MA70 weight issue....

[ma71supraturbo]

There are also some short-cuts you can take if you want to stay <400hp.

1st you don't have to buy some fancy downpipe. A guy on Supraforums with the username "becauseIcan" makes an integrated downpipe/turbo elbow for $240. Combine that with any 3" catback and a test pipe and you've got a cheap full exhaust.

You can get intake adapters on ebay for like $10 which let you use a generic k&N style cone filter. Or you can use a drop-in k&N filter and cut open your airbox.

You can also shim the wastegate with some washers so it will stay closed longer. But manual boost controllers are dirt cheap anyway and some say shimming the wastegate puts some extra strain on it. All this will get you to 300bhp for like $600. If you know someone that can weld, you can buy mandrel bends from JC whitney or wherever and make your own exhaust. And you can also make your own intercooler piping (the stock IC piping is horribly restrictive -- and prone to leaking on 15 year old mk3's). The stock IC isn't that bad, and will work for 350hp -- although drifters probably should upgrade since they'll be putting the engine under load for longer and at lower speeds than the typical supra owner. Then if you want to boost a little over fuel cut, HKS makes a fuel cut defenser. You can run about ~15psi on the stock fuel system -- just keep an eye on EGT's.

[driftmunky]

great replies MA71turbo, some great info in there, this thread should somehow be moved to supraforums in the MKIII department and made into a sticky....

[mranlet]

Originally posted by driftmunky
Well, i haveno molding skills at all seeing as im barely in high school, but i do plan to learn, of course if oyu could PM me or e-mail (my addy should be in my profile) me or something letting me know how hard it would be to make a hood that would be nice (especially if i could do it for other people also to make some extra $$)

Exactly my doctrine, making it and selling them - that's how the aftermarket expands.

10 steps to hood success:
1 - Detach your hood from the car and clean it with some dish soap and let it dry. If you want to mold in a hump, scoop or cowl use modeling clay - available at any art supply store - and build it up gradually.

2 - Put some mold release on it. In a pinch, you could use Vaselene, but make sure that you have a ncie even coat and that it is as smooth as possible.

3 - In a well veltelated area and with proper safety equipment, mix up your resin for the F-glass and lay on pre-cut sheets of fabric about 12" wide in strips long enough to extend past the front and rear edges of the hood. It will probably take somewhere around 10 strips, since it is best to use 2 layers and have them overlap slightly with a medium weight fabric. (Don't try to use those little repair kits, or you'll wind up spending a lot more money than if you just got the fabric and the resin).

4 - Build up the thickness with a few thin coats of resin or until you're out of it.

5 - let dry for a day or 2 (it can take 3 days for a nice cure in a humid area)

6 - Carefully and patiently seperate the fiberglass from your hood. If it is being stubborn, you can use a rubber door stop or plastic paint stirrer to help it along, but don't use anything that could scratch the fiberglass or dent the hood. The top surface of your fiberglass piece will be a little bumpy from the resin. Now you can either sand it smooth and trim it up with a fine-toothed saw (being sure to wear grubby clothes covering your arms and a dust mask and goggles), OR you can use this piece as a mold repeating steps 2 through 5 to obtain a piece that should theoretically be the same as your hood. If you chose to use this piece as the mold, you may be able to get away with using a lighter weight cloth for the actual hood, but don't skimp too much, since it will have to be able to hold it's shape at high speed. If you are planning to do some sort of V-mount vent, you can add modeling clay to the mold.

7 - After you've decided to use the origional piece as the mold or the hood itself and have prepared your fiberglass hood replacement piece, trim it up and test fit it on your car.

8 - If it doesn't fit you can make minor adjustments with a fine sanding block, don't use a metal file, but remember that you can take away material but it's more difficult to add it (although possible with fiberglass). If it does fit, you'll have to decide whether you want to use your stock hinges or use a 4-hood-pin system which would allow you to lose the weight of the cable latch and catch.

9 - If you hinge it, you can drill through the hood and simply bolt the hinges on through the holes. You may need to add some washers for it to sit in the stock location. If you want to keep the top of the hood smooth, you can make a mold of the bolt pick-ups from the underside of the hood the same way you made the other part and fuse them together with a healthy dose of resin. If you pin it, just install the pins (one in each corner) and then drill your holes. It's easier to match the holes to the pins rather than the other way around. This is when you'll want to paing the hood if you chose to (paint=weight ).

10 - Pin the hood or latch it up and roll!

And do oyu have a pic of the "tubing to attach a racing harness" mod? i think i know hwat your saying but im not too sure....

I don't have a pic, but imagine a rear strut tower bar with a racing harness attached to that. If you look inside of most of the WRC cars, they have the harness attached to a piece (usually WAY far back) that spans the interior of the car.

Also, how much do the stock wheels weigh, if you know? cuz theres a few types of wheels im lookin at that are mostly around 15 lbs or so, and some as low as 11 lbs.....

That depends on your car. Most wheels seem to weigh between 20 and 30 lbs. You could get a good estimate by measuring the weight of your spare and multiplying by WHEEL WIDTH/SPARE WIDTH. Most ricer and bling bling wheels weigh about the same as factory wheels, but some thin steel and aluminum wheels weigh considerably less. If you increase the radius of your wheel you will be displacing rubber with steel or aluminum so it could concievably add weight.

