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I’m about ready to re-install the engine and trans in my car. Was wondering whether I should remove the rubber insulation pad covering the firewall and transmission tunnel? It looks heavy.
It appears legal to do so, but I’m a little concerned about heat transfer to the driver compartment. (Maybe more so the passenger side since my buddy had an instructor complain that his shoes were melting during a HPDE in his E30). :ohmy:
Remove it. Your days in HPDE are numbered.
Instructors complain a lot. Born whiners. If it happens again, just have your friend tell his instructor to “stfu, and watch this move”.
Is that in the engine compartment? I don’t remember padding on that side, or in the transmission tunnel. I’d leave it in if it’s in good shape. I’m barely at minimum weight with my car and I know I didn’t take out any insulation anywhere.
Ranger wrote:
Above is an exact quote of what Ranger told his boot camp drill instructor before the instructor ripped a new ‘____’.
My transmission tunnel insulation has been removed and doesn’t seem to make too much difference. Then again, I am always on the driver side.
yank it
As I recall, that stuff isn’t the sticky blanket like the trunk and interior - it was more of a foam padding and had a metal shield in there - it just pulls/tears out. More stuff to burn, shred, and generally get in the way. We just got 25 more pounds of ballast to work with, that insulation isn’t a good substitute - even if it were heavy and well fastened (it is neither), its higher and more forward than your ballast allowance.
Thanks for the input.
I pulled the stuff out. It was pretty crispy so it broke apart easily. There was a thin metal heat shield running from the firewall to the trans tunnel on the passenger side. That came out too. The instructor’s feet will have to fry. That should speed up the solo sign-offs.
Good to know. The insulation makes it a PITA to lift the engine and get your hands up in the tunnel to fix or unbolt things. Can’t wait to remove it.
As for the instructor’s feet melting, how about installing a passenger side foot rest?
I’ve been busy removing the insulation in the interior and pulled out about 25 pounds of the stuff. I’ve also removed the sunroof cassette, so I think I’ll need to add some weight. What is the best thing to do for ballast; weight plates, drilled and bolted to the floor, sheets of steel,something else??
bmwpower wrote:
[quote]Good to know. The insulation makes it a PITA to lift the engine and get your hands up in the tunnel to fix or unbolt things. Can’t wait to remove it.
As for the instructor’s feet melting, how about installing a passenger side foot rest?[/quote]
And maybe a virgin pina colada for after the 20 minutes session of intense, searing heat on their footsies. :laugh:
ColoradoMark - I used a weight plates, used from Play It Again for like .25 per pound. I got a sheet of 1/8" diamond plate, drilled 4 holes for the passenger seat mounting location. Bolted the weight plates to it. Spray painted it black to be purty. Works like a champ. Nice and low, no extra holes in the car, and the original mounting locations are designed to support weight and not tear out in a collision.
Coloradomark wrote:
As long as you leave your insulation in your trunk, and your windows in, you are liable to make weight pretty easily. Don’t install ballast until you know that you are light. You also have a spare tire and fuel load to adjust weight with. Scales read differently too. My car’s weight was good at Roebling, but 15-20 lbs heavy on NASA-SE’s scales at Road Atlanta. So don’t cut it too fine if you are not on your NASA regional’s scales.
My sunroof cassette is out too, but I have a passenger seat.
Depends on the year of the car. Aren’t the big bumper cars lighter overall? If so, less need to run trunk mat or spare and if you can remove it, takes weight from the end of the car and shifts centered and low in the car. Start with weighing it, research what stuff weighs and remove stuff that is high or outboard. If you can borrow a set of scales, you’d be way ahead of the game - for example, what if you removed part of the trunk matting to help in corner weighting?
Coloradomark wrote:
Regardless of what weight you use, bolt it to the floor using LARGE load-distributing washers on top of the stack and under the floor pan. The forces placed on the car in a rollover can be amazing. I prefer two bolts per stack, but that’s kind of hard with weight plates.
OPM has a source for square plates (roughly 12" x 12" x 3/4" ) that are 15 lbs or so. If you really want to go Racer X style, McMaster-Carr sells lead bricks that are 6" x 2" x 3" at 15 lbs. It’s $4 per pound, but you can get the weight as far back and to the right as the rules will allow and get the biggest benefit for corner weighting. Just be careful drilling the bolt holes so you don’t melt the lead. At least that’s what I learned from … someone.
Steve D.
I took the insulation out of my trunk. Just like GRM’s Spec E30, it weighed 53 pounds. Since my weight was right on with theirs, I guess that’s a good estimate of the typical weight of trunk insulation.
Randy87is wrote:
As I recall GRM ended up regretting that they removed all that insulation. Don’t get too aggressive in weight loss early in the game. You’ll just have to put the weight back.