Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[2mAn]

They also said "What the hell are you building that needs a 1/2" fuel line?!" :pimp:

A Beast .... duh :devil:

[dvallis]

Oh yeah. Fuel system is starting to look like something that fell off the space shuttle. :devil:



Now we need to get the fuel to the engine. Hard line time. First thing is punching supply and return lines through the trunk floor. Here's our plan. The rubber grommet is 1" in diameter. We are going to bore 1" diameter holes in the 1/4" thick trunk plate, then weld the washer down as a grommet holder.



Needed something to stand-in for the grommet that could stand up to welding. This centers the large washer on the steel plate holes.



Perfect. They'll get some paint later.



We measured with a formed wire. It's going to take 10' of hard tube to run from trunk to engine bay. So we have to turn this 1/2" OD aluminum tube into something that conforms to all the undercarriage twists and turns. Would have been basically impossible (for us) with stainless tube. Just too hard to work. We're bending the aluminum carefully by hand. It does not kink if you go slowly.



Here's an intermediate shot. Clamps are not all on. Took about an hour under the car, bending shaping, twisting. Damn hot work when its 105F in the garage so we called it a day.

[dvallis]

Updated post #97 How add an aftermarket speedometer. Screw You Photobucket.

[dvallis]

Getting ahead of the curve

While we're building something, I have to be designing the NEXT thing we're going to do. It's getting closer to wiring and electronics, so time to revisit that.

Here's the wasted spark system I designed ... last October. Time flies when you're having fun.



Inputs to the ECU



New development. At the advice of my racing coach, I decided to simplify the cockpit. As in WAY simplify it, down to a racing dash only. I can still get all the data I need from dash pages. LEDs are triggered on alarm conditions. Shift lights and your ears tell you RPM. I've used this setup before on Formula Enterprise and Spec Racer Fords, so it's nothing new really. I might cheat and keep the steam gauge tach. :devil:

More importantly, everything gets data logged, so I can review offline with my coach on standard AIM software. Data is how you get faster.

[dvallis]

Still plugging along on the fuel system hard lines. In case anyone is wondering, this part is DIFFICULT. It's basically hours under the car, hand forming tube with zero room. And drilling in brackets that keep falling on my head. Don't worry. They get replaced with rivets later.

Looks easy from this side. Fuel leaves the trunk ....



.... and ends up in the engine bay.



However, under the car you're doing this.



Here's where the gas tank used to be. We're going to put a muffler in the empty space and route exhaust through the side of the car. Yes, there will be a heat shield for the fuel lines.

The other side will have a Y-pipe and electrical diverter valve. To a straight pipe. :woowoo:

[dvallis]

Hard lines are finally (mostly) finished. Still have to replace sheet metal screws with rivets on the brackets.

Trunk fittings



Here's a good shot of under the car



Engine bay fittings



Remember this nice piece of work? I picked it up from an E30 guy on eBay. Using it to scope out the fuel rail situation. Obviously not using the stock rail. :devil: Might make my own.

[dvallis]

My new favorite tool ... Rivets. :devil:



Riveted all the hard lines brackets. They're not going anywhere now.



Finally got all the parts to finish the fuel system hoses.



Great thing about the modular fuel system is I can work on it like this in the trunk. Got the final supply and return hoses done.



That's the last thing we needed to do keeping the car on jack stands. Now we can put on the suspension, brakes, wheels and get it back on the floor. Progress!

[dvallis]

Subframe extravganza

We're finally on the road to rebuilding, not tear down and fabrication. This is me torquing down the 8AN tube end fittings for our fuel line.



I felt like Johan in the battery compartment in "Das Boot"



Fuel cell frame final installation. Everything torqued down and shimmed. It's hella solid.



22mm rear sway bar ready for installation.



Needed to thread it up and around the diff, then attach with heavy duty brackets to the chassis frame. Had to trim some bots to make room for proper travel.



New custom hardware for the rear trailing arms. Larger diameter than the stock bolts. Fits nice and tight in the trailing arm bushing sleeves. No unwanted toe or camber changes under load.



Trailing arms were a total beatch to install. No amount of beating will do it. We used a chain wrench to apply steady pressure in the right places. Worked great.



Final job was attaching the sway bar links to reinforced mounting tabs. End result is damn solid but moves nice and smooth.



Assembled rear subframe, trailing arms and sway bar. We had a celebratory beer and called it a day.



Next project is half shafts and rear brakes.

[CorvallisBMW]

Damned impressive :slow clap:

[Kershaw]

That's quite a bit of work there.

[dvallis]

No kidding. Even more so when it's 110F in the garage and you're under the car. It's going to get interesting fast though. Suspension will be back on this weekend, then brakes, then wheels and car is back on the ground. After that, some electrical then engine goes in. Exciting stuff.

[parkerbink]

No kidding. Even more so when it's 110F in the garage and you're under the car. It's going to get interesting fast though. Suspension will be back on this weekend, then brakes, then wheels and car is back on the ground. After that, some electrical then engine goes in. Exciting stuff.

I can stay in the garage 20-30 minutes at at time. It's been 105 & 60% humidity in it's a dry heat Phoenix lately. I miss the 120 & 5%.

[sonomabimmers]

No kidding. Even more so when it's 110F in the garage and you're under the car. .

+1 for this. Austin is not playing around with this heat right now.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dvallis]

More drivetrain

Worked on the getting the rebuilt half shafts back in today. Trick was surgically cleaning the splines then applying a light coat of lithium grease. Both shafts just slid into the hubs no problem. You just have to make sure the spline is pre-seated and perfectly perpendicular to the hub. Torque half shafts to diff. with 50 ft-lbs. Some specs say 62 ft-lbs but the bolt heads felt like they'd strip going that far.



Onwards to the rear brakes. Had a momentary walk of shame when we realized the parking brake bits were nowhere to be found. Rob has them very carefully boxed, labeled and stored ..... somewhere. Oh well. Parking brake bits will get an upgrade to new parts.

Here's the Massive Lee 300 x 32 rear kit on Hawk DTC 1.25" slotted vented rotors. Hat is shown on the right. Rotor on the left shows the parking brake drum. Caliper mounting brackets are on the far left.



I read Massive Lee's instructions this time. :devil: Trailing arm caliper ears require angle grinder persuasion for the caliper to fit correctly.



Test fitting the rotors. Anyone familiar with Hawk will note this is the wrong rotor. Right on the left side. :devil: Doesn't matter since it's all getting removed for parking brake fitting.



Caliper fits great. Had to torque down the rotor for a proper fit.



Here's a final look. You can really see how big the rotors and calipers are from this angle. Stepping on the brakes will be like throwing out a boat anchor.



Will be working on the front axle next while we wait for the parking brake bits.

[dvallis]

Front suspension and brakes

Working on the front suspension and brakes now. Putting everything back on for real now. Bolts get thread locked and torqued to spec.



Rob putting some "Farm Boy" on the caliper bracket bolts.



Drop links getting torqued.



Wheel hub nut needs serious torque.



Moral of the story here is don't buy cheap harbor freight tools when it comes to sockets and such. This one gave it up when we were putting some torque on the control arm ball joint nut.



Everything else went together with no problems. Will be finishing the front tomorrow night.