It's DONE.
Oh what a week.
I'll start from the beginning for those who didn't follow my tech help thread. So after the car didn't have as much power as you'd expect, and died after 2 WOT pulls, I changed the pumps. Later I went to get gas, car ran great, pulled great. Then on the way home, after doing a pull up a hill, it died on top. This time it didn't restart. I pushed it home and found that the new in-tank pump was bent and pinched off the supply hose inside. I replaced it with the old and everything seemed fine.
So Wednesday of this week, I went to get an alignment for the track day scheduled for yesterday. On the way there, a few miles from home, it died! Just before an intersection. I was depressed and angry, but I thought maybe there's something wrong with the old pump, let me check. Indeed it was bent just like the new one was. I went home, bent the new pump straight and swapped them roadside. Drove home with no problems.
Thursday, rebook for the same time. I'm approaching the same intersection and my gut tightens up and I go a little faster just in case... it doesn't die where it died last time. Pull out into the intersection, waiting to turn left. CEL on, lights on, RPM->0. FUCK! Bunch of people ran over to help me push it off to the side. Went to get the old pump again, bent that straight, swapped them, this time it died on me on the way home. I yanked it out of the hole without disconnecting anything, shoved in a screwdriver to try to straighten it, and it seemed to work. It died again later and the same fix got me home.
Friday I was supposed to go pick up my friend's trailer to take it to Dunnville for a lapping day. That was basically a write off but I finally decided you know what, it seems to run just long enough to last one lap, so fuck it I'll take it, it's too late to cancel anyway, I'll get some guys to help me put it back on the trailer. But I decided to check the fuel tank itself, I wasn't 100% sure but it seemed like the area around the pump was concave - which would explain the problem: the pump filter was dragging on the tank floor as I was twisting the pump in place and bending it. I shoved the handle of a big sledge into the fuel pump hole and started bashing on the other side with a rubber mallet, working the whole fuel pump area on the tank floor. After a few hours of this, the tank floor seemed to be pretty flat, maybe a little bulged in the middle of the pump area even. I bent the new pump straight, and put it in. This time I couldn't feel it drag on anything, just the elastic resistance of the o-ring... I drove it around the block a half dozen times and it seemed fine but whatever, I had no faith in it.
I went to get the trailer at 11PM. The track day starts at 8 and is 1.5 hrs away. So I figured I'd load it up and tie it down ready to go for the morning. Got the trailer home at 1:30. Set things up, driving it up the ramp, front wheels clear, then I hear a slip, bang and CRRRUNCH! I've used this trailer before and never had any issues. THE FUCKING RAMP FELL OFF ON THE RIGHT SIDE. The car was highsided on what looked like the god damn fuel tank. After an hour of frustrated dicking around I got the car jacked up high enough to slip the ramp back under. Drove it up, inspected it and it appeared undamaged, just scraped the sheetmetal body seam on the outside.
I first thought that I just didn't put it in all the way in the darkness. But it ALMOST came out driving the E30 off the trailer at the track, it was in by a quarter inch and after the previous night, I made DAMN sure they were in all the way. The thing is that he repainted the ramps which used to have nice rust spots on them for friction and my car has a good bit of front camber on it. After that I secured them with the tie-down straps until the car was on.
I go out on the track, my friend who's an experienced instructor starts giving me pointers. I'm basically not listening because I'm expecting for the car to die any second. Everytime I pressed the throttle I was looking for the CEL to come on and the rest of the christmas tree. I press on the throttle and each time I got a shock when the engine responded with full willingness. Each lap I opened it a little more until it finally hit me that... IT IS FUCKING DONE, AND IT IS FUCKING WORKING!!!
Sorry I know to many of you guys this means jack shit, even to those who haven't done this several times like I know some of you have, but this is such an incredible finish to such an incredible journey (not even just this week, although the density of adventure this week was extra thick).
Thanks to all of you who have helped me with both information and support. I need grabbier brakes (just cheapie pads on now), this car at full bore gets up to scary speeds awfully quick. By the end I was having to brake pretty early to not overcook into 1, and I was still hitting well over 100mph (could be quite a bit more if I was trying harder, but first time on track, not exploring the ragged edges of traction yet but close by the end). Here's a long and boring video to commemorate the event.
