Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

Track day is Friday. This valve cover is really pissing me off.

[dvallis]

Thanks. I just grabbed a couple of 5L jugs of RaceTec 10W60 on Amazon. Will run that at the upcoming track day.

Going to re-do the valve cover tomorrow

[ForcedFirebird]

Easy to put a boost gauge on your crank case, but most likely it's being pressurized unless you have vacuum on it. I always goop both sides of the VC gasket, they always seem to weep.

VR1 is decent oil for NA and the street, but for the turbo and race cars I use 20w60 RaceTec. LiquiMoly is reasonable $$ for the weight/quality.

[dvallis]

We diagnosed the oil leak to our valve cover gasket. I've read all the threads, and its really ambiguous. My local BMW shop had a VR gasket with the red line around it so I picked that up. Will lightly goop the new rocker shaft plugs with RTV and replace. Will also lightly RTV the front and back of cover where most of the leaks are coming from. I think the VC bolts were a bit tight too, so will torque to 10 lbs this time.

I'm wondering if our high oil pressure (60 psi cold) and boost contributes to the leak. The head is obviously pressurized under boost.

We're running VR1 20W50. 'Bird, what do you recommend for a boosted engine?

And finally Fuck You Hans (aka BMW engineer) for designing a valve cover with 7 inches between the bolts!

[Elysian]

I used to drive through there a lot on my way to Cedar Park to see the Texas Stars play. Would still be doing that if not for this pandemic killing the AHL's season.

[dvallis]

Race Studio GPS data export into Google Earth. Pretty cool.

[dvallis]

A frigging PROM? No way? I used to code on those back in the stone age. Had a little UV shoebox for erasing them. How do you re-code an erased E30 prom?

Track footage next month. Actual race footage? Soon ..... I have a new Bell M8 SA2020 helmet coming next week. Getting the HANS re-certified. Need a new suit but the old one should be fine for DEs.

[ForcedFirebird]

UV is fun. The stock ECU chip is a 255kb PROM, UV erase. Peel the sticker off, set it in the sun for a few days, and BOOM, blank slate. Amazing how photons can zap electrons out of memory. I have an old machine at the shop with 19kb of bubble memory...it holds about 350 lines of code.


EDIT: I LOVE the science, but WHEN CAN WE SEE RACE FOOTAGE?!?!?!

[dvallis]

Some of you may remember this:



Which is actually this:



I finally got around to re-programming the whole AIM system today, and it ALL WORKS. I'm frigging overjoyed.

Here is the "warmup" screen. Oil pressure and fuel pressure are coming from sensors separate from the ECU. Good to seen them working. Rest of the data is via CANBUS from the ECU.



The "crew" screen shows things my crew chief might want to know before I go tearing off into the wild blue yonder.

VBAT : battery voltage
IBAT : current from the battery
IALT : current from the alternator
IBUS : current on the main bus.

And great for setting brake bias!

FBRK : front brake pressure
RBRK : rear brake pressure

Just noticed my brake pressure sensors need zeroing. Easy stuff with AIM. TPS gets calibrated through Megasquirt.



Diagram for clarity



Suspension travel sensors are also working. Need to zero them.



Took the car to an "undisclosed test location" (aka Mopac Expressway) and did laps of a to remain nameless service road loop. Here's a cut of the data log from Race Studio. Really interesting to see what the car is doing under load.



So, with that all working I've got 30 semi-private laps of Harris Hill scheduled for next month. There will be an obligatory track school, "Are you an idiot" checkout ride, then time to get some data.

[dvallis]

This picture, just because finding oil leaks with UV fluorescent dye and "burn da eyes outta ya" UV lights is cool. Yes, we have safety goggles.

Minor seep from the top right front of the head. You can see it running down the side of the water pump etc. We replaced ALL those seals during the rebuild, so going to tighten the head studs and call it good.

[ForcedFirebird]

Fun note: 1.5" .120" DOM wall tubing weighs more than 1.75" .095, even though they both spec for the same vehicle weight. ;)

[dvallis]

That makes total sense. With a half cage and similar weight reduction you clock in right around 2,340 on my spreadsheet. Very cool for the numbers to line up.

Will be doing a lot of shakedown this weekend. Alignment tweaks mostly. Also adding hood vents next week. Gotta get the HOT out. :-)

[Digitalwave]

That's interesting to see it broken down. I have about 40ft of tubing for my half cage, but otherwise have most of the other stuff save for the turbo kit and diffuser (both of which are heavier than I expected to be).

In Florida you'd probably need to be running 275 width Hoosier R7s and drive the absolute piss out of the car to hang in ST3, but no matter what, I am sure you are going to have a shit eating grin when you finally get to race this thing.

[dvallis]

That makes sense if you look at these numbers.

Here's my weight with cage, but without turbo etc. Pretty close to what you're at.



Then add other performance parts that weigh more than stock.



Then with me in the seat :-)



Looks like I'm ST3 in NASA, which is fine. Looking forward to running.

[Digitalwave]

Very good balance numbers. Actually, some of the best numbers I've seen on an E30. Surprisingly heavy though! I just balanced my car again 2 weeks ago and it came in at 2,348 (wet, but without driver).