Rotating Weight

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

hm, doesnt want to let me post

anyways, commute is 110 miles round trip, 105 of which are freeway. Ive been getting 42 mpg at 55 on the freeway, pulse and glide in town. However, im looking to improve gas mileage everywhere, since im not doing this hoping to make the money back.

I currently have 5 pounds of rotating weight taken off with the underdrive pulley, and when i swap transmissions in 2 weeks ill be saving another 6.25 pounds with the aluminum flywheel. Then add in that ill be deleting my alternator, and the powersteering, and thats another 4-5 pounds. Plus the 28 pounds from the wheels and tires. And when the engine gets rebuilt, theres going to be some money spent there reducing rotating weight. So in all im looking at maybe 50 pounds of reduced rotating weight. Just wanted to see if there was anything already done on this, if not ill have to test for sure.

[busypaws]

Look into bearings and low friction fluids. I've also changed to 0w20 synthetic. I'm thinking about going with something lighter in the transmission. Haven't done any real research but better wheel bearings may buy you something.
Risky option: Since I've also pulled 140lbs of sprung weight out I was wondering if I could get away with a smaller/lighter rear drum or disk setup.
Sorry no real data. Just got a scanguage so any future changes I'll keep track of impacts.

[Christ]

smaller brakes are almost never a good idea, unless they get to the point where they're actually over sized for the vehicle, which is almost impossible, honestly.

[busypaws]

Yes smaller brakes are last on my list. Not anytime soon.
Current brakes designed for GVW of full accessory vehicle with 4 passangers and trunk full of luggage. I want to do some more weight savings first then weigh my car. If I'm down 25% or more from GVW then maybe I can afford to loose some brake capability.
I'm an engineer so I can do the calculations and see if I'm still safe. We work on lightweighting Tanks/missile launchers/guns here at work so I'm seeing if I can do it at home on my commuter.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

i plan on messing with bearing coatings and different greases as well, im using 5w30 mobil 1, which was recommended as the lowest weight oil to use by one of the engineers who designed the car

unfortunately the transmission is super sensitive, the wrong oil will really make the shifting suck, however, the right oil for it is already thinner then most transmission oils, the right oil is mobil 1 high mileage 10w30

i need to start a project log here, anyone thats been here longer then me, is this the right part of the forum to put it?

[Christ]

Originally Posted by TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL

i plan on messing with bearing coatings and different greases as well, im using 5w30 mobil 1, which was recommended as the lowest weight oil to use by one of the engineers who designed the car

unfortunately the transmission is super sensitive, the wrong oil will really make the shifting suck, however, the right oil for it is already thinner then most transmission oils, the right oil is mobil 1 high mileage 10w30

i need to start a project log here, anyone thats been here longer then me, is this the right part of the forum to put it?

If you're using 5w30 M1, you can also use 0w30 M1, because it exceeds the SAE standard for 5w oils. I use it, with no problems. I haven't changed my oil in 10k miles or so.

Same deal w/ the transmission, if you use motor oil in it. You can use 0w30, and it shouldn't affect anything, because, again, the 0w30 meets the standards for 5w30, and the first number is the cold weight.

You can start it here, but if you look through the available forums, there may be a place better suited for it, depending on the specifics of your thread.

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

ill have to look for the engine oil, that sounds like that should be fine, but im not sure the make mobil 1 high mileage in 0w30 for the transmission. The reason it has to be high mileage is because of the material the synchros are made of, they require the oil to have a high level of ZDP, 16000 PPM or more. The only oil so far to have that amount is the mobil 1 high mileage, the original mopar stuff, and the higher end racing oils labeled for synchromesh transmissions, although those are usually thicker. The mobil 1 has tested at being 99% the same as the original mopar fluid, which was designed specifically for this tranny, with the only differences being mobil one has a slight increase in ZDP, and a slight decrease in sulfer (which was used as an anti-tarnish agent in the 95 model transmissions with brass synchros)

Thanks for the help, and look for a project log this weekend, ill probably put it in here, since its going to be a combination of a lot of different things, from aero to weight reduction to some new things i want to try.

[Christ]

They don't have any 0 weight oils in the high-mileage variety, that I know of. Mobil 1, I believe, only uses syn's anyway, so it's just a matter of getting the lower weight to get that last little bit of efficiency from it.