info on weight reduction

[Nismochick240]

I found some really good info on weight reduction... i saw that some people had asked out stock weight and about reduction so here's a lil info i found for all yall niconauts!!

Nissan 240SX Stock Weight - 2859lbs Stock Wheel Weight - 22lbs each/without tires The Nissan 240SX's weigh approximately 2859lbs, depending on the model, with a max difference of roughly 100 pounds from heaviest model to lightest. Dividing by the horsepower of 155, we get about 18.4lbs/hp. So roughly every 18.4 lbs removed from the cars weight will add an effective 1 hp. Gas weighs about 8lbs/gal so 16 gallons in the tank weighs 128lbs. If you have only 1 gallon in the tank, its almost a 7 horsepower equivalent difference. A passenger can make even a bigger difference, not to mention the drivers weight. You can easily remove things like the spare tire and jack, the floor mats, the rear seats, interior panels and anything else.

Listed below are some easily removable items: 1. Passenger Seat (37lbs) - Removing the passenger seat is a very easy and effective way to give your 240SX a small gain in power. The nice thing is that the seat is only held in place by 4 bolts.

2. Rear Seat (29lbs) - The rear seat is a little more complicated to remove than the passenger seat. When removing just remember where everything goes and it should be easy to put back in place whenever needed.

3. Rear Seat Cushion (10lbs) - The rear cushion should be removed at the same time as the rear seat.

4. Floor Mats/Front and Rear (6lbs) - This has to be the easiest weight reduction available for the 240SX owner.

5. Tire Floor Cover (3lbs) - The tire floor cover is right underneath the rear hatch carpeting.

6. Spare Tire and Jack (32lbs) - Another easily removable item.

Total Easy Weight Removal = 117lbs or about a 6.3hp increase. Intermediate Skill Weight Reductions

The weight reductions included below can even prove more effective than some of the reductions included above. However, once you start removing these items you are taking away from the cars overall appearance and in some cases its more predominent ammenities.

7. Air Conditioning (40lbs) - Removing the air conditioning will net you a reduction of about 40lbs. Be sure to remove everything from the engine as well as behind the dash. Should be completed by the experienced only.

8. Front Hood (50lbs) - Replacing the Front Hood with a lightweight fiberglass or carbon fiber hood is a great way to remove some weight around the front end of the car. Total weight reduction will be close to 50lbs or greater depending on the aftermarket hood you choose.. If you dont intend on replacing the entire front hood you could also remove the sound dampener on the inside of the hood. This should help in cooling your engine a little.

9. Stock Wheels (22lbs each/replacement weight from 11lbs each) - Replacing the wheels is a must for anyone seriously interested in increasing their cars performance. The stock wheels are quite heavy and can be replaced with a variety of aftermarket models. We would suggest searching for lightweight wheels. Replacing your wheels with lightweight wheels will dramatically increase your cars acceleration. We suggest not going over 17 inches if maximum performance is what you desire to achieve.

10. Front Drivers Seat (40lbs/replacement weight from 14lbs) - The front drivers seat on the 240SX can easily be replaced with a much lighter alternative A lightweight racing seat will save you considerable weight and will also be effective once you have added more horsepower to your car.

Total Intermediate Weight Removal = up to 188lbs or a 10+hp increase. More Weight Reduction Some of the things listed below can also be removed or replaced with lighter alternatives than stock. Stock Flywheel - Can be replaced with lightweight aluminum flywheels or machined down in excess of just 13lbs.

Stock Steering Wheel - Can be replaced with lighter performance steering wheel with no airbag.

Passenger Airbag Removal - Can save some extra weight as well. (Not recommended for normal driving)

Interior Panels - Both the drivers side and passenger side front door panels as well as the rear panels can be removed to save in excess of over 40lbs.

Stock Speakers - With a weight of over 2 pounds a piece these can also be easily removed.

Rear Hatch Cover - This can simply be removed whenever needed. Weight is close to 6 lbs.

