Weight Reduction

power to weight ratio is important if you are going for performance

What have you guys done to your Riviera to drop weight?
Has anyone taken the back seat out? Swapped out the driver and passenger lazy boys?
Replaced mechanical parts with lighter aluminum components? fly wheel? exhaust? lighter axles?
plexiglass for windows?

Has anyone moved the battery from the back cab to the engine bay?

Does anyone own a Riv lighter than 3,000 lbs curb weight?

P.S。
”It is widely accepted in the automotive community that for every 100 pounds of weight lost from a vehicle the gain in acceleration felt would be like getting an extra 10 horsepower.”

abs delete.sunroofdelete.cruize delete. MX3 seats @ 25lb a piece -vs- stock seats @ 58 passenger,68 driver.air box delete. single 3" into 2.5 muff.
lighter.
more to go.

Quote :

”It is widely accepted in the automotive community that for every 100 pounds of weight lost from a vehicle the gain in acceleration felt would be like getting an extra 10 horsepower.”

This depends on the weight of the vehicle. The heavier the vehicle, the less difference will be felt from loosing 100 lb. Since the Riv is on the heavier side, I don't put her on a diet, because it would make very little difference. For example, the rear seat weighs almost nothing, probably 10 lb or less, and taking it out means a lot of road noise.

The only weight reduction I've done is remove the engine hoist brackets, which are about 3 lb, and replaced the cast iron exhaust manifolds with stainless steel headers. I've removed the engine cover, and replaced the fuel rail with a lighter one from ZZP.

But the biggest change to my car has been the addition of weight to the rear, for better weight distribution. A subwoofer enclosure with amps weighs about 50 lbs, and a 35 lb hitch is mounted at the extreme rear. I've found the extra pounds in back reduces understeer, making the car more neutral in the corners. Imo, removing weight in the rear, or transferring more to the front is a kind of sin, being out F/R weight ratio is lopsided to begin with.

was there ever an aluminum block 3800?

If you wanted to spend a lot of time on it, I've noticed how many of the fasteners (engine mount bolts, for example) have extra threads past the end of the nut, just along for a free ride. You might be able to get a few pounds out there, but the effert vs. reward might not be that great.

I've always been taught that 1 pound of rotating weight has the same effect as removing 7 pounds of static weight. That might be a direction to look, more bang for your buck. But anything you did remove would be that much less weight to drag around, and a lot of small things do add up, like robotennis is doing.

A couple favorite quotes about weight reduction:
"Light. Strong. Cheap. Pick two."
"Nothing's lighter than a hole"

@ AJ,Nope

@Rivilac-lol.so true! a hole is as light as it wants to be haha!

Run 4 donuts,that should help lighten her up.

Do it Roger Penske style. Note door jambs turned to Swiss cheese:

flyineagle96 wrote:

Run 4 donuts,that should help lighten her up.

Eat fewer donuts.

No V-6 Albert, but Google the Buick 215 for fun.

is it possible to tunnel through from the back seat into the trunk? Open the whole back part of the car up?
would cutting out the wall separating the cab and the trunk jeopardize the structural integrity of the car?

Yes, you can tunnel through from behind the rear seat rest.

Yes, if you cut the structural steel members behind the rear seat, it will compromise the rigidity of the car, which was considered excellent by 1990s standards.

the rear cross member supports are negligable in their weight. you'll gain less by eliminating steel rear RSSA,You can fab it out of tubing. alu calipers insted of iron.front sub-frame can be fabricated out of light weight steel tubing.getting rid of the cast iron motor mounbts and replacing with alu.rear window can be easily replaced with plexiglass.quarter panel windows too . all these mods are totally doable within a modest budget.
the biggest hurdle is the all iron engine.a total bull of a piece.not much you can do there.

ZZP offers aluminum heads for our cars. More power and 35lbs less weight up front.

http://shop.zzperformance.com/store/p/442-ZZP-Aluminum-Heads.aspx

Then an A/C delete, and remove the hvac stuff you could really save some weight but i dont think any of that is worth the price.

