Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[Digitalwave]

It's totally oil slosh. Watch the G meter and oil pressure.



So ........ where are rest of the the E30 track rats? Need some informed opinions.

Sorry bud, I think you have a major oiling problem and probably have a spun/toasted bearing, or something similar. That is a scary low number. I would be concerned if a new motor was so much as idling at that pressure.

On my previous M20's final track event, I was getting down to ~20psi on high G left hand corners. Drained the oil afterwards, and the oil looked like a glitter bomb from a failed bearing. That motor had an IE baffle (only). I don't know how the baffle played into the failure or not. For all I know, that motor was on it's last life in any scenario. My new motor has both the IE baffle and an Ishira-Johnson crank scraper (windage tray), and it hasn't had any oil pressure issues after almost 3 full seasons of use. Again, I don't know if the I-J crank scraper has truly done much, this is just anecdotal. It's peace of mind, at least.

I would guess my car does 1.3ish sustained lateral G's on the Hoosier R7 slicks. The oil pressure does not *ever* drop below mid-50psi on track, even in long, sustained high G left-handed sweepers, at any RPM.

A quote from another member when I was diagnosing the failure of my last motor:

If you were dropping to 20psi in the corners you have trashed the bearings at least. Remember your "oil pressure" gauge is just a PRESSURE gauge that is reading pressure in the oil galley of the engine. When you slosh the oil away from the oil pump pickup in the pan the pump starts to suck AIR. With the residual oil coating the pump impeller the pump can actually move the enough AIR to still make PRESSURE in the oil galley, or at least pump some percentage of air along with the oil. AIR IS NOT A GOOD LUBRICANT!!! If you have ANY drop in oil pressure that does not correspond to a drop in engine speed you are SUCKING AIR and need to baffle the pan, run more oil, run an Accusump o something to fix the problem or you are going to trash your engine every time you go to the track!

[dvallis]

Did you go the simple pan baffle route, like the one from IE?

We did exactly that: An IE oil pan baffle. Even though I researched the HELL out of it, obviously that solution not up to the task, at 1 - 1.5 G lateral acceleration.



I'm not the first E30 track rat to be be here. Physics is physics. Anyone else running an E30 should have similar oil slosh. So what's up?

[Northern]

Has anyone tapped their block for turbo oil return on the flat spot where the A/C compressor mounts? Or at one of these bolt holes?

(snip)

I drilled there for my iX's M20, and on both my 24V cars.



Drilled, Tapped, -10AN union with the back shaved down so it doesn't protrude into the block (I wasn't even close, but maybe an 89.6mm crank would need this?)

JB weld seals it and stops it from rotating when you ins/rem the drain.

[JehTehsus]

It's totally oil slosh. Watch the G meter and oil pressure.



So ........ where are rest of the the E30 track rats? Need some informed opinions.

Did you go the simple pan baffle route, like the one from IE?

[dvallis]

It's totally oil slosh. Watch the G meter and oil pressure.



So ........ where are rest of the the E30 track rats? Need some informed opinions.

[Digitalwave]

30psi oil pressure at 5,100 RPM sounds like trouble to me. Hell, I'm at over 20psi at idle (~1,200 RPM).

[Elysian]

Here's a video of the track day with data overlay.

That looks like a lot of fun, I'm maybe 30 minutes from there, gonna have to get my V8 E30 out there

[dvallis]

Here's a video of the track day with data overlay.

[dvallis]

Has anyone tapped their block for turbo oil return on the flat spot where the A/C compressor mounts? Or at one of these bolt holes?

[dvallis]

There was no coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant. We'll do a compression test but are 99% sure it's not the head gasket. There is no oil on the tire.

[Nader393]

White smoke could be burnt coolant. Maybe do a combustion leak test. If it was oil, I'd also be worried about oily smoke blowing out onto your rear wheel, unless you've already extended your side dump exhaust routing.

[dvallis]

Had our first track day yesterday at Harris Hill. It's a 1.82 mile, 11 turn course, 30 minutes from Austin. It's got good elevation change and is a challenge to drive hard. Not enough straight to really test the top end, but in all a great test track.



Got to the track, set up with no problems and did the pre-track brief. Waited for our run group.



22 laps in. Times were coming down to 1:30s, I was getting comfortable with the car and track. Starting to get decent slip angle through the turns. We pass the start finish line, instructor yells "Last Lap!". Two seconds later there's a plume of white smoke behind us. Instructor yelling "White Smoke!". WTF? Gauges are all nominal. Oil pressure, fuel pressure, temperature, RPMs all good. We limp back to pit-in off the racing line, drive directly onto the trailer. Still nothing bad with the hood off.

We called it a day and drove back to Austin. Longhorn Racing Academy was very cool and refunded our 3rd session.

I inspected the data later that night. With dash video, external video plus AIM data, I know exactly when it happened. Front straight into turn 1. Hard braking followed by 1G left hand turn.



My Theories

1) Our turbo oil drain returns to the right front side of the oil pan, 3/4 of the way up. I think the left hand turn piled up oil on the right side of the pan and blocked the return.

2) Our valve cover vent hose has a bad kink. I don't think it's letting enough crank case pressure vent, also restricting the turbo oil return.

3) Our turbo oil pressure regulator return dumps into the valve cover. I saw that Metric Mechanic used to do a oil sprayer bar mod for racing that reduces oil flow into the head. We are dumping WAY more oil than that with the turbo pressure regulator return

So I think we need:

1) Turbo oil return scavenge pump, like this
2) Better valve cover venting
3) Route turbo oil pressure regulator to return line, not valve cover
4) Better oil return location on block (Bitch tube? Oil Fill tube, custom filter sandwich plate?

Comments?

[JehTehsus]

Now here I am thinking my powdercoated VC is also probably warped...

[dvallis]

Hmm. Last valve cover was powder coated. It leaked. You think the heat warps them?

[Digitalwave]

My VC has been powdercoated twice, I wouldn't doubt that it's warped too.