PorscheG96

Yes, that's the one and it says the weight is 3.75 lbs on that page.

touareg

I swear I checked 2x

Anyways I found the battery hold down I was thinking about:

http://www.rennline.com/Battery-Moun.../products/209/

Does not say how much they weigh. Wonder the other one will fit.

That price is awesome for a L-Ion

touareg

Should be ordering mine soon, working out for you OK so far?

PorscheG96

The battery has been perfect for my uses but I don't go around blasting the stereo and running all my lights every time I go for a drive, etc. I also haven't cranked the engine below 50F since it's not been cold here but so far it's behaved just like a standard battery except with huge weight reduction. I ran errands the day after AX which involved about 10 more starts with the fans running because it was 95F that day and no problems whatsoever. I pointed my IR temp gun at the case and it's never read much higher than ambient, so no concerns about the alternator overcharging or thermal runaway or anything like that. Battery temps have measured right around 75F when it's the same temp outside and measured 99-104F when it was 95F that day but 99-114 in various parts of the battery tray.

I even tried to kill the battery with a series of additional starts in the garage but it cranked strong every time. I removed it a couple days ago [which is easy as hell, BTW, weighing under 4 lbs] anticipating that it could use a charge but at 2 amps my charger showed it being at capacity after only a few minutes so take that for what it's worth...

That mount is incredibly expensive.

I did remove the rear seats from the blue 968 afterall and it feels AMAZING at only 2840 lbs race weight. It's literally night and day compared to my 3100 lbs stock m030 coupe... I've done some calculating and the final goal will be 2695 lbs hopefully by the end of 2014 - mostly full interior, carpets, and all that are staying for sure!

sm

How did you mount that small battery in the tray? Did it require custom brackets?

Cloud9...68

I just re-read through this post, as weight savings is of a lot of interest to me as well, so I thought I'd compile what I've done to my car to save weight. Again, it's a track-focused car (just track days - no actual racing yet), but needs to remain streetable enough to drive to and from the track, which is about an 18 mile drive. In no particular order:

- Sparco Evo drivers seat, some sort of Corbeau fixed-back fiberglass racing seat on the passenger side that I bought used
- Fiberglass hood, with aluminum louvers. Removed struts, but kept hinges and latches. I'm guessing total of 10-15 lb savings
- 12 lb Deka battery
- Fixed headlights (featherweight Hella bi-halogens) ~30 lb savings
- Removed front bumper bar - 15 lb savings
- Removed fog lights, and replaced with fiberglass brake duct scoops
- Removed rear bumper bar - 20 lb savings
- Removed windshield washer reservoir - 12 lb savings
- Removed cruise control
- Removed passenger side air bag and control module
- Removed the surprisingly heavy eyelets that I think were used to strap the car down on the boat ride from Germany
- Converted electric sunroof to manual
- Removed stereo and speakers (almost always drive with the sunroof off, so I can't hear it, anyway) - Saved about 12 lbs
- Removed fuel rail cover
- Removed rear seat
- Removed rear quarter interior panels, cargo area carpet and pad
- Removed rear window wiper and motor
- Removed hatch opener motor (converted to manual operation per G96's recommendation - thanks!)
- Removed spare tire, jack, and tools
- Replaced stock exhaust with RS Barn cat back
- SMF aluminum flywheel

The car has a weld-in roll bar/harness car/chassis brace from Hanksville hotrods, which adds back about 40 lbs or so, a harness set, a strut brace, heavy-duty A-arms from Racers Edge, a caster block brace, and a dual oil cooler package from RS Barn. The A/C is no longer working, so I'm running an experiment to see how I survive the summer without it. If I make it, I'll remove the AC in the Fall, using one of Lindsey Racing's adapters, which should save at least another 30 lbs, and improve air flow through the radiator. But other than that, I don't plan to do any more weight reduction activities to the car for the rest of the year.

Once I get the hankering for more (i.e. when my driving skill catches up to the capability of the car, which could be awhile), planned further reduction includes a lexan rear hatch window, a proper racing steering wheel, 9 lb Bosch alternator from Lindsey Racing, a Battery Tender 3.75 lb battery (when the Deka dies), a super-lightweight seat for the passenger side to replace the surprisingly heavy Corbeau, I'm contemplating switching from my staggered 18" wheel set-up to a square 17 x 9" one, which will at least mean slightly lighter tires, and I'd love a CF hood skin, no hinges or latch, held down by four hood pins.

Unfortunately, I didn't do as careful a job as G96 about weighing everything I took off, but I would guess I'm somewhere in the high 2800 lb range.

