Next set of mods for my e30

[>:C]

Hey everyone, I have a a fairly modified E30 that I have owned for less than a year and want to know what would be best to modify next for my car. I have until May to do the bulk of the work as that is when autocross starts again.

The current modifications to the car include:
*e36 m3 steering rack
*super eta m20 with 272 cam, long tub headers, no resonators or cats, and a tune, the engine was built less than 10,000 miles ago with a block that had only 50k on it. The chassis only has 122k on the clock atm
*megane racing coil overs with adjustable shocks
*front camber plates
*TRM C1 15x7 rims with all season tires
*Current alignment is square front tires with -1.1 degress of camber and +1/4" toe in on the rear tires with -3 degrees of camber all with an empty tank and no one in the car
*m30 engine mounts with aluminum cups around them and polyurethane tranny mounts with aluminum cups as I have had the engine break off from the engine mounts and hit the radiator with mounts that were in good condition
*4.1 LSD
*new tighter clutch
and that's about it for mods that affect performance. On top of all that I have been keeping up maintenance like replacing all coolant lines, using proper bmw coolant, oil, etc...

To help anyone think help are a couple videos of my most recent autocross:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwRnAmBpIIkHZVRmMVltVEo5QzQ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwRnAmBpIIkHc2VRWkhOWkJWNHc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwRnAmBpIIkHZm5ZVEJ5SmNDOVk/view?usp=sharing

The last run ended with this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwRnAmBpIIkHOXNkWXVMM1o0WHM/view?usp=sharing

My current plan includes fixing the abs to stop front wheel lockup and and replacing bushings pretty much everywhere. My lollipops are cracking and I want adjustable rear bushings to help fix my camber and make the car a bit tail happy. If I'm already doing the rear eccentric bushings, most of the work is already done for the rear subframe bushings and differential bushing so I might as well. I am planning for e36 m3 front control bushings and stock subframe and differential bushings. This is my daily driver and the ride is already rough enough as it is for the DC area with terrible road maintenance although people have been recommending poly subframe and differential bushings.

I also want to lose the 4.1 diff in favor of a 3.73 or 3.64 LSD. The 4.1 is definitely great but for autocross it doesn't suit me too well pinging the rev limiter especially when I get summer tires for next season and 3500rpm at 75mph isn't too great either.

Under the hood there isn't much to do aside from address the cooling. I want to do an electric fan swap and get a stock oil cooler as I currently do not have an oil cooler and heat has been a problem.

I do want to take the car to the dyno to see what she makes, possibly grab an m30 air-meter as I have heard that helps a fair amount, and possibly more modern injectors with 4 holes/adjustable fuel pressure regulator. The current injectors were rebuilt less than 10,000 miles ago so I'm am not really pressed to change them or get a regulator unless an inadequate torque curve can justify it.

After that the next thing I want is strut towers. I have heard from friends that those have been huge help in terms of feel of the car and the best investment they made for their car.

What do you guys think? Anything I'm overlooking? I'm not keen on anything big as my college student budget doesn't allow for it yet and there are still plenty of other things to address on the car as my ocd says fix them, fix the right. Like that stupid brake lining light or the broken recycle. This is my daily driver and I'm out for fun, not best in class so gutting the interior and other sacrificial mods of that nature I'm not too interested in.

[ak-]

Megasquirt, dyno tune, and more seat time!
Looks like you're doing well already.

[>:C]

Would you recommend plug and play or a kit form?

[BLACKCHARM88]

Don't settle for the e36 m3 steering rack, go get a Z4 rack. You're selling yourself short with 15x7's, I had 15x8's and they still didn't give me enough tires to keep traction with a chipped M20. You will hate yourself if you get rid of that 4:10 LSD too. Strut tower braces help a million, have you checked your fuel filler tube lately?

[ELVA164]

First off, with extra power especially get rid of the all season tires. Forget the m30 afm, it's a myth. Go for m50 injectors if you want to swap them, I have a set on my stock 2.5 and love them.

I'm a little confused by your alignment info but over 3 degrees of negative camber without passengers is a lot for a road car. I'm assuming you wanted to reduce that? Also, reduced negative camber will make the car less tail happy, not more. It's better and safer that way anyway.

[MINIz guy]

I think tires and seat time is all you really need. Not sure what you were doing by jerking the steering wheel mid-turn. It didn't look like the car was responding at all to those inputs. I'd focus on smoother steering inputs and getting closer to the cones.

[ak-]

Would you recommend plug and play or a kit form?

Plug and play kit. Avoid the hassle, and if you get one from Whodwho on this forum, he sends you a start-up-&-go tune for you to use.
He's helped me plenty with my setup from installation, tunerstudio, and reviewing my logs.

[>:C]

Plug and play kit. Avoid the hassle, and if you get one from Whodwho on this forum, he sends you a start-up-&-go tune for you to use.
He's helped me plenty with my setup from installation, tunerstudio, and reviewing my logs.

Good to know. I'll keep him in mind

I think tires and seat time is all you really need. Not sure what you were doing by jerking the steering wheel mid-turn. It didn't look like the car was responding at all to those inputs. I'd focus on smoother steering inputs and getting closer to the cones.

