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In case you were not aware, Todd has over 200lbs of ballast bolted to car under the rear bumper cover. Why? Weight = traction (it's a common practice in drag racing).
Now that he has a good feel for the weight distribution of the car, he's working on removing weight off the nose so he can take some of the ballast off. Lighten the car but keep the F/R ratio the same.
Power steering will be going to electric with the pump mounted in the general location of where the PSD pump would go.
Smaller 160amp Denso 04608 826AA alternator is installed
Starter has been moved to the rear of the car, mounted to the front of the torque converter bellhousing.
We've been talking about eliminating the headlights (and going to something in the fog/driving location). Todd has always wanted to maintain a bone stock look to the car so this hasn't been done yet.
He decided to turn his attention to the oil pan and the front shocks. With E85 the car runs so cool anyway, the cooing fins on the oil pan are no longer necessary.
With a set of new Boge shocks on the shelf, decided to make his own mount for a lighter, generic spring and eliminate the heavy top portion of the stock assembly.
How 'bout the upper and lower horizontal surfaces of the front bumper bar? Keep the vertical but cut them off? Not sure what the front bumper bar on Minerva is but the rear bumper bar with shocks attached is 29 lbs 8 oz. Losing 2/3 of the aluminum might shave ~15 lbs. Same as running without an oil pan.!
Very cool, nice to see the mad scientist back at work!
He never took a break (I think he only sleeps 4 hours a day). Nothing really to share until now.
He wanted me to hold off on sharing his custom drive shaft / hand made flywheel / starter move until he had a few miles on it. I'm still going through those photos and will be uploading everything once I have them sorted.
Originally Posted by Rob Edwards
How 'bout the upper and lower horizontal surfaces of the front bumper bar? Keep the vertical but cut them off? Not sure what the front bumper bar on Minerva is but the rear bumper bar with shocks attached is 29 lbs 8 oz. Losing 2/3 of the aluminum might shave ~15 lbs. Same as running without an oil pan.!
I couldn't remember so I just called him, that from bumper bar and all associated hardware was removed around day 1 of this project.
Talking to him tonight, I think he's finally scrapping the idea of changing the headlights. With all the other changes and losing power steering, I think he will be very close to his goal.
He wanted me to hold off on sharing his custom drive shaft / hand made flywheel / starter move until he had a few miles on it. ...With all the other changes and losing power steering, I think he will be very close to his goal.
The grief we're going thru to keep the power steering pump, air conditioning compressor, and alternator. They are all heavy, all in front, and all in the way...
The grief we're going thru to keep the power steering pump, air conditioning compressor, and alternator. They are all heavy, all in front, and all in the way...
I'm excited about the power steering. If this works like we are hoping I'll convert my 79 and use the same pump on my replica cobra.
Originally Posted by PorKen
Does he still have the heavy a$$ (~5lbs) steering rack reinforcement plate?
Solid mount the rack and I believe it is not necessary (it just holds the rack bolts in place, IMHO) or replace with aluminum?
If Todd comes up with a good solution to get the headlights in the fog/driving light location, I'm very interested. I would like to get the headlight out of the fender area so I can get more air going to the intercooler heat exchangers. I just moved the passenger side side marker light to get more air in, but the headlight is still in the way...
__________________
George
90 S4 Grand Prix White (Murf #5)
94 GTS 5-Speed Midnight Blue
06 Cayenne S Havanna/Sand Beige (PASM) http://928.jorj7.com
The whole headlight movement system could be lightened up with a new mechanism while retaining the pop-up look. There is the whole click-together-anti-jam-thing-a-ma-bob silliness which could be chucked out in favor of a clutched sleave or something. The cast metal cover could be plastic, in fact most of the parts could be plastic or just bare aluminum struts.
I'm excited about the power steering. If this works like we are hoping I'll convert my 79 and use the same pump on my replica cobra.
We were looking into an electric power steering pump. If I recall, the pump from Toyota MR2 was the main candidate. We also had a smaller, modern alternator picked out with a cooling solution for it. All ideas were ditched because they would've added significantly to the variable cost of the system. The custom hose solutions relate to dealing with these and some other obstacles.
This car was built for ORR in the late 90's and was street driven, sometime as the owner's commuter. One of our own listers has this car now but road races it, never made it to the ORR's.
Lights are euro 944 Turbo (951) fog/driving units... wired for use as main beam/high beam..
Has any vendor ever offered a way to convert our shocks to a standard spring like Todd did here? He's not interested in making such parts for sale, but I think some vendor should.
Originally Posted by jorj7
If Todd comes up with a good solution to get the headlights in the fog/driving light location, I'm very interested.
A couple ideas are on the table, the next one we were going to try GM Part Number: H4352. They are 4.2" high from the mid 90's Camaro, Grand Prix, Cutlass, and some Geo:
I may still go this route for my 79 to retain the stock headlights while eliminating the motor and the bar across the nose.
Originally Posted by Jim Morton
Lights are euro 944 Turbo (951) fog/driving units... wired for use as main beam/high beam..
Cool, that looks great!! Right now Todd is testing some 100+ watt bulbs in the stock housings.....just to see what kind of light that gives off. Due to the weather outside tests haven't been made yet.
Years ago a local 928'er did the same with his S4 and was satisfied with the results for the rare occasions he was caught in the dark. This may not seam like a lot of light, but it wasn't any worse than the stock headlights from an 80's VW.
Originally Posted by ptuomov
We were looking into an electric power steering pump. If I recall, the pump from Toyota MR2 was the main candidate.
The MR2 pump is one I've talked about in other threads and is a popular option for the hot rod crowd. Here is a DIY kit for the Factory Five:
People freaked out about the price in another thread here. It's all new parts, used pick-in-pull would be significantly cheaper.
Todd did some research and decided to go with the TRW / ZF unit off a 2001 Vauxhall Zafira. This is currently on the way from across the pond: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321984167536
I did drive the yellow 928 a couple of time at night... testing
Using 100W bulbs in the main beam and 130W for the high, using relays to have all four on at once threw plenty of light.
The 951 fog/pencil housings have individual adjustment for aiming and the housing were a direct bolt in.
Wiring was a little bit of an issue given that the stock 928 used the H4 type HI/LO, but it was handle with some mechanical Bosch tab mount "universal" relays.
If I were doing this today, I might try a higher end, 4300K H1 HID conversion for the main beam, but using the Hella Dichroic 130W H1 for the high bulb.
03-05-2016, 03:57 PM
Turbo Todd shaving more weight off the nose: Oil pan and shocks