11 lbs is very good. Rota 15"x6.5" weigh 12 lbs and aren't too expensive. Several of the American Racing wheels are built with weight in mind and are super-cheap ($750 for a set of 4 including tires in some cases). Some of the pricier wheels weigh as little as 8.5 lbs - the lightest wheel I've ever seen was something like 5.5 lbs, granted it made out of carbon and was something like $5k for one.

Racing wheels unsed to be made out of Magnesium, which is where the term "Mags" came from. Magnesuim is extremely light and very rigid however, if the wheel got too hot from brakes or tire heat the wheel could "flameout" or essentially catch on fire and burn up while the car is moving. I wouldn't reccomend using Mags unless you have excellent brake ducts and have plenty of tire to sheild it from the road surface.

After bending enough rims and burning through enough tires (which is completely respectable) you get a feel for what kind of wheels and tires fit your ability, your car's suspension, and your wallet. You will most likely go through a few sets of wheels in your first few years of drifting, so go ahead and try different things - 15"s, 16"s, 17"s, 205's, 215's, 45 series, 40 series, +40 offset, +20 offset, steel, aluminum - all of these can effect the handling dynamics substantially. Experiment - it's only money!

I'd also reccomend:
"Secrets of Solo Racing" by Henry Watt - $10
"How To Make Your Car Handle" by Fred Puhn - $20
"Performance Handling - Techniques for the 1990s" by Don Alexander (which I believe is out of print, but an EXCELLENT book get it on Ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=1132 )

Hope this helps!!
-MR

[Chas]

Re: Power mods

Originally posted by ma71supraturbo
Some guy in Australia is at 714kw (not sure of the exact power conversion).

Sure its not PS? 714kw = 957.5hp

[driftmunky]

The Hood

so let me get this straight (wouldnt want to try it and find out a step was missing or something)

1. you take off the stock hood,
2. put some mold release on the hood,
3. put some fabric (and kind in particular?) on top of the mold release which is on the hood,
4. lay on the F-glass resin (about how much do you use, and when doing this do you add a layer then let it dry a bit then add another or what?)
5. let it dry for a couple days
6. remove hood from on top of stock hood,
7. clean it up

i kidn of summarized it but jsut wanted to check with you real quick (thinking of maybe trying one of these for my bro for x-mas.....) and about how much lighter will this be over stock? And how much will all the supplies and such cost?

[mranlet]

3 - The fabric has to be fiberglass fabric - you can't use denim or velvet or anything like that (although a velvet hood would be slick)
You can think of mold release as essentially a big sheet of saran wrap in paste form. If the hood is flat enough you probably could use saran wrap and have the edges folded over the edge of the hood and taped on.

4 - The resin will kind of control how much gets used on its own. Don't use globs and globs of it but put it on like you'd brush paint on. I've always put the first layer of cloth down and brushed resin over it and put the 2nd layer down so that it can get some of that resin action and then brushed more resin on until it looked pretty smooth.

You'd have to start now if you want it done for X-mas. Personally, I'd just make him a miniature hood using a piece of carbroads as the form (hood) and have it cut out in the shape of his hood, and then tell him that you'll make one or something like that. If you allready have the safety equipment, a veltelated area and a drop cloth for the drips, then the fabric and resin will probably be something like $50. If you've never done glassing before I'd suggest getting more stuff than you'll think you need, because in all probability you'll mess something up at one point or another and projects always to take more than it seems like they should.

The hood of my Subaru Legacy weighed around 45 or 50lbs including sound deadening, but my lightest F-glass hood was around 17 lbs. I'm assuming he drvives something like an AE86 or 240SX, both of which have fairly long hoods. Granted that his is 50 lbs, you may be able to chop 20 lbs off of that depending on the weight of cloth.

It may not seem like much, but every little bit counts. If you can do 5 things that save you 20 lbs, you've got a hundred lbs cut. Plus, fiberglass panel's won't dent or rust and you will nost likelly lose the stock hinges and latch (15-20 lbs of saved difference from aluminum pins)

Hope this helps!

-MR

[ma71supraturbo]

Re: Re: Power mods

Originally posted by Chas
Sure its not PS? 714kw = 957.5hp

Oops I misquoted. The figure was in kw, and converted to 714rwhp (on the low side cause I guess aussie dyno's read low)


As for the f-glass hood, thats exactly what I did to make mine, only I had to make a mold of the bottom supports too. In total it came to <15lbs (stock was 45)

[mk3mann]

Rota now makes the slipstream in 17/16x8 and 9's. No custom offsets as of right now though...i believe the offsets are 35mm

just food for though

And excellent write up on the Fiberglass hood! I will do that this sommer for sure...I dont feel like paying $600 for a carbon hood....when i am just going to paint over it..and 3lbs more over carbon is worth the sacrifice....and darn...anything is better than that 45lb monster of a hood!

-Jonathan

[ma71supraturbo]

stock "sawblades" are around 24lbs if I recall correctly. I've seen 16-17" wheels in the mid teens. That said, I like cheap strong wheels. If I was competitively road racing, I'd get SSR comps or the like, but for sliding on rough roads and possibly hitting curbs, stock all the way

[kurumakun]

Try www.venus-auto.com for 1j and 2jz gte motors. They usually have them in stock and there pretty reasonably priced.

[ma71supraturbo]

I've also heard a lot of good things about jarco - the only bad things are about the price ($2500 for an jza70 auto front clip, $3000 for a manual +shipping)