Replace Stock Exhaust - The stock 240SX exhaust weighs considerably more than some of the aluminum aftermarket exhausts. We suggest going with the Stillen or Borla cat-back exhaust.

Wiper Motors - Although they are generally needed under almost all driving conditions they CAN be removed if need be although we do not personally recommend it.

Carpet - Removing the carpet as well as the carpet lining underneath will reduce the cars overall weight by close to 40lbs. Removing excess wiring and bolts and brackets will also net you a reduction of close to 10lbs.

(p.s-> make this a sticky!! haha)

[KDashy]

A thing to note is that taking off airbags on a car that has them equipped from the factory is not legal is some states.

And taking out your spare tire? Unless you have triple A, dont do it.

[Nismochick240]

yea had the spare tire thing go wrong w/ me before haha had to wait on my bf to bring it me while i sat on the side of the hwy

[elgarvo616]

And taking out your spare tire? Unless you have triple A, dont do it.

just get like 3 cans of fix-a-flat

[240DRFT]

thats some good stuff. when i weighed my stock 90 240 it weighed 2720 and ive sinced removed lots of stuff so it should be lighter

[naed240sx]

Cool. good info. Stock s13 couple is at 2700, and I have dropped around 100 pounds out, and if only running on 6 gallons of gas(a norm for me), that is another 80. Assuming around a 20 lbs per power ratio, thats about 9 horsepower for me. Not bad.

[JDMEnthused]

i just looked this same thing up and got mysportscar.com.. so far i have shaven 176.6 pounds off of my car so.. that would be 9.57 extra horsepower.. i still have to remove the A/C and P/S and some more interior materials. that will take me over 250.. i would like to replace the body panels with lighter body panels and that will save me alot of weight, the hood, fenders, hatch, replace the stock glass with Lexane and so forth and so on..

[JDMEnthused]

oh yeah, my A/T 240 does not weigh 2800 something pounds stock.. its in the mid 2600 lbs stock, do a search and u will find it, hopefully. i should be in the 2500s or lower ( maybe)

[Hijacker]

the one thing you forget is that you should do power to weight ratios against wheel HP. it's a more realistic number, and your "gains" will also be proportionally smaller.

[KDashy]

Paper racers are so funny.

[Bosrudorfer]

Whoa! Great info!

BTW I wasn't going to mention this but you are FINE!

[lee.]

just get like 3 cans of fix-a-flat

For the love of all that is sacred, don't put anything inside your tire but air. I work at Discount Tire and do a lot of flat repairs. Those products stay liquid most of the time, so when you break the bead it shoots out. Upsetting your tire tech is not a good idea. 95% of these people put their spare on and bring the flat in for repair. So either live without a spare and pay the price when you break down or keep the spare and jack with you. Do you really need to take the spare out for daily driving? No, but it's a good idea at the track. Safety > Performance ANY TIME

[drifter_for_life06]

ive compeltely gutted everything behind my front seats, now i just gotta remove teh sound deadener and hopefully that stuff weighs a lot(so i lose weight)

and i might start dieting too

[skydragoness]

Yeah this should make a great sticky,along with masticatingcow's idea for a NooB University thread that has all the basic info. However, if you want to make this a sticky, you got to give credit to the person who wrote it/where you found it.

edit: i'm surprised about the wheel weight, i wonder if thats for steelies or alloys, cause i could've swore the alloys were 18lbs a piece (w/out tires)

[240DRFT]

BTW I wasn't going to mention this but you are FINE!

haha your not the only one to tell her that

anyways, i wonder much my car weighs, i removed all the a/c stuff except for the thing under the dash. and i removed all the ish in the hatch except the tire/jack. then i removed the stock foam wing, and undercarriage thing (it fell off) and about a few pounds of dirt piled up inside the fender maybe some more stuff but i cant remember.

[JDMEnthused]

Paper racers are so funny.

