 coilovers with swift main & helper springs (which are 20 pounds ligher than the exact same spec Eibach springs)
- stock wheels/tires with Enkei RPF1 18x9.5 +15 with 245 Dunlop star spec tires
- stock battery with AMS lightweight battery kit
- stock driveshaft with lightweight aluminum driveshaft
- stock rear control arms with Megan racing rear control arms
- stock exhaust manifold with Full-Race Pro-stock tubular manifold
- stock turbo back exhaust with ETS recirc downpipe, custom aluminum test pipe and custom titanium cat-back
- entire stock HVAC unit with a flex-a-lite mohave lightweight heater along with heater core and A/C core (weighs less than 5 pounds rather than the 20+ pound stock HVAC unit)
- stock rear wing with a Aeromotions R2 static CF wing
- stock mirrors with APR Formula GT3 mirrors
- stock radiator and fan shroud with Mishimoto radiator and flex-a-lite 2500 cfm single fan custom mounted to radiator
- stock fuel feed line (which is steel) with lightweight -6 an fuel line
- stock clutch and flywheel with ACT 6-puck and streetlight flywheel

The Modified list:

- stock strut bar (drilled holes and cut off unnecessary metal
- stock steering column support (removed all unnecessary brackets/metal but still retaining its strength)

To Do list:

Nothing, im completely out of ideas. Feel free to post any ideas :)
 
#104 ·
How did you hold up your rear license plate lights? Because the use the crash beam to attatch to don't they? I have been wanting to do this to for awhile now and was thinking about making a tubular crash beam for mounting points and very light protection from sleeping drivers
 
#106 ·
you could try one of the LED bars I used

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I would link if they were a vendor, but I got them from iJDMToy. The LEDs are put on a bracket that has holes to slot with the license plate. I had one of these lying around when one of my bulbs died, right before I had to leave town for an autox. Was all I had to make the fix on such short notice and I just kept it instead of replacing the bulb
 
#119 ·
#121 ·
I have the flexalite mohave heater. Its very lightweight and compact, but works very well. It even runs off of the engine coolant like the stock HVAC. Its only like 5 pounds as opposed to >30

Any bad side effects from removing the weight under the driveshaft/Tcase?
nope

What do you do without a defroster?
the small heater has a defroster integrated :D
 
#129 ·
I like this thread.

pulled about 150lbs from the car, spare tire, trunk linings, hood linings, undercar heat shields, liners etc.

Waiting for my aluminum driveshaft to come to continue the process

need to order exhaust to really shave a bunch.

Gonna do the canister as well, as soon as I start the tuning process.

would love to see my x sub 3000 lbs
 
#134 ·
so my car is light, lol

as a final farewell to my fp red, I did a couple spirited pulls down in mexico, and I break all 4 wheels loose in 1st and 2nd gears. lots o fun :D thats with only 400 whp. with 500 whp, 1st and 2nd will be useless, lol
 
#143 ·
If you gut your interior sell me the plastic pieces so I can switch up my interior lol.
I will keep that in mind, but I probably wont ever gut it. I want to keep it somewhat streetable, lol
 
#144 ·
Lol I feel you. But anything besides seats/steeringwheel let me know if you take it off.

Now that you took off your A/C I'd put some gauges where the HVAC controls were.

Do you think it would be best to have my A/C taken out while the car is at the shop with the engine out or does it not take more than a couple hours to remove the whole A/C setup?

I really want to take more weight out of the front now that the car has a big heavy turbo kit on it and other things up front that are just adding weight. :(
^^^(no fogs, jdm crash beam and ssp brackets up front so far to help lose weight) Next will be a radiator which I'm not sure if you've done but that is about 7-8lb's out of the front.
 
#145 ·
removing the a/c is pretty easy. But removing the compressor while the engine is out is a cake walk.

you should just remove the whole crash beam.

The stock radiator is really light, and is about the same weight as a mishimoto 2 row radiator (the non X-line), but the fan shroud is pretty heavy
 
#146 ·
Thanks I'll probably just have Kozmic do it for me then.

I would but I have two coolers that sit on top of it.(SST/Oil)

Is the X-line lighter because that is the radiator I was talking to Sean@DSG about?
 
#150 · (Edited)
The truth is it's not easy to save a lot of weight. Chet was able to because he removed all of his crash beams from front and rear of car, and all the doors. That was his major weight savings. Everything else adds up little by little, but if you feel like you want to keep your crash beams (like me), then it's hard to justify the work / inconvenience of the other weight saving mods since the weight saved isn't all that significant.

Your best options for weight savings without compromising the safety of your car or making it very inconvenient (no ac, etc) are:
- Exhaust (40lbs savings)
- Suspension (20lbs savings)
- Seats (60ish lbs savings)

Those 3 combined can save you like 120 pounds which isn't insignificant.
 
#151 ·
The truth is it's not easy to save a lot of weight. Chet was able to because he removed all of his crash beams from front and rear of car, and all the doors. That was his major weight savings. Everything else adds up little by little, but if you feel like you want to keep your crash beams (like me), then it's hard to justify the work / inconvenience of the other weight saving mods since the weight saved isn't all that significant.

Your best options for weight savings without compromising the safety of your car or making it very inconvenient (no ac, etc) are:
- Exhaust (40lbs savings)
- Suspension (20lbs savings)
- Seats (60ish lbs savings)

Those 3 combined can save you like 120 pounds which isn't insignificant.

Right on. After that it's more nickel and dime-ing for 5-10lbs here or there, like switching to JDM crash beams. And once you start getting into removing comfort systems like the A/C, hopefully you live in an amazing climate or it's just a track car.