I rather like having a 4000lb car that can accelerate, handle and stop better than many smaller lighter sports cars.

holy shit! @ 4800 a set? thats alot of money

There is not a lot of excess weight to remove in the Riv without removing the comforts that make it a Riv. The hood is already aluminum. The rear seat weighs peanuts. The front seats are about the only serious weight to remove. The battery absolutely belongs under the rear seat for better balance. In a few other serious race/street cars we move the batteries to the rear (for better weight over the rear wheels, the opposite of the Riv). I had the spare tire and jack, and the rear seat bottom removed during my fastest drag run.

If you completely gutted the car, i.e. remove the entire interior, seats, carpet, sound system, plus air compressor, HVAC parts, dash, etc. you can probably shave 1000 lbs off, but what do you have left? Might as well start with a lighter W-body to begin with. Then add your roll cage (because that's what you are doing with a completely gutted car, right?)

Otherwise, I really don't think there is any weight savings to be had without tearing the Riv away from what it is. If you remove any metal from this car you start risking it's amazing structural integrity.

Aluminum heads are nice, but they aren't worth that kind of money. Hell my aluminum heads for my 455 only cost me 2700.00 ready to bolt on. If I ever take the heads off my 3800, they will go to Greg Gessler before they go back on. Greg has been porting heads for a long time now. He does very nice work.

http://www.gesslerheadporting.com/gesslerheadporting/ghp.nsf/822dcaaaa26c6da985256dd80023623d/e8e174c35393295085256e5e000a5cde!OpenDocument

What kind of options do we have for lighter internals? Any alternative fly wheels, drive shaft, clutch, etc?
I think the weight of the Riv is its only downfall.

nothing,nada,zilch,niente,rien!
custom coilovers drops close to 85lbs. removal of the rssa forward body mounts-10lbs.abs delete-around 10 lbs.modify the rssa-about 15lbs.oem radio cassete player about 7 or 8 lbs.
ive got about 125 or 130 lbs off the riv. if i get rid of the sunroof it will be another 55 or so lbs.
its a difference i can feel.

That's too bad..
Are you taking the back seat out or changing the front seats? Still plan on cutting the ass off?

im currently doing a trade with an upholstery buddy of mine.ill refinish his desk and he'll redo my 95MX5 buckets.
the ass is staying rite where it is.i will cut the bumper off tho.ill save a few lbs there but not much.i could get rid of the rear impact bar but it dont really weigh all that much.
the back seat weighs next to nothing.
the biggest weight saving i could make is to modify the ego behind the wheel.that aint gonna happen.

Ok. Real talk.

Let's come up with a stage plan to drop weight.

and outline would be like:

stage1: -150lbs
-new wheels
-fbody brakes
-cat delete
-hood insulation delete

stage2: -250lbs
stage1+
new seats
blah
blah

stage3:-300lbs
stage2+
ac delete
blah
blah

150lb drop from just new rims, fbody brakes, cat del, and hood insulation? not a chance. Unless you are banking on the rim weight reduction as unsprung weight and counting for more in the sprung weight dept.

Want to lose weight? get a holesaw.

You are also not considering the fact that f-body's ADD un-sprung weight to 95/96 riv due to larger rotors (surpasses the difference saved by the aluminum caliper vs cast iron)
AND you need larger wheels to run the fbody's so you add mass there too.

Assuming you go with the lightest (affordable) wheel (not normally the best looking on a luxury car) You have a set of 17's that are 16lbs each. What do the stock 16" wheels weigh? 19lbs? maybe 20?

so you saved 16lbs total, maybe 1lb total for the f-bodys assuming you already had 12" rotors, add in the cat (20lbs, and im being generous) and the hood insulation (1/2lb) you saved yourself 37.5lbs!

Spare tire weight that lol.
Not to discourage you from dropping weight, because every little bit helps, but if you are trying to trim 250+lbs from the riv it will no longer be a daily driver.
Remove rear seat, passenger seat, all un-needed engine parts (EGR, brackets, A/C, ABS, etc) and the bumper supports then you have a lightweight riv.

man. A 20lb catalytic converter. That would be something.

Whats the saying again? Something like every 1lb of unsprung weight is similar to 10lbs sprung weight?