[JimmyMethod]

Don't forget, as you decrease your weight, you increase the power to weight ratio, i.e. you improve the effectiveness of each pound you remove.

Translation: Each pound you take off, improves your ratio, more than the last.

EDIT: Uh, that's still not very clear...anyone get that and can rephrase it better than I?

[naed240sx]

No i understand that... It is just that most people dont take that into consideration when doing the math, because it doesnt make much of a difference. If you were to work it out perfectly, it would become a calculus problem, because the variables are changed with every infinately small amount of weight that you remove. I think you explained it just fine.

[574-240sx]

I have been running without rear interior for a while. It takes alot of thinking to get rid of it but when you finally do its so much better. I also got rid of my wiper fluid reservoir because of my FMIC. Also if you are going to go that far don't forget the sound deading and carpet.

[JimmyMethod]

Doesn't removing the rear tire worsen your balance?

[574-240sx]

Just relocated the battery to the trunk but make sure you buy a quality relocation kit.

[SimpleEnigma]

Jimmy Method: dont feel bad, no one understands diff eq. i took it last semester and stil have no clue what it i did in that class.

Oh and just another tid bit of info. for every 100lbs that you remove from the total weight of your car, you gain about 1/10th of a second in your 1/4 mile time.

[naed240sx]

Doesn't removing the rear tire worsen your balance?

yeah, probably, but lighter is better than having perfect balance.

[Nismo_Freak]

Those weights are incorrect.

The stock hood weighed something around 52 lbs. on my S14, and the carbon hood weighed ~15 lbs.

Stock seats don't weigh over 30 lbs. I'd estimate them around 26 lbs.

Rear seat cushion is 10 lbs.? Was it soaked in water? Try more like 2 lbs.

Fuel weighs about 6 lbs. per gallon. Water weighs 8 lbs. per gallon.

Aluminum aftermarket exhaust? hhahah.

40 lbs. of carpet? Uhh try like 6 lbs. with liner.

40 lbs. of door panels?! More like about 15 lbs.

[Nismo_Freak]

oh yeah, my A/T 240 does not weigh 2800 something pounds stock.. its in the mid 2600 lbs stock, do a search and u will find it, hopefully. i should be in the 2500s or lower ( maybe)

No, it is over 2700 lbs.

[JDMEnthused]

how much over 2700? i searched for 240 weights and one of the threads i found had a weight of 2657 i believe.. it wasnt all that specific though.

[Nismo_Freak]

how much over 2700? i searched for 240 weights and one of the threads i found had a weight of 2657 i believe.. it wasnt all that specific though.

2750 ish.

[DjPantsSpecR]

auto 240 hatches are in the 28++ range i cant remember the exact number, but hatches along have an extra 80 lbs in glass over coupes, and i think non-wet coupes weigh 2650

anyway, the stock seats weigh at least 38 lbs. your estimation is not a scale, like i took to mine. leather with lumbar

the rear seat cushion is in fact 8 lbs, way more than i thought it was

the carpet with liner was 18 lbs, so one pony suckas

i still cant save her on the door panels...

but i weighed everything i took out, just to reaffirm it was worth it.

removing every piece of tar in the car as well as the material under the dash only nets about 50 lbs, and about 4 hours of work

[Nismo_Freak]

auto 240 hatches are in the 28++ range i cant remember the exact number, but hatches along have an extra 80 lbs in glass over coupes, and i think non-wet coupes weigh 2650

anyway, the stock seats weigh at least 38 lbs. your estimation is not a scale, like i took to mine. leather with lumbar

the rear seat cushion is in fact 8 lbs, way more than i thought it was

the carpet with liner was 18 lbs, so one pony suckas

i still cant save her on the door panels...

but i weighed everything i took out, just to reaffirm it was worth it.

removing every piece of tar in the car as well as the material under the dash only nets about 50 lbs, and about 4 hours of work

I was refering to an S14, like he was in the original post.

[JDMEnthused]

eek.. i need to find a scale around here