Tires will be changed for next season, that is guaranteed. As for the jerkyness in my driving, I play simulators like Assetto Corsa and Rfactor2 a lot. They helped me build up base skill and reflexes and taught me that a sudden decrease in pull of the steering wheel means the car is starting to rotate or be over driven but that is not always true. I just need to fix that habit, but it has saved me from times when I have made the car go VERY sideways yet I have never spun the car so far. But yes, more seat time will happen and continue to happen

First off, with extra power especially get rid of the all season tires. Forget the m30 afm, it's a myth. Go for m50 injectors if you want to swap them, I have a set on my stock 2.5 and love them.

I'm a little confused by your alignment info but over 3 degrees of negative camber without passengers is a lot for a road car. I'm assuming you wanted to reduce that? Also, reduced negative camber will make the car less tail happy, not more. It's better and safer that way anyway.

I was planning m50 injectors if I were to grab any so that's good to hear. The car is lowered a lot and because of that the rear wheels have the crazy camber. Camber with the bottom of the wheel farther out that the top if that was the misunderstanding. This camber gives the rear wheels more mid corner grip than the front wheels so I want to fix that.

Don't settle for the e36 m3 steering rack, go get a Z4 rack. You're selling yourself short with 15x7's, I had 15x8's and they still didn't give me enough tires to keep traction with a chipped M20. You will hate yourself if you get rid of that 4:10 LSD too. Strut tower braces help a million, have you checked your fuel filler tube lately?

I have never heard of a z4 rack in an e30 but that makes sense. I'll look around and see what's available. As for 15x8s, I never really had a problem with grip except when I went to an autocross course that had a layer of dirt on it and my car went very sideways a few times but I thought that was fun. A year from now I will graduate and probably have a dedicate set of slicks for autocross. I do plan to keep the 4.1 diff around for a little while should I want to put it back on, but second gear peeking at 50mph is pretty low.

[mr2peak]

Do you know what class you're tying to compete in? Post up the rulebook!

[>:C]

Do you know what class you're tying to compete in? Post up the rulebook!

I'm not worried about the class, being that I am already in DSP due to my cam and different block. Here are the rules posted from another thread:

Update/Backdate Engine swaps, no-top (UDBD for Miatas), full ECU, ITBs, any wheels, fat r-comps, fender trimming, race seats, big rear spoilers, LSDs, UD/BD transmissions (Miatas), aftermarket brakes, flywheels & clutch

I wouldn't worry about this too much though, I am not competing competitively. I want a car that is fun to drive and tests my skill. I'm going to drive my car in autocross and have fun until I feel ready to take it to a track. Hopefully I will have my first track day this summer

[E30SPDFRK]

Add negative camber up front and reduce the negative camber out back. Larger sway bars and/or M3 links, strut bar as others have said. What do you have for brakes? A quality set of coilovers would help too, and tires are the single biggest change you can do to a car.

[>:C]

That's the plan for the camber. I won't really mess with it too much until autocross starts again because I won't really test it but as a start I would try -1.5 front and -.5 rear and change it from there. Ideally I would get an adjustable swaybar set, or at least linkages as I want to be careful to keep all tires on the ground. I have seen a few cars in tripod mode at autocross. Brakes are stock aside from the brake flush but clearly they can lock the wheels. I'll upgrade them in the summer when I think about taking my car to the track where brake fade is likely.

[BLACKCHARM88]

E90 320si Airwaves BMW #5 and #11 run rear camber that makes "stanceworks" guys jealous so that isn't entirely true, -3 is a tad much though. Slightly tightening up your rear end will help with the tail happiness as-well as wider softer rubber. A Z4 rack will make a big difference over the E36 M3 one, finding and paying for one is a different issue. Don't be afraid to strip her out, mine went from 2,800lbs to 2,520lbs and I wasn't even done yet.

[Hooffenstein HD]

A Z4 rack will make a big difference over the E36 M3 one

Car-----------mm/ per. turn--------BMW Part #
E30------------36.5 mm------------32 13 1 092 335
E30 M3---------38 mm--------------32 13 2 225 556
E36 M3 '95------39 mm--------------32 13 2 227 191
E36-------------45.5 mm------------32 13 1 096 280
E36 M3 96+------45.5 mm-----------32 13 1 096 280
E36 Z3 M---------45.5 mm-----------32 13 1 096 280
E46 Std-----------50 mm------------32 13 6 755 065
E85 Z4 M----------51 mm------------32 13 7 836 844
E36 Z3 non-M------53.5 mm----------32 13 1 095 575

This suggests even a standard E46 rack is a huge improvement over E36/E36 M3. That's what I run in my car with power steering deleted and it feels like the best thing I ever did. Easier to turn than my E30 rack with power steering was but that's probably because the E30 rack and power steering was completely thrashed.

[>:C]

Indeed, I can loosen the front shocks more to see what happens. Currently I like them at about 10 clicks (out of 32) softer than the rear. I looked up z4 steering racks and they are not bad, and installation seems simple enough. Nothing I don't have the tools for. I am opposed to stripping the car out. I transport people and things regularly as well since I bought the car not to only perform. If anything I'll be adding weight to it from various mods like raspberry pi obc, 120v outlet in the cabin, auto dimming mirror(s), a proper radio, seat heating, etc....