cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

more action shots rolled in!!!

finished up the s54 oil filter housing job and gave the car a much needed wash. I also gave the engine bay a little spray down....the techno e36 m3 mirrors are hard mounted through the cast aluminum baseplates into rivnuts so it's easily reversible.






next up: waiting for parts.....hoping to get the link can-lambda and start planning the switch over to the link ecu. I'm really motivated to get that part done! I'm also waiting on a set of new flares. found a set of kamotors ultrawides and think they might be a better option. However i do like the custom front bdc flares i've made, i just can't go low because of how they're mounted below the body line.i think the rears still look great, not sure i want to go wider back there since that means i'd just need a fatter spacer more than anything.

[Northern]

Ah that makes sense. And yeah I only have mine because I found a deal on ebay back in the day.

[s14brent]

Thanks for the alt comparison, I had no idea they were physically different sizes... I'd round up to 2 lbs and call it a win lol.

I've had an S54 OFH in a drawer for years, but realized I need to pull the radiator for the top alternator bolt and have been too lazy to even consider installing it.
Are you keeping the mishimoto oil t.stat? You know the S54 OFH has an internal one but I wouldn't blame you for leaving it there because it's not going to hurt anything and saves some work.

2.67 lb's with the ac crank pulley delete!!

the s54 thermostat is known to limit the amount of oil flow even at temp (does not open 100% ever). so I used bimmerworld's oil cooler diverter valve for full flow and using the mishimoto thermostat to do the temp regulating since it opens 100% when at temp. For hot lapping like I do I prefer it to be fully open, but the stock probably would have worked to be honest!!
....yeah s54 oil filter housings keep raising in price it seems, and I don't think I would have bought one outright to be honest... so I wasn't really planning on installing it right away either, but I wanted to remove the wp pulley and the ac crank pulley so timing was right since the radiator had to be pulled once again! (wish i could have upgraded but this radiator for some reason is doing its job!!) For some reason though, prior to this my s52 took closer to 8qts of oil (top line of dipstick). I think I have 7.4 in there this time around. whatever right LOL

[Northern]

Thanks for the alt comparison, I had no idea they were physically different sizes... I'd round up to 2 lbs and call it a win lol.

I've had an S54 OFH in a drawer for years, but realized I need to pull the radiator for the top alternator bolt and have been too lazy to even consider installing it.
Are you keeping the mishimoto oil t.stat? You know the S54 OFH has an internal one but I wouldn't blame you for leaving it there because it's not going to hurt anything and saves some work.

[s14brent]

She looks great

Thanks man, my link can-lambda won't be here until january apparently. I was hoping to be on the link ecu (na tune) before the january 25th event, but new goal is March it seems. I might not be able to do that january event also as that lands on a Saturday and i'm heavily busy normally with all the conferences/conventions that month.

-----
I decided since I was going to need to do an oil change that I'd do some maintenance while I was at it...when i was running the 14" spal fan (for like a month) the rubber bushing for the radiator busted and pushed the e-fan into the ecs overdrive waterpump pulley. I didn't get around to changing the pulley that time, so I went ahead and added it onto the "to-do list".



I also still had the s54 oil filter housing and 80a bosch alternator from the roached s52 I tore down.



Bosch 80a VS 120a


bosch 120 ^ bosch 80 v


I was hoping for a bit more than 1.79lbs savings, oh well.....

I finally pulled off the AC crank hub/pulley. It was just taking up space to be honest.



s54 oil filter housing, bimmer world oil cooler -an fittings, and bimmer world diverter valve were installed back when I got this. I also got the MSW 14mm to 12mm banjo bolt and replaced the vanos oil line. I also added a -4an fitting to the banjo bolt for future turbo oil feed. I had to buy a -4 cap to block it off for now.




s52 OFH removed along with a bunch of other stuff....



s54 OFH installed



-4an cap for turbo oil feed.



