cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

Felt bad about not having any updates so I decided 14hrs before a local drift event to try and take the car out to play. Saturday roadcourse entry was sold out, but wet-session still had available spots and I don't really have the spare tires to truly enjoy a last minute entry right now at $40 vs $180 entry fees. So I decided it was about time to change the differential fluid. Annoyed the fluid came out looking new and I probably wasted the 1.5qts (+/-) of Redline 75w90, but at the same time very happy that my 3.46 differential is that healthy after the abuse it's been through since its mainly used for jacka**ery

Next on my list was to retorque the whole front suspension components down to spec (i haven't checked since installing the SLR LCA's I decided it'd be a good idea. everything was about 1/8 turn out of spec (not terribly bad especially if i make this a pre-track day routine -or maybe just apply some blue loctite). However my fcabs were pretty far off from actual torque spec and I'm so happy I checked all that. Next was fluids.....oil level was good - decided to slightly overfill (as usual per track day with a US s52). Topped off coolant with just distilled water, but prior to checking oil...I wasn't hearing my fuel pump...but i was definitely smelling fuel. =( Got out and saw some splashy splashy....(this was post panic shut down/quick wipe)

Some may remember I added a fuel one-way valve to the return line a while back.....the short section from the return hardline to the valve was approx a 65 degree bend with hardline in proper spot. Anyways....that fuel line ruptured and I had to run out to get some gates 5/16" (7.9mm) fuel line since finding 8mm fuel line at 730pm wasn't gonna happen. I also kind of used the 1 way valves' hose clamps to keep the hardline slightly moved over to keep the fuel line as straight as possible.

Its not the prettiest, but I will eventually redo the whole fuel system once I see how much it costs me to make some other minor changes. I really want to do the radium fuel surge tank/2nd pump but if I don't let the car get under 1/4 tank I seem to not have any issues but I'm not doing super long banks at WOT either..so it might be overkill. I also would have to figure out if I can put a -AN 1 way check valve in there and most likely that would require 2 more additional -6AN female fittings. I only want to drop the tank once if I can help it.....and when I do the fuel lines in the rear I'd love to do tackle the weld-in roll bar finally that i've been talking about. Anyways, the new section of hose fixed the issue immediately thankfully, short test drive and confirmed no leaks then proceeded to load up the car at 11pm-ish. Got to the track at 9am and problem free thus far......wet session is gross. fun but gross. the car is so yuck right now and I probably won't have time to clean it tomorrow because of a work gig. Sooo....I suck at driving in the wet....very inconsistent all day - but so were the track conditions......it was either "freshly sprayed down/soaked" or it was the "puddle period" which i think is self explanatory. god speed if you hit a puddle mid drift.


Overall fun day. no track pics or video unfortunately, this was a very last minute thing, and all the cool cars/experienced drivers were on the road course quite a distance away.

Things I learned or need to address:
-2nd gear with my tall pmc shifter/hydraulic hand brake location is terrible. I would smack the shifter with my forearm on pulls....ended up trailing the stock hand brake more than using the hydraulic hand brake. I'm not sure if I want to look into a solid mount - stock length shifter like garagistic or move the hand brake onto the passenger side....which will definitely be in the way of the Recaro LS/LX whatever it is. I'd love a nicer shifter that has the self-centering feature, but i'm just not willing to drop that kind of money on a shifter at the moment. Got too many hobbies that requires burning money. I'm really loving my custom wooden shift knob on my PMC setup - I highly doubt they used the same size/thread pitch, and I'm pretty sure that would almost total $400 into minor ergonomics alone on top of ordering a pair of spare tires for the next dry event - sidenote: I never had an issue with any of this in 3rd gear LOL...
-might be time to buy more redline MTL and inspect shift linkage/change trans fluid at the same time.
-chase bays power steering reservoir is amazing. no more spillage/overflow at all.
-stewart pump is all the hype. I know it was only 93ish today in vegas, but it was staying right under the halfway mark on the stock temp gauge. I'm horrible and realized I only look at the aftermarket gauge when temps are above the middle line on stock temp gauge - probably just not used to driving this thing again....
-NO MORE RUBBING...I've been having issues due to caster or wheel/tire sizing and finally didn't have to worry about any of that.
- alignment felt great. tire wear was minimum on the wet, but the car felt good-really healthy. I ran this event without a rear sway bar.......i'm conflicted. will have to try again on dry next time and make a decision based on that, but the car didn't feel like it had a lot of body roll since I increased the rears to 12k spring rate.

if you read through all that kudos....i probably should have made this post after I got some sleep.

