Skid Plate Options - What to do?

[E30QC]

as i said, circumstance,.. the prblem here is you'd be bolting at 50., then see a canyon of a pothole, bring down the speed, but still make a decent bound wise hit, i thiunk the ej clearance is low, so does it bend in then bend back out, or does it crush cinder blocks?>
also, is peerless on here? i know hes' on e30tech..,

[whiltebeitel]

Namsayin et al. maybe I didn't get my point across the best. I just think the peerless piece, while good, is just overkill. If something like the ejnight plate is too weak, you've got bigger problems than just an oil pan.

E30QC, The whole problem is the large force in a short period of time. If you're going at 2 MPH and touch the oil pan, you probably won't do anything but scratch it. Try the same thing at 40 MPH and you lose the bottom of the pan.

[markseven]

since we lift E30s' by the front subframe, aka frame rails.. i don;t see how bottoming out the skidplate would bend the frame worst than hoisting the car up.. again, all a question of circumstance.. me, i'm in montreal, and anyone whos' being to montreal knows when you hit a "pothole" the whole rim can get swallowed honestly to the 1/4 mark.. as in, 3-4 inch drops as a usual.. when i get the car back, i'll put a cam on the front of my car, and do the trip home from school in it, and you'll understand, ours roads have being compared to 1/3 world countries. anyways, i've being very patient driving my car around waitting for a fresh, and i mean fresh stretch of pavement to rip down, and i've still managed to toast three pans in under six months.. going up driveways, etc.. I want to either find an aftermarket pan, or weld some kind of humvee type cage around the pan..

p.s. namsayin' what front end is that? - baller

Zero impact when you are lifting the car

[namsayin]

^ thank you!

OEM mtech II kit

[E30QC]

since we lift E30s' by the front subframe, aka frame rails.. i don;t see how bottoming out the skidplate would bend the frame worst than hoisting the car up.. again, all a question of circumstance.. me, i'm in montreal, and anyone whos' being to montreal knows when you hit a "pothole" the whole rim can get swallowed honestly to the 1/4 mark.. as in, 3-4 inch drops as a usual.. when i get the car back, i'll put a cam on the front of my car, and do the trip home from school in it, and you'll understand, ours roads have being compared to 1/3 world countries. anyways, i've being very patient driving my car around waitting for a fresh, and i mean fresh stretch of pavement to rip down, and i've still managed to toast three pans in under six months.. going up driveways, etc.. I want to either find an aftermarket pan, or weld some kind of humvee type cage around the pan..

p.s. namsayin' what front end is that? - baller

[namsayin]

skid plates are for deflecting shit that might hit your pan, and in extreme cases get in between a manhole cover and your pan. they will not keep your car from getting smashed into a ditch.

thank you!

[daniel]

skid plates are for deflecting shit that might hit your pan, and in extreme cases get in between a manhole cover and your pan. they will not keep your car from getting smashed into a ditch.

[namsayin]

^ yeah but again, if you were to hit a ditch who cares if your frame rails are bent, your whole car is gonna be fubar'd. I'll most likely be going with peerless' design to try it out as i have already tried the ejnight plate.

edit: how many people with peerless' plate have even complained about a bent frame rail, i think it would take a lot of force to be able to do that, and even then no matter which plate you'd have if you hit anything large enough to do some serious damage you will def have more to worry about.

[markseven]

The frame rails are absolutely stronger than the core support, but I think the ejnight piece will do more than enough deflecting for any of the crap that I should see, but I'd much rather have a bent/destroyed core support that can be replaced at home or a friend's than bent frame rails, where I'd at least have to take it to a shop to get it pulled back into spec.

FWIW, a good-sized ditch can really bend up frame rails if you encounter one near highway speeds. I'd just be worried about a lot more than my oil pan if I screwed up big enough to destroy an ejnight skidplate, but , y'know, man. That's just, like, my opinion.

My thoughts as well.

[whiltebeitel]

The frame rails are absolutely stronger than the core support, but I think the ejnight piece will do more than enough deflecting for any of the crap that I should see, but I'd much rather have a bent/destroyed core support that can be replaced at home or a friend's than bent frame rails, where I'd at least have to take it to a shop to get it pulled back into spec.

FWIW, a good-sized ditch can really bend up frame rails if you encounter one near highway speeds. I'd just be worried about a lot more than my oil pan if I screwed up big enough to destroy an ejnight skidplate, but , y'know, man. That's just, like, my opinion.

[PeaveyBassist]

Not much, you can bend the core support with a hammer. Ask me how I know. You can also bend the core support FORWARDS on a parking curb or something... again... Ask me how I know.

[namsayin]

Question: In the event of a really, really nasty encounter, would you rather tweak your lower core support and possibly replace an oil pan, or would you rather save the pan and bend your framerails?

i understand what you mean, but for how often i drive my car the chances of that are very unlikely. But how much would it really take actually bend the frame rails? and how much does it take to bend the core support?

[whiltebeitel]

Question: In the event of a really, really nasty encounter, would you rather tweak your lower core support and possibly replace an oil pan, or would you rather save the pan and bend your framerails?

[namsayin]

I'm sure the Peeless unit will sustain just about anything, but it transfers that energy to the frame rails, correct?

im not sure how this compares to ejnights because his plate has energy transfered to the core support which is very thin already.

although i had ejnights plate when my car had an m20 on it. little less than an inch of ground clearance under the skidplate. When i would change lanes i would hit the reflective road markers on the freeway at 60-70 and nothing more than a scratch would show up on the plate. good shit. refer to sig pic.

edit: another few pics to show you clearance

tennis ball vs. skid plate height








so i think if the skid plate worked for me without any trouble i think it will work for most others. however i think i may try peerless' plate for when the s54 gets swapped in.

[markseven]

the orig. BMW plate won't work well for a lowered car-- it hangs WAY too low.
the EJnight plate looks exactly like what is on my vert-- worked great so far-- but I think if there is a really big blunt impact it will push into the pan and still kill it.
that peerless looks to me to be top notch!

I have yet to kill and e30 pan and have had some really low ones-- but a bit of protection isnt a bad idea when things "go bad" my vert is the first to have a skid plate- and it was on there when i bought it- i am sure it is coming off before i sell the car too!

I'm sure the Peeless unit will sustain just about anything, but it transfers that energy to the frame rails, correct?