Since the oil cooler cap was where the oil cooler feed/return were prior - i had to shorten the lines and changed the fittings from the oil cooler to 45 degree fittings. clears the intake very nicely now




I didn't know turner made a kevlar accessory belt for us 24v guys. Ordered that and a repalcement OD waterpump pulley




I also had to do some ricer stuff while I was waiting for parts......a buddy had a pair of technoviolet e36 m3 coupe mirrors laying around....i just had to see what it'd look like. I'm not done fitting them 100% yet, but they are going to stay because I have totally ruined them for anyone else LOL.



Finally wrapped up everything and refilled oil & coolant (distilled water+water wetter). Ran it up until the e-fan kicked on, and shut it down. I'll do another round of coolant burping, but everything seems happy and I can report 0 leaks. Very happy with that.




is it weird i'm used to seeing the AN's going to a billet cap? i actually think the 80a was required for the oil cooler ports/clearance. I'm really happy I got something out of the s52 deal....that was a bummer, at least this looks much cleaner of a setup and a true Feed/Return - i could safely tee an accusump in there now if I wanted!! I'll try to finish up the car this weekend and give it a much needed wash.

Not sure if I'll do it this time around but I plan on changing diff+trans fluid. It's getting to be that time again!

[Northern]

She looks great

[s14brent]

Nice driving. I love that cammy sort of sound they get when being worked hard.

thanks, wish i had video of some of the more aggressive runs i did that day, i had a pretty sweet run with a 4 s-chassis tandem going on in front of me that got me super hyped...i was probably 3-4 cars behind them just pacing.....nothing super cool, but it was nice to have people i trust in front of me and not parking it in the corners...(which happened a lot unfortunately) i still don't like to follow too closely but i'm definitely opening up to it a lot more now that i trust my driving a lot more than before, but sometimes there's absolute chaos out there and i just rather play it safe since i'm not anywhere near done enjoying this car!!

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got tagged in some pics earlier!!

[econti]

Nice driving. I love that cammy sort of sound they get when being worked hard.

[s14brent]

end of the year update!!

notes:
I sold the s52 head to a local drifter in need....really didn't want to sell, but he agreed to the "i don't want to sell price"
i went to japan for 3 weeks with the girlfriend.
i got fat.
i ordered a harper fab oil pan....while in japan and figuring out time zones to place the pre-order.
came back and worked during f1 madness here.
i dusted off the e30 and went drifting.

i need to do oil change - might do the s54 oil filter housing and redo the oil cooler lines (if needed), I want to go from a 120a to 80a bosch alternator, and replace the timing chain tensioner crush washer (it developed a small leak). Will probably pull the radiator to make the alternator/OFH job easier, and i'll remove the ac pulley off the crank while i'm there to gauge how much room i'll have for an eventual 3 row radiator upgrade.
- I need to redo rear subframe with taller-serrated tabs and I need to order a set of those Stimtech spherical RTABs. and do the rear fuel system still....Feels like i should do more "while i'm there" but i'm hesitant as i have more travel plans for this upcoming year. Basically both front and rear subframes will be pulled this year and hopefully i'll be able to have an alignment done that actually will help improve tire wear/life throughout these drift days.



Link ECU update.....I ordered a can-lambda over black friday, still no shipping info. I also bought a 2nd hand link can-gauge a while back. I think there is about $500 in sensors I could go with but I may wait until I go turbo to add those (flex fuel/fuel pressure sensor, and another for oil temp/pressure). I don't mind keeping the VDO oil temp/pressure gauges for now but it'd be good to setup the link with warning lights for both!

drifting notes: The car feels so fantastic. I am so thrilled how the car no longer fights me. The track layout was kind of daunting but by the end of the first lap going both ways i had it down. That's a huge improvement for me. I was keeping up pace with some v8 cars and I was smiling a bit too hard! Hopefully will update when some media pics pop up!




i replaced the delrin slip-on steering rack limiters with aluminum ones. I feel like the delrin ones wore down or even snapped out of place causing inconsistent rubbing issues in the past. 2 of the aluminum rack limiters are the same height as 3 of the delrin ones and seem to be the ticket with my setup.




small clip of me pacing a ls2 gto on my 2nd lap out of the day..... unfortunately had gopro issues and didnt get any of the spicier runs!! (note: i don't know the driver of the gto so i was trying to maintain the distance between us, there were times i could have throttled forward but i really dont need to pressure myself or him on a non-comp run. He actually asked if i wanted to do a light tandem run but we kept missing each other when we were going out and i ran out of tires already =*( maybe next time i'll dip my toes in as it seems to be much more fun chasing vs solo runs

[s14brent]

i've been street driving the car more when I have time. Never really noticed the float on the freeway (mainly noticeable on rough surfaces at 65+mph)....so I decided to throw the rear sway bar back on for the streets (easy enough to disconnect at the track).

