Does anyone daily drive with a light weight kmember

[Chad1986]

Seeing if anyone e dailys a car with a light weight k member, or is it just a race thing. If so what are the cons of doing so?

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[3star2nr]

Seeing if anyone e dailys a car with a light weight k member, or is it just a race thing. If so what are the cons of doing so?

You can daily drive anything. But I see a couple cons to it.

Firstly alot of these kits ive seen uses heim joints and spherical bearings for the control arms to mount critical parts like the wheel hubs.

While heim joints will give the car better steering feel they are terrible interms of long term reliability and handling vibrations. To make matters worse this is often where people do cost cutting. High quality hiem joints can cost upwards of 200.00 a piece... Entry level low tolerance crap you can get for under 10.00... As a small performance shop making limited production runs guess which parts they're gonna choose...

On a racecar its no big deal because a smart racer will check these parts and replace them on a street car people want mods they can "set and forget" if a control arm fails on a racetrack you lose a race

If a control arm fails on a public highway you die and kill people...

So yeah id look at those parts and how they mount the control arms and steering components

 

[3star2nr]

To answer your question more directly it depends on the kit. Get one designed for road racing vs drag racing.

And look for these features
1. Can you use your factory motor mounts. Solid mounting the engine will break your transmissions bell housing long term.

2. How are the control arms and wheel knuckle attached. If it reuses the factory arms great. If it replaces them but uses ball joints for the knuckles and poly urethane bushings for the arms awesome.

3. Once you install it you need to be dilligent about inspecting the welds every oil change. Alot of these kits are made from,welded 4130 steel. Which is a great steel it's super strong, but welding it is not easy. On a racecar build you have more leeway on a street car with higher vibration loading and shock loading I'd look for hairline cracks to form in the areas around the welds.

All that said it's up to u I'm super paranoid about these things, there is such a thing as too much performance for a street car.

 

[Chad1986]

As an ex welder by trade, I am very familiar with the pros and cons of materials such as and 4130. I have actually welded on nascar roll cages and had a hand in buliding buggies that have run up pikes peak. I know there are trade offs, however one thing I wasn't thinking about was heim joints. There are some good ones out there, but definitely alot more garbage than good.i appreciate the feedback, I have been looking at bmr, and now have few questions before I pull the trigger on it. Thanks guys!

 

[DivineStrike]

To answer your question more directly it depends on the kit. Get one designed for road racing vs drag racing.

And look for these features
1. Can you use your factory motor mounts. Solid mounting the engine will break your transmissions bell housing long term.

2. How are the control arms and wheel knuckle attached. If it reuses the factory arms great. If it replaces them but uses ball joints for the knuckles and poly urethane bushings for the arms awesome.

3. Once you install it you need to be dilligent about inspecting the welds every oil change. Alot of these kits are made from,welded 4130 steel. Which is a great steel it's super strong, but welding it is not easy. On a racecar build you have more leeway on a street car with higher vibration loading and shock loading I'd look for hairline cracks to form in the areas around the welds.

All that said it's up to u I'm super paranoid about these things, there is such a thing as too much performance for a street car.

Not to derail too much, but are you saying the aftermarket engine mounts will eventually damage the bell housing? If so are there ones that give more feedback without compromising bell house integrity?

 

[3star2nr]

Not to derail too much, but are you saying the aftermarket engine mounts will eventually damage the bell housing? If so are there ones that give more feedback without compromising bell house integrity?

No I'm saying it depends on the materials used. The stock mounts were designed With hours of vibration test data taken into consideration.

If the kits uses solid mounts their is basically no consideration for vibration, which for a racecar especially a drag car that's more than acceptable because the car is only going to be driven for a few
Minutes total, and a few times per year.

If You daily drive with solid mounts that torque load has to be dissipated somewhere right? Along witj the vibration loading. So the only logical place for it is in the transmission.

I didnt know this and solid mounted an engine in my old 3000gt. Well within a few months of daily driving, the car broke a tooth in the differential and shot a hole through the transmission casing... I was going 40mph when it happened.

When i was installing the mounts originally a few road racers who owned a local garage was warning me not to do that. They were right.

If the mounts are designed to flex then you should be fine but retaining the stock mounts is the safest option

 

[3star2nr]

And I also want to say I dont have a dog in this fight, just raising some things I'd consider personally before buying these parts, so that you can decide for yourself if its something you want, or you can make a better decision and choose the kit that will get you the performance and reliability you're looking for.

There's not really such a thing as a "bad mod" it's more not suited for your application. I havent personally installed a k member so there's a great chance you'll install one and never have an issue.

I was recently looking at one by Watson Racing. But it was more of a 3am curiousity vs a commited plan to purchase.

Just giving things to consider

 

[Cobra Jet]

I would also wonder about certifications of such a part. Do any come with approved certs affirming the part is or can be used for daily driving, or do they all come with a disclaimer that it’s “off road use only” (removing the liability from the vendor and placing it solely on the consumer)?

The other thing to think about:
When (not if) in an accident and the car is a total loss claim, will the Insurance Co. pay out if they find that major structural components of the vehicle were changed from NHTSA approved components to some Aftermarket Brand XYZ that never went through any safety or crash tests??

 

[3star2nr]

I would also wonder about certifications of such a part. Do any come with approved certs affirming the part is or can be used for daily driving, or do they all come with a disclaimer that it’s “off road use only” (removing the liability from the vendor and placing it solely on the consumer)?

The other thing to think about:
When (not if) in an accident and the car is a total loss claim, will the Insurance Co. pay out if they find that major structural components of the vehicle were changed from NHTSA approved components to some Aftermarket Brand XYZ that never went through any safety or crash tests??

Thats a huge point... Probably the number one thing to consider for a daily driver

 

[Chad1986]

Not too worried about that. I have full coverage with provisions for my aftermarket parts and the insurance company gets an email l with all my aftermarket parts installedband I asked them about the k member and have an email saying that it was good to go and nothing with my coverage would change with installing one other than my premium going up just a tiny bit.

 

[kent0464]

Seeing if anyone e dailys a car with a light weight k member, or is it just a race thing. If so what are the cons of doing so?

There are probably thousands of foxbody mustangs being driven everyday on the public roads around the US with lightweight K-members. I’ve owned 8 of them myself, never an issue.

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