S54 Stroker Kits - PRO/CON

[Estoril]

What have people been able to do to remove 300lbs from while still retaining daily / creature comforts on these cars?

Depending on how you define "creature comforts" - it will be a fairly involved project. Sunroof insert, back seats et al, lightweight battery and other will get you well on your way there - but you have to be willing to make sacrifices and compromises.

[Chanman1029]

Be careful with Lang racing, I recently had a god awful experience with them. They’ll give you extremely unrealistic time frames, and logistically that shop is failing. I’ll never go there again, I’d check out kassel or literally anyone else

[ra2fanatic]

I did CSL cams and even then, minimal gains which, mind you, are not as aggressive as Schrick 280/272 cams and still cost $4k purchase/installed.

[digger]

If one has capability of pulling an engine themselves then you wouldn't get a shop to do it you'd deal with an engine builder directly

[Nate047]

Depending on how you define "creature comforts" - it will be a fairly involved project. Sunroof insert, back seats et al, lightweight battery and other will get you well on your way there - but you have to be willing to make sacrifices and compromises.

Yea, 300lbs is a lot and that's kind of why I found that comment to be surprising. I would do the sunroof delete, light front seats, light wheels, light exhaust, and all the stuff you mentioned. Keep AC and full interior less the rear seats. Feel like that would only be like what, 150 or so though.

[tnord]

I would consider a stroker build only on an engine that already needed a rebuild, to be put in a weekend driven car. Even then it's probably not worth the cost or hassle, but that's the scenario where it might be "reasonable."

Light weight options that don't reduce comfort? Seats, wheels, brakes, exhaust (maybe, I'm unaware of any light weight exhausts that aren't overly loud), roof, boot, hollow swaybars, and maybe some other tubular suspension components. If purchasing all new items, even just that is probably a $20k endeavor.

[jbfrancis3]

Lang told me himself that any stroker setup he sells, will require more frequent rebuilds.

Reasons why, I would guess would be parts wearing out quicker.

I've only ever seen 1 3.5 S54 in person, but I highly doubt that car had any more than 2k miles on because it was still with it's original owner in 2020.

There is another one in Colorado that get's used more often but it just got done so tough to say.

Thanks. And a little bit of head-scratcher since he's largely maintaining the rod-stroke ratio and has developed a wide bearing that should more than cover the modest torque increase. I cannot think of anything else about a stroker that would reduce longevity. Perhaps he means on a relative basis to stock in something like a racing application.

[Cronenberged]

I shaved weight, the car is most 3k lbs with a full tank and forgetting what stock is 3400 or 3500. It's a noticeably huge improvement. I would do weight, then bolt on mods and if you're still teething for my NA power do internals.

[Obioban]

What have people been able to do to remove 300lbs from while still retaining daily / creature comforts on these cars?

I mean... look at my mod list

My car is sitting at 3082 lbs (half tank, no driver), while still having a back seat, AC, stock weight (volume) muffler, etc.

[Nate047]

I mean... look at my mod list

My car is sitting at 3082 lbs (half tank, no driver), while still having a back seat, AC, stock weight (volume) muffler, etc.

I'm sure you've shared it a million times but I'm genuinely curious to see what it took to get to that weight, that's impressive.

[Obioban]

I'm sure you've shared it a million times but I'm genuinely curious to see what it took to get to that weight, that's impressive.

A couple big ticket items and then a ton of small ticket items. Big ones:
-CF Roof
-Seats
-Lithium battery
-made my own stereo harness and powered the speakers directly by the head unit (allowing me to delete every module in the trunk, all that wiring, and the scaffolding holding all the modules), and paired with light weigh speakers (carbon fiber and neodymium)

Those 4 totaled a little over 200 lbs. Then lots of little things (e.g. wheels, tires, brakes, suspension, airbox, cabin air filter housing (one of my only oe csl parts), hollow sway, fog light delete, secondary air pump delete, headlight washer system delete, lighter headlights, aux and clutched fan replaced with SPAL fan, roof rack provision delete, LATCH delete, removed the tool kit and air pump/goo, rear middle seatbelt delete, CSL intake (without any of the flap stuff), CF trunk, 8 lb battery cable delete, battery bracketry delete, bla bla bla. No potential weight savings is too small :P
(^that's not a complete list, just things I thought of as I sit here)

The only thing I've done that I'd classify as "hard" was making my own stereo wiring harness. The project probably took me 60-80 hours of effort. Also, I was super terrified when done that it wouldn't work. But, fired it up and everything worked first go. Got me modern functionality (wireless carplay, etc) and saved ~50 lbs off the car... no regrets, now that it's done (had some regrets during the project ).