I forgot I replaced the endlinks and bought powerflex bushings back in the day - perfect lol



After making sure I had all the parts... I ordered more parts. I got the zinc plated bimmerworld rear sway bar reinforcement plates. Didn't want to risk any cracks in that area, really hate welding under jackstands at this age.



Local FB group had a meet

[s14brent]

is your pedal box cracked?

actually checked before working on the car earlier. Definitely not cracked.
--------



Installed the same condor extended front brake lines in the rear for e46 calipers. Old lines were in bad shape so this was a nice upgrade.



old



lantzfab wilwood 7/8 kit



unfortunately ran out of time and ate type200.

Clutch is a bit stiffer as expected going from like 5/8 to 7/8 clutch master. So far its decent, no leaks in the full -AN setup from the master to slave. Clutch is actually bled decently, but the brakes still have a little air in them. More brake fluid has been ordered. I might call my local bmw parts dept. for a throttle cable bushing. I will try to finish the job this weekend. I am kind of in shock I went through 2L of brake fluid in the motive pressure bleeder @8psi and I still have air in the system.

-----
finished it up this morning. used about .125ml of my remainding 250ml and got it feeling right with the motive pressure bleeder. I wish I read the install directions prior to ordering the lantzfab/wilwood clutch master kit. The longest part of this was getting the bracket bent to clear nicely since my 944 booster is moved a half inch over. Hopefully I won't have to revisit this for a long time as my lower back is hating me today!

here is a screen shot of how the bracket must be bent/modified. Instructions are actually on their site, I just didn't click it until I noticed they weren't included with the product.



Because of the modification I actually needed to tighten up the throttle cable as I had a bunch of slack after. Which meant I had to remove the intake tube for access. NBD, just wasn't expecting to do all that on the installation.
I failed to get some good photos from underneath because my gloves had brake fluid residue on it and purely forgot, but the setup is really nice. I like having the 2pc -3an clutch line, the pedal does feels quite a bit more stiff. I'm gonna have to stop skipping leg day for sure!

[moatilliatta]

is your pedal box cracked?

[s14brent]

well this week was brutal, I had a client cancel on me so I ended up being free Friday night so I decided to try and prep the car 3 prior to the next local drift event. That meant scrambling between jobs to mount tires, dismount tires, and remount tires LOL.




turns out 40 series is the game changer for me up front however the 17x8 style 32 fronts I had are +20 i believe. I was running a 25mm spacer up front (-5 offset) and even tried 30mm's (-10) with no luck. I still had issues still hitting the aftermarket front sway bar. <big sigh>

This is where I should have just swapped the stock sway bar on first, but I decided to swap the tires with the matching pair of rondals (17x8.5+13 and running the same 25mm spacer - effectively -12offset). Still hit the front sway, so i finally decided to throw the stock front swaybar on.



^you can see the sway bar rubbed off the fresh powdercoat off the style 32s here.....great

When doing the front sway swap, I noticed my R side tie rod boot was torn. luckily i had a spare tucked away. I also got reminded of the steering rack spacers when I removed the boots, so I added 2 more slip on limiters from SLRSPEED. I need to probably order another pack as I believe this was the major fix with the swapping back to stock swaybar.




I remembered the body roll with front sway and remembered I had some 12k 6" swifts (1" too long for the rears) hopefully the stiffer spring rate helps compensate for the smaller bar.



Basically got the car ready at 330pm the day of, but low and behold the event got sold out!! It was a blessing in disguise because I woke up to find a puddle under my clutch pedal.




^looks like its the plastic nipple. I feel like I JUST changed this damn thing. 3rd times the charm I guess.