Eric_Oz_S2

I didn't see the oil cooler package on their web page. Do you have any details of this:
Mounting location
Standard connection to oil console?
Price
Your thoughts on effectiveness

Cheers

Cloud9...68

Hi Eric,

For some reason, Pete doesn't list his dual oil cooler set-up on his web page. I didn't install an oil temperature gauge until after I installed the oil coolers, so I don't have quantitative information as to how effective they are, but my impression is that they're extremely effective. I've never seen a reading higher than about 245 deg F (118 deg C) on the hottest day at the track, and the oil temp drops rapidly when cruising at speed. Pete told me he evaluated all the alternate configurations (a single one that runs under the radiator the width of the radiator, and a larger one in the stock location), and found the dual cooler set-up to be by far the best, and I believe him. Per his recommendation, I built shrouds around them (out of aluminum flashing) to really focus the air flow through the radiators. Here are a few pictures of my install:

Attachment 850729

Attachment 850733

Attachment 850730

Attachment 850734

A word of warning - installing these coolers is a lot of work. You have to custom fabricate the shrouds, figure out a way to attach them to the radiators, then fabricate brackets to attach the coolers to the car. It took me the better part of several weekends, after a lot of trial and error. They're also fairly pricey at $800, but I think they're well worth it.

Eric_Oz_S2

Cloud

Did you need to change the oil filter console to a turbo style with couplings rather than the 968 plate and o ring fitting style?

Unfortunately that config wont work for me as I have the supercharger oil cooler on the lhs. A few have see the 964/993 large oil cooler in the stock location - although it is much larger and more square than rectangular.

Interestingly, I normally don't exceed 120c on track anyway. Last outing I got to 130c, but I was in the slipstream of another car for 10 laps when that occurred.

Certainly looks like a lot of work!

Cloud9...68

Eric,

The hoses that came with the RS Barn kit were modified to work with the 968 plate with the o-ring seals, so that wasn't a problem. The quality of the kit was first rate in every respect.

The 118 deg C was a guess - my oil temperature gauge connector has a loose wire, and it happened to come loose just as I was pulling into the pit lane for my track session yesterday, so I don't have any recent readings. It magically re-connected itself as I was leaving for home, and the oil temp never got above 87 degrees C on the drive home, if that's worth anything. Any amount of air flow really cools the oil off in a hurry - the track I currently drive on is very technical, with only one very short straight, so it's probably the worst-case scenario for oil temperature.

touareg

So after removing my rear seats, I decided to remove the frankenstein bolts that hold the top half of the seat to the C pillar on the car (mostly for looks, not weight). However there seems to be a nut sealed into a body cavity that would float loose in the hole?

What have people done to remove those, or do they just leave it in. I wonder if one of my upper seatbelt bolts will fit to hold the loose nut in the body.



I was thinking just get a short bolt to hold the nut, washer and old adjusting not tight and everything in its place and find a large body to cover the hole in the panel (since I assume finding a real club sport panel would be hard)

Looks to be trapped in there from this pic.

touareg

I ended up remove the latch bolt, and then screwed the nut on the lap belt bolt, as I suspected, they are the same thread pitch and diameter. It looks like if I could find a bolt a little shorter, around 1 inch, I would not need the adjustment nut, thinking now, I might not need it at all and can thread it the whole way in with just the washer.

Will have to try that next. Was thinking of just pulling it out and painting it all black rather than look for a cap. The big washer is kinda a pain to get out as it wont fit through the hole. maybe a big black plastic washer with the adjustment nut behind that and a the gold washer would look OK.

Hmm, trip to home depot this weekend.

Seeing the rust on the lap belt bolt makes me wonder if that hole is open to the elements? I left them in before. Now I wonder if they need to be sealed.

I figure I shaved 1lbs of weight off

Looked up the CS panels, about $300 for a cosmetic fix.

touareg

Guess I answered my question on removing the lap belt bolts. I heard major transaxle noise in the cabin, high pitched whining. Nixs that plan.

touareg

So was getting ready to order this battery, did I miss something? I could have swore this battery was aroun $150, what happened?

http://www.batterytender.com/Batteri...t-Battery.html

PorscheG96

Yea, that's the price I paid. They make lower capacity ones that weigh less but I didn't trust how many starts I could get out of them without getting stranded. This battery is awesome BTW - it's been in my 968 for about 6 months and has been flawless. I'm either going to switch it between different cars for AX events or buy a 2nd one for another Porsche. I still hope to make a custom CF mount for 944/968 this year that's compatible with this battery.