does anyone know what the weight distrobution of an '02 is?

[Guest dutch]

im talking about front to rear wheel distrobution.

[K-Swiss]

But pretty soon when I start up my m20 conversion I have access to corner scales and we will put to bed once and for allt hat a m20 conversion screws up the weight distribution of a 2002.

[Guest Anonymous]

I hardly see how the m20 can screw up the distribution, Its all in your mind. The m20 weighs in at 60 lbs heavier. Through in a light flywheel and its down to 40. fiberglass hood +fenders your even. As for the position, The front of the motor sits in the same place as the four cylinder with the two extra cyliders sitting near the firewall. not two extra cylinders sitting upfront on ahead of sub-frrame.

You do the math..

[Guest dutch]

a flywheel and fiberglass hood and deck lid all together cost like $1000.

[K-Swiss]

I believe with a battery in the back, m20, and perhaps changing some spring rates you can have an 02 pretty happy. Plus its not like these cars are tail happy at all...

[steve k.]

normally about 55% 45% front rear. But changing the hight of the car unevenly will change those numbers.

steve k.

[oz_tom]

I was under the impression that putting the battery in the boot (fine...trunk!) evened out to be nearly 50/50...

[Guest Anonymous]

I know what u mean bout the battery in the boot thing tho...

BMW moved the battery in the boot for a few bigger engined cars. When the e30 series top dog went from 323i to the 325 they shifted it - the zed threes with 6 bangers the same...all to counter the extra weight of the bigger engine.

Course - if your mate in the passenger seat had drunken too many Guinness that night, it meant bugger all.

And if you had too much brass on your badge bar, or too many rally lights on your fog light bar, it was a moot point anyways....

[Lupin3]

According to the http://www.bimmerforums.com/engine_faq/, the M10 weighs in at 180, and the M20 at 258 - nearly 80 pounds difference. Now that's still a surprisingly small amount, in terms of the relative capacities of the engines. In terms of weight distribution, however, and given the extra length of the M20's additional cylinders, it is no small amount.

I realize that an M20 can be offset a bit towards the firewall to centralize mass, and that the battery can be relocated to the trunk, and so on. Still, most of the weight equalization processes that one could attempt with an M20 could also be done with an M10, to say nothing of an S14.

I look forward to seeing the results of weighing the M20 conversion - hopefully before and after. I suspect that the difference will be less than many expect. What that means, however, will be harder to determine. A slalom test in addition to weighing would be ideal.

I am surprised to see 55/45 as the balance of the '02, I would've thought it closer to 50/50. Can anyone verify that number?

Interesting thread!

[Guest Anonymous]

When I had my autocross car weighed it was 1177 front versus 904 rear for a balance of 56.5/4 3.5. With myself and a co-pilot the balance was 1353 front versus 1062 rear for a 56/44 balance. This for a car with a coilover front suspension, minimalist interior, standard gas tank 1/3 full and a Turbo exhaust system, big brakes, etc. All steel panels and all the original glass. I'd love to reach a 50/50 front/rear balance but am not quite sure how that's feasible given the front engine configuration.

[ingraham]

with Behr A/C, sunroof, 265-lb driver, 10 gallons of gas, and about 50 lb of junk in the trunk. The axle weights are 1520 lb front, 1260 lb rear.

If I moved the 28-lb battery to the trunk, the weights would change to about 1490/1290, giving 53.6%/46.4%. That's not much of a change. I would need to move a total of 130 lb to get 50/50 weight distribution. YMMV.

By my estimate, the driver's C.G. is very near the car's C.G., front-to-back, so driver weight has no effect on F/R weight distribution.

[Guest Anonymous]

I would think that by adding lightweight fenders & hood, removing front bumper and replacing with air dam (especially new style bumpah), removing manifold & down pipe and replacing with header, flywheel and battery relocation it would not be that hard to do. Things like lightweight starters & DCOE manifolds may help but at that point you're talking a pound here & a pound there. Biggies are bumper off the front, battery relocation, fenders & hood. That will get you there.

Don't forget that every bit you remove from the back means you need to remove that from the front so if you're going for 50/50 you're best off to leave the back heavy/stock and just strip out the front.

[Napes]

w/ all loose junk, tool bag, & spare tire out (for autoXing) and only about 1 1/2 gals. of gas weighted 2378# w/out driver. Front was 1393#, back 987#. This is w/ battery in front stock location. That's a 58.5%/41.5% front to rear distribution. In normal running trim, w/ spare tire. tools, and gas, the front-to-rear weight distrib. is better.

[ColinK]

FWIW:

According to the Road & Track article for a '72 tii, they reported a curb weight of 2310 and a test weight of 2645 (driver, gas?). Their figures indicate (with driver) a 56/44% distribution.

[Lupin3]

That article hasn't been scanned and made available online anywhere, has it?