The weight reduction process begins

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by fusion210

A popular way of removing the sound deadening without (much?) scraping is using dry ice and smacking it. I've used a heat gun and scrapers. After being so old, most of it was detached anyway.

I went nuts years ago with neons and weighed so many things. Maybe it will give you some ideas on how much something may way or what you could remove.
https://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?t=278316

Just about everything was weighed on a digital scale I use to ship things that's nearly identical to the weights of things I ship from UPS/Fedex/USPS. You may find that if you weigh something, other people's weights are way off.

Ah, another Neons.org member I did a lot of weight redux on my neon, like making my trunk a skin, crossmember removal under hood, gutted rear doors, etc. I think I got it down to... 2150 with full interior, if I recall? Edit: Found my old post! Link Here

Anywho, I'm doing the same thing you did with the Insight with a scale that's pretty accurate (checked with a 100g weight)... Link Here
Any time I pull something out, for good or not, I weigh it to try and keep a running tally of my total weight.

[dfeldt91]

Things you can remove:

AC
Heater Core
All HVAC system
Passenger wiper
Wiper reservoir and lines
Junk in car
Metal hump in center of spare tire area
Engine covers
under hood insulation(also will help with cooling the engine off if removed)
Rear seat if you don't use it
Rear seat belts if you don't use it



I quickly found that weight reduction gave me worse economy because it really woke the car up performance wise. If you can resist the go fast urge then it will help in city driving. I also noticed with 350 pounds removed from my car, basically the entire interior minus the top half of the dash and front seats, that the highway MPG went down slightly due in part to the lower rolling distance with a lighter car and the added space in the wheel wells.

The only issue I see here is that you are removing little weight in the grand scheme of things so the added percent or two in drag will make your economy go down more likely at higher speeds as was evident in my testing. The car has to be lowered after a lot of reduction and then it makes it not worth it because the money spent on the project is more than any fuel savings.

I have a goal of doubling my fuel economy from the EPA rating so I am willing to spend a bit of money to do so just to do so. But a sane person would just not worry about it and do hypermiling instead.

Another thing to do would be to reroute your serpentine belt if possible to avoid the engine fan and get an electric fan that is set to turn on with a thermal switch of some sort.

Have you done a grille block yet? Have you done an under engine cover? These two mods cost less than $15 in material for corrugated plastic and will actually give you instantly noticeable and measurable results which can be easily returned to stock.

[oldtamiyaphile]

You may also find a light weight car won't pulse and glide very well, so you'll be stuck cruising in gear. There has been the odd guy on here who's ballasted their car for improved P&G. Although I wouldn't go to that extreme, I do much prefer hypermiling a car that gives me a bit of momentum to use to my advantage.

I dropped off 800lbs of materials yesterday, and got (~10%) better economy loaded than I did on the return trip. I was cruising at 80% load at 2800rpm (right about BSFC) so using my fuel very efficiently

Not claiming that as a scientific test, but it goes to show how much weight you can remove and not really see a benefit.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I always link this thread Weight reduction usually doesn't improve fuel economy much, but the cars improved performance and handling can make it more fun to drive.

I bet that Honda civic in the opening thread gets fun to drive.

I've taken over 200 lbs out of my 1977 Porsche 911s Targa, and it has really livened up the the driving experience.

No going back.

As mentioned, once you take a lot of weight out, the car must be re-lowered.

And on my S10 the electric fan conversion has had several people remark how smooth running my 4.3L is. Just saying there are more advantages to these steps than we think of at first glance.

[DukeEcoNukem]

Thanks again for all of the input. I will probably not take off any more small pieces, I am however trying to find a good deal on a carbon fiber hood bc mine is a banged up from the pervious owner. Every little bit helps no matter how small.

[hayden55]

When doing weight reduction the main question you have to ask yourself is: "How uncomfortable are you comfortable with being?"
But yes I agree. In my mustang pwr/wt is a huge advantage in weight reduction, but fuel economy is almost negligible sadly. Most people say for every 10% you reduce, you will pick up 2-3% in FE. But do oddball things like delete passenger wiper, passenger mirror, drain wiper fluid, strip trunk. Are you carrying passengers? Strip seats appropriately. I have taken the carpet out of my 96 and it isn't sound deaden like newer cars so it doesn't weigh much. These cars are already fairly basic so there isn't much free weight loss, and they are so cheap that you can't really afford to buy lighter stuff so they are kinda in weight loss limbo. lol
For the hood you can cut out the lower support structure. That was 18lb on the 05-14 mustangs.

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by DukeEcoNukem

Thanks again for all of the input. I will probably not take off any more small pieces, I am however trying to find a good deal on a carbon fiber hood bc mine is a banged up from the pervious owner. Every little bit helps no matter how small.

I say go big or go home! You don't want your Honda to be like every other Honda out there, make it your own. Also, driving a car with no sound deadening is awesome when the car has a decently powered engine, at least to me. I love the sound of the engine.

A carbon fiber hood is not a good thing to buy in my opinion. It doesn't save a lot of weight for the amount of money you are spending. If the goal is to save fuel then the $500 or whatever could be spent building a kammback or possibly an engine swap, or even buying a ton of coroplast to really cover the bottom to make it more aerodynamic.

According to the online MPG calculator, removing the 400 pounds from my vehicle only gives me 2.5 MPG in ideal conditions. If I were to decrease the Cd by .02 I would have the same results with a full interior. So it would be as simple as adding an under engine cover and removing the passenger wiper.

I would never go back to a stock car. I really do enjoy the stripped out Passat. It is different. How often do you come across a gutted Passat? Never! But was it worth it to save the fuel economy (which I haven't even realized in testing.)?

The answer is: Most definitely not.

[steddie]

dfeldt91, do some of the things i suggested in your ''rotten passad'' letter.....lol

[dfeldt91]

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