Oh what a week.
I'll start from the beginning for those who didn't follow my tech help thread. So after the car didn't have as much power as you'd expect, and died after 2 WOT pulls, I changed the pumps. Later I went to get gas, car ran great, pulled great. Then on the way home, after doing a pull up a hill, it died on top. This time it didn't restart. I pushed it home and found that the new in-tank pump was bent and pinched off the supply hose inside. I replaced it with the old and everything seemed fine.
So Wednesday of this week, I went to get an alignment for the track day scheduled for yesterday. On the way there, a few miles from home, it died! Just before an intersection. I was depressed and angry, but I thought maybe there's something wrong with the old pump, let me check. Indeed it was bent just like the new one was. I went home, bent the new pump straight and swapped them roadside. Drove home with no problems.
Thursday, rebook for the same time. I'm approaching the same intersection and my gut tightens up and I go a little faster just in case... it doesn't die where it died last time. Pull out into the intersection, waiting to turn left. CEL on, lights on, RPM->0. FUCK! Bunch of people ran over to help me push it off to the side. Went to get the old pump again, bent that straight, swapped them, this time it died on me on the way home. I yanked it out of the hole without disconnecting anything, shoved in a screwdriver to try to straighten it, and it seemed to work. It died again later and the same fix got me home.
Friday I was supposed to go pick up my friend's trailer to take it to Dunnville for a lapping day. That was basically a write off but I finally decided you know what, it seems to run just long enough to last one lap, so fuck it I'll take it, it's too late to cancel anyway, I'll get some guys to help me put it back on the trailer. But I decided to check the fuel tank itself, I wasn't 100% sure but it seemed like the area around the pump was concave - which would explain the problem: the pump filter was dragging on the tank floor as I was twisting the pump in place and bending it. I shoved the handle of a big sledge into the fuel pump hole and started bashing on the other side with a rubber mallet, working the whole fuel pump area on the tank floor. After a few hours of this, the tank floor seemed to be pretty flat, maybe a little bulged in the middle of the pump area even. I bent the new pump straight, and put it in. This time I couldn't feel it drag on anything, just the elastic resistance of the o-ring... I drove it around the block a half dozen times and it seemed fine but whatever, I had no faith in it.
I went to get the trailer at 11PM. The track day starts at 8 and is 1.5 hrs away. So I figured I'd load it up and tie it down ready to go for the morning. Got the trailer home at 1:30. Set things up, driving it up the ramp, front wheels clear, then I hear a slip, bang and CRRRUNCH! I've used this trailer before and never had any issues. THE FUCKING RAMP FELL OFF ON THE RIGHT SIDE. The car was highsided on what looked like the god damn fuel tank. After an hour of frustrated dicking around I got the car jacked up high enough to slip the ramp back under. Drove it up, inspected it and it appeared undamaged, just scraped the sheetmetal body seam on the outside.
I first thought that I just didn't put it in all the way in the darkness. But it ALMOST came out driving the E30 off the trailer at the track, it was in by a quarter inch and after the previous night, I made DAMN sure they were in all the way. The thing is that he repainted the ramps which used to have nice rust spots on them for friction and my car has a good bit of front camber on it. After that I secured them with the tie-down straps until the car was on.
I go out on the track, my friend who's an experienced instructor starts giving me pointers. I'm basically not listening because I'm expecting for the car to die any second. Everytime I pressed the throttle I was looking for the CEL to come on and the rest of the christmas tree. I press on the throttle and each time I got a shock when the engine responded with full willingness. Each lap I opened it a little more until it finally hit me that... IT IS FUCKING DONE, AND IT IS FUCKING WORKING!!!
Sorry I know to many of you guys this means jack shit, even to those who haven't done this several times like I know some of you have, but this is such an incredible finish to such an incredible journey (not even just this week, although the density of adventure this week was extra thick).
Thanks to all of you who have helped me with both information and support. I need grabbier brakes (just cheapie pads on now), this car at full bore gets up to scary speeds awfully quick. By the end I was having to brake pretty early to not overcook into 1, and I was still hitting well over 100mph (could be quite a bit more if I was trying harder, but first time on track, not exploring the ragged edges of traction yet but close by the end). Here's a long and boring video to commemorate the event.
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