244 weight reduction

[volvoman37]

what are some options for large amounts of weight reduction? i still have to have at least the 2 front seats, but what can i take out to get this thing on a diet?

im gonna take all my crap out of my trunk, so i guess thats a start, but is there anything really heavy that can just be stripped off?

the reason i ask is: i cought a tail wind on the highway the other day and man did it make my car feel 30 times faster, i figure since i cant make a tailwind all the time, weight reduction might get me the same kind of effect

thanks for any tips!

[240Psycho]

hahaha i got a tail wind too the other day. i am having the EXACT same thoughts about my 240. If you dont want ac you can rip that out, and have you removed the rear head rests yet? they just pop up if you mess with the clips in the trunk. Also all the trunk carpet and plastic pieces in there can come out. i have also ditched the carpet under the passenger side of the car under the glovebox. you cant tell its missing unless you get under there to look for it. im also considering ditching the rear door panels and taking some aluminum sheets and cutting them to fit over the metal of the door then just paint it and put the arm rest back on but i dont know if its even worth it.

good luck tell me if you find anything you can ditch to save weight. or you can follow what my car has been doing and just let the pieces start falling off on the road.

[n xntrx volvo]

for most of us this is a good places to start. its where the majority of extra weight is.

[isaac]

If you want that thing to look like a full on racecar on the inside, you can come over to my house and we can strip everything from behind the front seats to the bumper. It'll get louder, but you'll probably drop 150lbs.

Oh yeah, yet another reason to get a 245: You can strip more than 200lbs out of the back if you want it faster.

[vurbo]

Originally Posted by n xntrx volvo

for most of us this is a good places to start. its where the majority of extra weight is.

LOL!

try the sound deading under the carpet's it weigh's a little bit. btu AC is defenetly first! the AC weigh's 60 pound's P/W weigh like 20LB's a side(i think might be all together). if you comnvert to small bumpers that will save you some weight. and if you already have them and you want it to be lighter you can take out the allmuinum and try to reatach the black plastic cover to the bumper shock's that'll save you about 20-40 pound's going from big's to small's and anouther 40 it you take out the alminium and just use the cover's. if you have a sunroof they and are willing to take all the crank stuff and weld it shut that's anouther 35 pound's. if you willing to spend money you can save a little weight with some lightweight high support bucket's made from either fiberglass carbon fiber or steel tubeing they will prettyy much always weigh less than the stock one's but as they start to get really light they start to costs a lot. I.E. the steel tube frame one's usally cost the least than fiberglass than carbon fiber(whitch will cost an insane amount of money!). if you ahve power seats this will lighten your car a lot! that's some basic weight loss mod's im sure there's more you can do you just gotta look.

[volvoman37]

Originally Posted by isaac

If you want that thing to look like a full on racecar on the inside, you can come over to my house and we can strip everything from behind the front seats to the bumper. It'll get louder, but you'll probably drop 150lbs.

Oh yeah, yet another reason to get a 245: You can strip more than 200lbs out of the back if you want it faster.

i might have to take you up on that when we do my transmission mount. which i need to do soon. its getting worse. i can feel a lot of vibration and **** from the shift knob, and its probably not good.

[towerymt]

Shall I assume you didn't attempt to search for previous discussions? It's been talked about before, a lot.

[Kirby]

the triangles behind the rear wheels bolted to the frame next to the gas tank and the bits on the rear calipers weigh at least 20 pounds each. they are pretty heavy. (they are a safety feature designed to stop the rear axle from somehow going up and backwards and through the gas tank in the event of a collision. North american thing only apparently)
next take out your seats and carpet and take out all the sound deading foam from underneath (put it all in a empty garbage can and weigh it it's quite heavy) that stuff is bad it acts like a sponge when it's wet and traps water under your carpet and rusts your floors from the inside out. and then put your carpet and seats back in.
rear seat weighs nothing and is good for the laidies. keep it in.

ditch the following.

-power windows
-power mirrors and associated wiring harnesses. (don't cut. take out as one peice from fusebox and ebay)
-smaller racing style battery
-740 starter motor
-cat
-A/C
-aluminum radiator
-cut that big metal block off the passengerside firewall panel in the engine bay


heres an old thread to look at.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showth...ight+reduction

[740Weapon]

id say that you will probably be able to determine on your own how far you want to go. a kid here at school talked of taking the inner structure out of some of his less neccisary doors. and maybe the structure from his hood too. for a "race" car. not a "comfortable" car.

try this
http://www.ovlov.net/tips_new_2.html

[ZVOLV]

I want to get rid of my sunroof.


What have you guys done, succesfully, to block off the sunroof?

[The Aspirator]

Originally Posted by Kirby

heres an old thread to look at.
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showth...ight+reduction

That's the exact thread I had in mind while reading this .

