It STUCK !! BAH!!

what is teh weight difference between teh aluminum and steel hoods?

What FC's came with alum's? Anyone have it?

 

Not enough to worry about.
100 lbs.=.09 seconds in the 1/4 mile.

 

If you can, do a side by side comparison. One steel and one Al hood. When raising the hood you will notice right away the difference.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

DUDE ! thats almost 1 tenth of a second. The differnce between a 16.0 and a 15.9!!

 

The 88 vert and some 88-91 GTUs came with the aluminum hood, w/o scoop.

And it is about 120lbs for the steel hood, I don't remember what the aluminum was but I thought it was about 50lbs.

Good only for about 1/10th of a second, and bad for ever getting a dent in it taken out.

 

There might be a 30 lbs. difference. That equates to about .03 seconds in the 1/4 mile. Like I said, not enough to worry about!

 

Check K2RD they have different wheight specs posted.
A steel hood will be difficult for the average guy to lift all the way up with 1 arm, the Al. is really light, u can just kinda throw it up.

 

I guess it really doesnt make much of a difference...

speakin of KR2D, what ever happend to RETed??

 

Has anyone cut any of the bracing out of the steel hood? I was just thinking about doing this yesterday.

 

only if you want to see your hood fold in half on you when you try to lift it or hold it up with the prop. it's probably not worth it how ever little weight you save. if you want to save weight you might want to make one out of fiberglass.

 

The difference in weight is quite noticeable. When I had my '90 GTU I did a side by side comparison with my convertible. My '89 convertible has one, BTW.

So you don't notice much at the drag strip, but you're still shaving ~30 lbs. from the top of your car, think about the handling benefits. That's ~30 less pounds that your car has to transition from side to side, as well as bring to a stop, and other things but you get the point.

 

I'm going to agree with Mykl on this one. The aluminum hood saves a substantial amount of weight, and every little bit helps for accelereration, braking, handling, and gas mileage. If you have ever driven a gutted RX-7 you will know what I am talking about. BTW, a friend of mine replaced his FD stock aluminum hood with an $800 carbon fiber hood for a weight savings of a whopping 1 lb. If you can junk your steel hood for a $50-200 aluminum hood to save 30 lbs, then I would say that you have made yourself a much better deal.

There was no rhyme or reason for which models had aluminum hoods and which had steel, so you will need to bring a magnet with you to the salvage yard until you can eyeball the different hoods (you will be able to do this in time, Grasshopper). You can also check on this or other RX-7 forums, Ebay, and your local SCCA publication for hoods. I recommend the non-turbo aluminum hood for those with an NA or FMIC, as it is better at keeping the elements out of the engine bay, and it usually sells for half the price of the TII hood. Oh, and yes, the aluminum hood will dent easier, and will get destroyed by hail.

 

Yeah, although you can't tell unless you look at it at an angle there's a few little "bumps" and imperfections in my hood.

If I were to get the car repainted I'd have the body shop smooth it over with some filler or something.

But I guess for a 12 year old car it's fared rather well.

 

If it bothers you, you can call one of those paintless dent removal places. They will get your hood straight and you wont have to have it painted.
I work at a dealership and the guys here do a good job. He will charge me $40 a panel. That means he will take all of the dents out of any 1 panel (i.e. hood,fender,ect.) for 40 bucks. Thats a deal I get through the dealership though. I think they charge $60 a panel normally.

Mike

 

You guys have ALMOST talked me in to taking off my aluminum SE hood and putting it on my TII. My TII has a FMIC.
I said ALMOST! I don't think the few pounds loss is worth it. Besides, I would have to repaint it.

 

Wow, I didn't think it could be fixed for so little. I'll have to look into that.

 

I have 3

yes 3 steel hoods, 1 blue 1 black and 1 black t2 hood.

does anyone want to do some trading???

 

My friend has an 86 NA with supposedly sport suspension and an aluminum hood. And my other friend has a 88 NA steel hood.
You can definately tell the difference between the two.

 

Where did you get the 100 lbs=.09 seconds from? That is way off. First, I garuntee if I removed 500 lbs from an otherwise stock RX7, any model, it will drop more that .5 sec off its 1/4 time. Also, the gains are not linear. 100 lbs taken off a car that already weight 2000 lbs is going to have a lot more of an effect on times than 100 lbs taken off a 3500 lb car. See what Im saying? The drop in times would be linear if you used a percentage of the total cars weight, but I dont have the resources to figure that out.

You can check this out next time you go to the strip in your car. Let a friend ride with you after you do a few runs by yourself. I am almost sure, all other things being close to equal, that you will lose more than .14 sec is your friend weight 150 lbs.

 

Yep.... You are right!
100 lbs.=.16 seconds!
I guess maybe I will be putting on that aluminum hood!
Check this link out!
http://www.fantasycars.com/derek/quartmile.html
Has some good calculators on it!

 

Anyone have any idea how much they rear seats weigh? How much would that help? Thanks.

 

Pull them out and weigh them... I would bet around 50lbs with hardware and cushons.

 

wieghts:
86-88 NA 2,625lbs 86-88 NA 2+2 2,645

89-91 GXL 2,800 GXL 2+2 2,820

I am considering ditching the seats and putting back the bins. I put em in to ahh.... well lets just say that my insurance co. is more partial to 4 seaters

 

According to the calculator on the site above, if I get rid of my hood, I will run in the 12's!!! Maybe I should just take it off when I'm racing?
Right now I am running in the low 13's when I hook em' up!

 

Your tellin me that the rear seats in my 88 only weigh 20 lbs? I highly doubt that. I guess thats the difference in havin seats & bins. I think Ima ditch em. If I can lose 200lbs how much would that help? Thanks.