Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

Here's the goop I used to seal the outer CV joints. Since the grease liquefies during operation you want it to be a sealant. It also has to be an adhesive to bond the grease cap to the CV joint bearing race. Works great.

[dvallis]

My local independent BMW shop leant me the boot clamp crimper. Thanks Lee and Black Forst Werkshop!



Half shafts rebuilt. On to bigger things.

[dvallis]

Rear Sway Bar

Here's the new IE rear sway bar. To mount it, that aluminum bracket has to be attached to the trunk floor with bolts.



View from inside the trunk. Normally these backing plates would be bolted down and that's the end of it.



However, we're mounting this 10 gauge steel plate behind the one already in the trunk. It provides a flat mounting plane for the fuel cell and hardware. I drilled pilot holes into it from below.



Easier to drill through the plate on a drill press than in the trunk. This thing goes through mild steel like nobody's business.



Plate in place. Note the 2 bolts on either side. I still have to mount the secondary diff ear on the way from Garagistic, so that's all on the trunk for now. We'll eventually weld the whole plate in place.



Fuel cell fits nicely between the bolts.



Lots of room between the fuel cell and rear of the car. Preserves the crumple zone. 10 gauge plate adds some safety as well.

[dvallis]

Front suspension

Mocking up the front suspension. It all starts with this widget: drop link mounting tab for the front strut. I need to figure out where exactly to weld it on to the front strut.



Strut assembled with coil over and Ground Control camber plate.



Installed into the front strut tower. I like how the camber bolts are still accessible.



FYI, control arm bushings need to be hammered all the way down for the control arm to fit properly back on the car.



Here's where I was getting to. Front subframe, control arms, sway bar mounts and IE sway bar in place. I'm not crazy about this. Mounting point looks like it needs too be higher, but is already at the top of the strut. Any suspension experts out there want to weigh in?

[Bearmw]

I think that bracket is incorrectly oriented.

[dvallis]

How should it go on the strut? Looking for feedback?

[dvallis]

:Facepalm: I think I answered my own question. Tab should be rotated 90 degrees.

[digger]

the axis should be parallel not perpendicular to make use of the ball joint best range of motion which is limited in some directions more than others

[dvallis]

Thanks Digger

[dvallis]

I dropped off the CV boot clamp back at Lee's shop and look what he had laying around. N62B44 swap into the E30 perhaps? :devil: Just kidding.

This damn thing is a beast! It's huge!



Neat trick the BMW engineers used for this engine. No more throttle body. They electromechanically vary lift on the intake valves (top) instead. Complicated but interesting. Has a lot of benefits from what Lee tells me.

[dvallis]

Coil Over Refresh

So, here's how the drop link tab is actually supposed to be mounted. Makes a lot more sense this way. :devil:



Before moving on, need to take apart the struts. We bought this cheap spanner wrench and ground it down a bit to fit the strut collar nut.



Fits great.



Strut came apart no problem. Can't weld the tubes with gas shocks in there.



Here's the drop link tab welded in place. It's 1-1/4" from the collar and a few degrees off of directly fore and aft.





"While I was there" decided to reinforce the hub carrier with a gusset. It's just some 10 gauge steel cut and ground to the required shape.



Tab welds between the strut and wheel hub carrier plate.



Both struts finished and cleaned up with the old bearing races and grease shields removed.



In another fit of "while we're in there" I decided to paint the struts. VHT engine enamel was available 5 minutes away and painting the struts didn't take long. Turned out great. Not bad at all for DIY coil overs.

[kronus]

It's a little late since you've already painted them, but I've seen track failures where the strut tube pulled out of the cast upright due to fatigue and failed welds. Probably not the worst idea to run a bead into that seam.

How are you planning to mount your fuel cell?

[dvallis]

Thanks for the tip. I'll weld in the strut tubes into the castings as well. Replacing paint is no big deal.

Fuel cell mount still under discussion with Rob. Obviously a frame welded to the trunk metal plate, but looking at options. Any thoughts?

[kronus]

You'll want to be able to access its top, and also to remove it if necessary. I'm not sure how tall your cell is, but if it's going to be up above the diff, you will likely have space problems routing the fuel fill tube and generally accessing the fuel pump, level sender and lines.

100% of the E30 and E28 cells I've seen are sunk into the spare tire well and sit behind the diff. Because they have bladders and foam (at least, they should, and I really hope yours does), puncture from rear impact isn't as huge of a concern.

Typical installation approaches involve building a cage for it to sit in and strapping it into this cage.

It's not quite an e30, but here's a cell cage I built for a 1952 Willys Aero-Lark, if it helps.








All made out of 1.5" angle and 16 gauge 1" strap.

[dvallis]

That's the general direction we're going but cell will be above the diff. Look back in the thread and you'll see how we solved the filler issue.