I converted from crank windows to power windows, and I weighed each. They use the exact same pane of glass (I kept my old ones).
Crank assembly: 2lbs per door
Power window motor and switches: 5lbs per door

I love the power windows except that they're kinda slow. I might actually convert back one day, but I love being able to open the passenger side window from the drivers seat.

John

[milkrocks]

If you lose Power Steering thats another 15lbs or so and probably another 2-3HP at the same time!

[The Aspirator]

Originally Posted by milkrocks

If you lose Power Steering thats another 15lbs or so and probably another 2-3HP at the same time!

Personally, I love my power steering. I've tried a few times going without, and it just sucks. Even after a month of "getting used to it", it still sucked. But that's just me, I'm not trying to make a 2,500 lb racecar here. It's my daily driver.

John

[740Weapon]

im sure the aspirator means this but i have to say it anyway:

if you disconect the power steering pump you have to disconect the steering ram (do volvos even have steering rams?). or at least get the fluid out of it and leave the lines open.

and if you have done that its as good as it can get. and probably its not good at all.

no power steering is so not worth it. even with cars that have the 15000 turns lock to lock turning ratios its still so tiring and hard to drive. or if you keep the stock ratio its hard to park or make right hand turns at intersections.

i actually like having weight in my car. for instance drag racing and wining with three passangers against just a driver is the most degrading thing in the world for the other guy. and the weight allows harder take offs.

but my car isnt for any type of "serious" racing

[The Aspirator]

I don't even know what a steering ram is.... One way to try no power steering is to just take off the belt. The right way to do it is to remove everything, and loop one line on the rack to the other one, while leaving some fluid in there for lubrication. A lot of people LOVE driving without power steering. At speed it really does make the car feel tighter and like you're more in control. Some guys say that they're so used to it that they have no problem parallel parking with a manual tranny and a pop in one hand. If I were to build a race car, I'd ditch the power steering for sure, but not on my daily city driver.

Humm, back on topic.... what other kind of weight can be tossed? A spare tire is heavy, but damn handy when ya need it. Up to you.

Did 240's ever come with aluminum hoods or is it 700's that I'm thinking of??

If you have commando bumpers and wanna save weight, definately put on some small plastic ones.

Plexiglass rear windows.... questionable how legal they are though. On a 242 it'd be easy for the rear side windows.

As mentioned before, stock volvo front seats are HEAVY. While the rear seat is very light. One thing you could do is remove just the passenger side front seat but leave the rear seat in place. We did this for a while on my brothers 242. It's really neat! Like stepping into a limo, plus the passenger gets to stretch their legs all the way out. That would save you the weight of a front seat, I dunno, 20-50lbs?

Aluminum virgo's are probably lighter than those chrome steelies, and that's rotational weight.

If you ditch the AC system, don't just stop with the condenser and the tank, go inside and rip out all the crap in there too. I've heard that it weighs just as much as the other stuff.

Go megasquirt and re-wire EVERYTHING. Even all the wiring behind the dash (that MS doesn't really have anything to do with).

Come on guys, this thread is way too short. It's a great topic! Even though I won't be stoopidly lightening my car, I'm still very interested in what can be done.

John

[GTJordan]

I dunno if its been mentioned.

The brackets on the rear calipers can come off, they are heavy and unsprung weight.
Def get light wheels and the light bumpers
Pull all the sound deadening stuff out you can... That stuff is HEAVY, you can put the carpets back down afterwards, I don't think it weighs much.

if you go MS, then rewire the body and engine harness.

Aren't there aluminum acc brackets for the 240's? I heard that there are some steels and some aluminum ones.

Pressure wash the mud from the undersides

take off the mud flaps

convert to manual windows and locks

pull EVERYTHING out of the trunk, minus a spare and the jack and tire iron.

The AC is very heavy... and if your crazy you could pull the entire heater box out (but atleast pull out the ac **** inside the heater box).

hood bracing? trunk bracing? could go with pins instead of the locking stuff.

if you pull the rear seats, I'd pull out all the seat belt stuff, the door panels, the rear panels, all that good stuff. just put a sheet of aluminum seperating the trunk and the cabin.

Thats all I've got on the top of my head

Jordan

[The Aspirator]

I'm currently re-reading your old thread, tons of great stuff there! Makes me want to start tearing into that red 242 parts car I've got sitting in the garage..... though someone wants it.

John

[GTJordan]

uh yes, back in the day when I cared..... I think the 740 will turn into a project car soon... then find a new car as a daily driver... I wonder how light I can get the 740? Meh... not even going to start thinking about that yet. Gotta move and get settled, and figure out life and all that good stuff before I start messing with cars again

Jordan

[Blackbrick]

Bring your car to New England for a couple years, you'll lose a couple hundred pounds in rocker panels, floor pans and fenders.