I ordered the lantzfab wilwood clutch master cylinder upgrade. I'll be running 2pc PTFE -3an lines from the wilwood unit to the clutch slave. I was measuring it at 24" needed from below, but the -an fitting won't stick through the firewall like the stock unit so i needed probably 26" which isnt offered, so I think I will have a little extra long clutch line I have to figure out how to route when it all gets here, maybe service loop it. FUN times in the heat.

[s14brent]

I decided to take my car out to "gears and grinds" last sunday and all of a sudden i'm rubbing at full lock again.......I ended up cracking RF fender flare at full lock.

Thankfully, laying FG mat isn't hard and its better than doing that "ziptie stitching". I do have one more flare that I could cut/replace/rewrap, but I'm going to try to make sure I get rid of this problem before using it.




my swift 17kg rear springs came in finally. I'm not sure why I went with 17kg....16kg and 18kg were readily available, but 18kg seemed like too stiff (feels like lexus big-body spring rates), and going from 14-16kg seemed like it might be a tad too soft for what i'm trying to achieve. I ordered these a month ago, and can't wait to see how the car performs with these. (yes i'm essentially taking out grip from the rear, and hopefully prolonging my tire life but hopefully i'll be able to fine-tune it with dampening and tire pressure to find that happy medium). Sidenote, i've had 10k/12k/14k on the rears over the years. Everyone's ideal spring setup is going to differ slightly for their hp/driving style and local track..i did a lot of searching on other e30 drift-guys spring rates and its all across the board.



I did some more clearancing in front of the RF wheel, not annoying at all. I did all of the measuring/cutting before the wrap, and did a whole drift event unscathed, but parking at a car meet is where the car decides to self-sabotage. LOL!
So I've just decided to go down to 215/40/17s vs 215/45's up front. I ordered 2x 215/40/17s and 4x 235/40/17s in Accelera 651 sports. They seem to be a reasonably priced 200TW tire and other track guys seem to get good life out of them.



i'll gain almost an inch (.8") of clearance across the arch so hopefully this will be the fix and can move on. I know Falken makes 615/660's in 215/40 also, and zestino dredge 140tw are also available so i'm not super worried about being stuck with a some weird size that might be disco'd

[s14brent]

Now that i've had some time to really weigh my options, I figured I should post my road map moving forward. I sold a couple parts off the s52 (cams and obd1 wiring harness) to help offset costs. crank, rods, and block are up grabs (locally). I'm keeping the head, oil pump, and accessories (alternator, power steering pump, vanos) good things to keep on hand basically.

-turbo stuff is on hold for at least a year. I'll collect parts here and there but i have other things I'd like to address first.

-I'm going to dyno the car as it sits with the turner chip, 24lb injectors, & 3.5" maf. Consider this the base-line.

-I need about $1000 more in link ecu parts (can lambda, flex fuel kit, and the can gauge to utilize the warning features that my VDO gauges lack.

-s54 oil filter housing install and reconfigure oil cooler setup. (replace vanos line while here) and add in the 034 fuel pump surge (need to buy a bosch 044 pump) and convert rear lines to -6 PTFE to match the front. Will run walbro 255 with e85 until its time to boost.

-install all link components/convert to MAP and get basetune then dyno tune on e85 for comparison. E85 won't do much in NA config, but the knock protection will be welcomed. I've already talked out these plans with a local tuner so we are all good to go! He's just waiting for the green light! He can also come to my house and do the base map here so I wouldn't have to trailer it to the dyno and pay the extra hours there.

-I'd like to eventually switch to obd1 valve cover with -an bulk head fittings for oil catch can setup v2 (might do this when I pull the head and install ARP headstuds later down the road). Get it powdercoated some ridiculous high-viz color and call it a day.

-stay here for at least another year while collecting parts. also would like to hot tank & resurface spare s52 head and load it up with upgraded valvetrain. It's the only way I see myself not getting distracted and selling off a ton of parts that get collected over time. I also need to move my e39 touring back into my garage before mid-october. (not sure if i mentioned it here before but i bought it back.) That car will be a little fun car while the e30 is down. Not going to be doing much to it but I do want to do the SLS delete/convert the rear to coilovers before the e30 goes under the knife for boost.