Low cost engine performance mods?

[Spinnetti]

I posted a thread in suspensions on this project, but in short, I'm building a low cost, highly lightened 91' LS400 "junkyard" race car. Based on the race rules, I have a tight build budget. The Fan idler pulley is seized and I removed all of the A/C, including the compressor, so I have to reroute the belt, and may as well get it as light and simple as possible. Questions/opinions sought by folks who have modded any of these things:

- If the car is seriously lightened, could I also ditch the PS pump?
- Are the A/C fans enough flow to ditch the clutch fan?

Based on the above, I'm thinking about the best way to run the serpentine belt and simplify the mess. Off the cuff, I can remove the seized fan pulley and machine off behind it to allow clearance for the belt (since the AC compressor is gone too), leaving the Crank, alt, PS, belt tensioner and the upper idler on the fan idler bracket. This requires using the electric fans as the main cooling fans, either on a sw or thermo sw. The next alternate is to ditch the idler bracked entirely and machine up a new smaller tensioner pulley (so the belt will clear), and finally the last option would be to ditch tensioner too (if I can get a belt close in length to just shim the PS pump and/or the alternator for belt tightness. Anybody try any of these? I'd rather not run the clutch fan, and the less pulleys the better. (PS, I have tools, machine shop, 3D cad, CNC, and a tig welder, so pretty much anything goes that I can make without spending money)

Any other free hp on this thing?
I'll probably do a simple exhaust from the manifolds back (no cats, open flow resonator and dual race mufflers and side exit in front of the rear wheels). I also did a bit of cold air intake, removing the snorkel, covering the hole, cutting a big hole in the front of the air box and in the RF corner marker light so outside air goes right to the filter.

 

[spf_lexus]

get rid of the engine fan altogether and mount a single 14'' plastic elec. fan.. very lightweight. As for PS I wouldn't because the steering components were designed to take the abuse of an "assisted" steering scenario so I can see broken components with the added weight. Even tho the car is lighter the rack and pinion relies on the pump to take the pressure off the steering input shaft and linkeage

 

[MAYNCCIX73]

Low cost engine performance mods

even with low compression, the engine will run smoothly most of the time. had a broken pistonring in an xu9 several years ago, the engine ran fine but sounded like a diesel in idle ;-

 

[scfou]

Question about removing both cats..

Well first off, does anyone know how many cats are under the sc400 vvti? If I remove all the cats will I seriously gain an additional 20whp? Will the car run richer without the cats, and how much louder will it get? I've already removed all the resonators but I kept the stock mufflers on to keep it quiet during normal driving. I need more power because I raced a 2000 330ci and although I was ahead from a dead stop, I can see that he was slowly inching up 1 car length from behind; I hate it when that sht happens. I bet if there was more room to keep going, he would have passed me eventually. I swear I thought they were rated at 230hp, and my 1uz vvti is rated at 290hp, so I didn't understand that. I do know for a fact that the 330ci's run low 14's in the 1/4 mile though, and that already beats my mid to high 14 numbers.