[usdmej]

but you have to be willing to make sacrifices and compromises.

100% this, its simply a matter of what you can justify for yourself

you can drop 40 pounds with a lightweight battery but can you live with the ridiculously low capacity?

the entire stereo system (harness, speakers, hardware) adds up to about 40 pounds but then you're left with no stereo

1piece seats get you significant weight savings but then you're stuck with 1 piece seats

[Obioban]

100% this, its simply a matter of what you can justify for yourself

you can drop 40 pounds with a lightweight battery but can you live with the ridiculously low capacity?

the entire stereo system (harness, speakers, hardware) adds up to about 40 pounds but then you're left with no stereo

1piece seats get you significant weight savings but then you're stuck with 1 piece seats

Lithium batteries can drop 40 lbs without losing any capacity. You can even buy them from BMW or Porsche, as they used them stock, for street cars. I'm 6 years into owning my Lithium battery, and it has never acted anyway other than like stock-- works when cold, works when hot, works when parked, saves a ton of weight.

My stereo sounds better than stock and dropped the weight. It took (considerable) effort, but you don't have to lose the stereo.

... my M3's 1 piece seats are the most comfortable seats in any of my cars...? As in, I don't go around in the M3 wagon (stock M3 seats) adjusting the position. I adjust the position once to be correct, set the seat memory, and then I'm good forever. Similarly, if you get a 1 piece seat that's well matched to your body and position it correctly, there's no reason it should be any less comfortable than a stock seat. In my case, because I'm tall, it enables me to actually have a proper seat position without my head in the headliner, making it more comfortable than the stock M3 seat (or M5).

[repoman89]

The only thing I've done that I'd classify as "hard" was making my own stereo wiring harness. The project probably took me 60-80 hours of effort. Also, I was super terrified when done that it wouldn't work. But, fired it up and everything worked first go. Got me modern functionality (wireless carplay, etc) and saved ~50 lbs off the car... no regrets, now that it's done (had some regrets during the project ).

What exactly did this entail? (E.g. what connectors are on your harness, did you harvest them from your existing harness, etc). I’ve been thinking about a nav and harness delete / replacing with business CD but something like this seems like an option. Not like I ever use the stereo anyway but keeping a couple speakers as you did would be welcome.

[Nate047]

A couple big ticket items and then a ton of small ticket items. Big ones:
-CF Roof
-Seats
-Lithium battery
-made my own stereo harness and powered the speakers directly by the head unit (allowing me to delete every module in the trunk, all that wiring, and the scaffolding holding all the modules), and paired with light weigh speakers (carbon fiber and neodymium)

Those 4 totaled a little over 200 lbs. Then lots of little things (e.g. wheels, tires, brakes, suspension, airbox, cabin air filter housing (one of my only oe csl parts), hollow sway, fog light delete, secondary air pump delete, headlight washer system delete, lighter headlights, aux and clutched fan replaced with SPAL fan, roof rack provision delete, LATCH delete, removed the tool kit and air pump/goo, rear middle seatbelt delete, CF trunk, 8 lb battery cable delete, battery bracketry delete, bla bla bla. No potential weight savings is too small :P
(^that's not a complete list, just things I thought of as I sit here)

The only thing I've done that I'd classify as "hard" was making my own stereo wiring harness. The project probably took me 60-80 hours of effort. Also, I was super terrified when done that it wouldn't work. But, fired it up and everything worked first go. Got me modern functionality (wireless carplay, etc) and saved ~50 lbs off the car... no regrets, now that it's done (had some regrets during the project ).

That's badass, I would def not take on a harness project like that but 50 lbs of wiring is nothing to scoff at. When you say lighter headlights, did you do a halogen conversion?