I am toying of the idea of doing a 20B swap sometime in the distant future, and I was wondering what you guys thought of the racing beat aluminum side, intermediate, mid, and front plates.

One of the cons to the 20B swap, is the added weight. This is supposed to hurt handleing mainly because of the mid housing. So if I replaced all the cast iron plates with aluminum, do you think it would offset the weight enough, to make the car handle close to as well as it would with the 13b in it?

 

it would for sure offset the added weight of both the
added weight of the 20b and your bank account!
I would love to be able to afford the racing beat housings
for my 20b. but the cost is way to high for me.
if i remember right you would be looking at 6000.00
if they made all four, which i am sure they don't.

matt

 

They are probably really great, but they are only made for peripheral port engines, and I would rather take the time to relocate the battery to take care of the static weight distribution issue rather than spend over $6,000 on those components. However, if money isn't an object to you, and you have several years of racing experience where you can actually tell slight differences in static weight distribution or polar moment of inertia, then you may as well go with the aluminum housings. However, since you are asking on this forum rather than contacting Mandeville or Downing Atlanta, I will assume that you probably don't want to pay that kind of money for something that you will not even notice.

 

hmmm i forgot that they are only made for peripheral port engines, so to re answer , no even if i had the money
i wouldnt get them

matt

 

It's a little more than that. The intermediate housing is more expensive than the others.

 

hehe can we answer to this thread any faster you thinklol

 

no, lol

 

Hey Evil A, how much does the 80mm intermediate plate weigh anyway? now?

 

my fc weighs 2860 with the 20b in it. i didnt wiegh it before but its supposed to be 2850, so the 20b gained a whopping 10lbs

mike

 

They dont only make them for peripheral port engines. They have porting options for the plates such as street and bridgeporting. The only plates they dont make are for 6 port engines.

I dont plan on doing this now, but I'm looking at my next project car. Money really wont be a problem on this one. It will take as long as it takes. BTW they do make all four. Check racing beats website. They can make any housing to your specs. They are "cast" as peripheral port housings, but normal ports can be put in if requested.

But still would this loss of weight make it able to handle like it still had the 13b in it? Or at least close to it? This would be going in a FD.

 

this is a guess but i think the 20b would be as light as
a 13b or even a little less with all aluminum housings.

matt

 

I don't know. I'm not really concerned about it to tell you the truth. RETed likes weight trivia, so he may know. I'm more concerned with weight and balance issues that I can control, such as intercoolers, oil coolers, radiators, batteries, fuel cells, etc. If you think about it, most of those items have a longer moment arm from the center of gravity than the intermediate housing, and therefore the polar moment of inertia is more effected by their weight and positioning.

The Pettit Banzai FD gained a whopping 20 lbs up front, which was pretty much negated by simply relocating the battery. The total weight of the car is listed at 2,740 lbs, which is a slight reduction in weight after the 20B conversion. So much for the urban legend about the 20B conversion adding weight.

Does your car work right now?

 

Maybe I shouldn't be too concerned about it either (since the 160mm extra length is going rearward sh-shaw!). I'm still curious though.

Hey RETed, 'got yer ears on?

 

if you have the money why not have a 20b in your car
that is lighter than the 13b you took out
I say go for it and let us know what you think of it
matt

 

That just doesnt make any sence. You've got the extra rotor, which is like 9 pounds, the extra rotor housing, the extra plate (mid intermediate) which weighs quite a bit frm what I hear. I'm sure that adds up to way more than 20lbs.

Did they do other things to lower weight? I'm sure they did single turbo, which would save some but I'm sure theres more.

 

Factor in the fact that alot of people probably removed emissions equipment, the rat's nest of vacuum tubes for seq. turbos, a whole turbo, and anything else that wasn't necessary in the swap or replaced.

 

LOL, of course they did other things. You do realize that there is more to the 20B swap than changing out an engine block, right?

Some things that reduce weight on the Banzai:
Lightweight flywheel
Stainless steel exhaust components vs. the stock cast iron
Smaller battery

See the 5 pages of the scanned SCC article at my crummy web site. If you can't read them with your browser, just download them to your hard drive and read them with a good picture editing program.
http://www.geocities.com/evilaviator/

You didn't answer whether your current FD was running or not. What I was going to suggest is that if it is running, then securely fasten a 30 lb weight to the engine bay of your car, and see if it makes over $6,000 worth of difference to you as you drive it. I have a feeling that you won't know the difference.

The Mazda Competition housings performed well on the track, so I would assume that the RB knock-offs are probably also good. However, I can't see the point of somebody who is asking such nubie questions paying so much for something that will make so little difference to them.

 

Actually I dont own a FD yet. I'm just brainstorming ideas for my next project. So far this is probably going to be what I'm aiming for, over the next few years. My new job will allow to afford this, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do.

And as for the newb comments, I'm not a newb... just to the 20B. I wasnt sure how much it weighed over the 13b. Since I dont really see anybody using the alluminum side plates, I just wanted to see if there were any real perks to them.

Just trying to learn here fellaz

Oh and by the way, on your page, that axia car, is that a tripple turbo!?!

 

Newb is a relative term. Weight distribution is much more complicated than what you read in the Road & Track articles or basic mechanic courses.

I think you don't see anybody using the aluminum plates because they are so expensive and they are really only useful on a competitive race car. I know that some of the IMSA teams used the Mazda Comp aluminum plates with good performance and wear results, but I don't know of anybody who uses the RB plates. Racing Beat may be able to give you a contact.

I would use them if I had money to burn, even though I wouldn't be able to appreciate them until my racing skills improved. However, the way it stands, my money is better spent on more useful weight reduction items like SS exhaust and lightweight wheels. Actually, I'm investing my money in this fantastic economy right now rather than wasting it on my car, but that's another story.

BTW, replacing the incredibly heavy stock 20B-REW turbo unit with a SS manifold and single turbo saves a whole lot of weight. If you are planning a 20B project, I recommend starting with the stock turbos, and then upgrading later. I wish I did this because now I am having difficulty building the rest of the car to handle the increased torque.

We are ALL learning.

Yes. I'm not sure how much advantage it really gives over a good BB single turbo, or if the extra weight and expense is worth it, or how well they spool with only one exhaust putt per rev, but I'm quite sure that it looks cool.

BTW, for others who check out that web site and find that the link doesn't work, it's just Yahoo limiting the bandwidth, and the site will be back up in an hour or so. I don't quite understand why Yahoo advertises on my web site, yet limits the bandwidth. It doesn't make much sense to me, but their stock is doing well, so I guess they know what they are doing.

 

Back from the dead

So has anyone used these housings to date? I understand the price is astronomical, but I'm curious nonetheless. Also, I'm curious how easily these housings can be damaged by a broken seal?

~Ramy

 

No one??