--- next morning update:

one last dirty shot

pressure washed as much of the undercarriage/suspension as I could with it still on the ground. Then I finally got to try out my new foam cannon....my mix ratio (suddiness or whatever) could use work, but the sun was brutal and drying it off super quick. same shot before & after while hiding in the shade

[s14brent]

Any updates for us?

spam messages brought me back to this forum LOL. I unfortunately have 0 updates for you guys. Had a stressful end of 2020, moved the ex out, minor house projects here and there, built a 2 stroke mini supermoto, been going out to apex kart track in socal to blow off steam. I sold my e39 touring to a friend, and sold my creepy old moto-van and ordered a 21' tacoma trd offroad 4x4 in 6 speed manual. There was a full month where the only car I had was the e30 so I drove it pretty heavily as a daily driver. It checked out great, super reliable, no issues at all thankfully. I've been thoroughly enjoying new car/truck ownership though. It took almost 2 months to find one that I wanted (tech package, premium package) in cement grey and another month and a half to get it here. I was considering a trd pro but the dealer mark-up was insane and finding one in manual was impossible with the shortage (due to small production #'s coming from the factory due to covid restrictions). Ended up getting the trd pro shift knob, oe toyota roof rack, knock off trd pro grille and modding it for the front facing camera....fun stuff.



I threw on an ARE MX camper shell so i can take my dogs out on hikes - over night trips. picked up the shell locally for over $1000 off retail and it was only 6mo old. Believe it or not some of those camper shells would take 5-6 weeks to order, same reason as low tacoma production #'s basically. I'm just happy its satin black vs a totally different color. It works for now.

I also used it to camp out at the track recently with a bike hauler and it worked great despite the 5' bed, sleeping bag was laid out in an angle lol.


There's a vegasdrift roadcourse event at LVMS in May, I'm considering going, but it's also getting really HOT in Las Vegas again. I might do it for sanity purpose, but I have to look into a spare set of tires and probably about time I change my diff fluid out, possibly trans fluid also. Its actually cheaper for me to drive to socal and do a bikes only track day out there. If they have a night event scheduled that same month, I may just do that. Hopefully I'll check back up on this board more frequently and possibly have some e30 updates. lets see if i remember how to add a little clip from YT

[moatilliatta]

Any updates for us?

[moatilliatta]

AAF make a nice ADJ rear sway bar link that has a turn buckle, so you don't have to unbolt it to adjust.

Works nice when your squished under the car while it is on scales.

Pontiac always said, wider is better :p

[s14brent]

These cars seem to like soft rear bars, esp with more power. If get a set of scales you can set your sway bar preload also.

You could look at 330 E46 front knuckles to get your front track with under control. Front brakes are similar to e36M, but you’ll need E46 front struts.

i forgot about smart strings, i'm pretty sure I had that page bookmarked. Curious how to adjust preload on a stock rear sway bar, or are you're talking about like a 16mm IE/aftermarket setup.

yeah, i'm not doing any more suspension changes - i'm super happy with this setup i have finally, I just need to one day figure out flares and paint eventually. I wanted the wider front track width and additional steering angle/clearance.

[moatilliatta]

These cars seem to like soft rear bars, esp with more power. If get a set of scales you can set your sway bar preload also.

You could look at 330 E46 front knuckles to get your front track with under control. Front brakes are similar to e36M, but you’ll need E46 front struts.

[moatilliatta]

Stacks are outdated, you’ll end up needing XP to fool with it.

But period correct looking!

Maybe look at getting some scales, smart stings for doing alignments in your garage .

[s14brent]

So I decided to go down to 2 of the slr rack limiter spacers vs 3. I didn't spend all this money to not be able to get more angle LOL!! A little poke won't kill me.

Right front caster

I tried to pressure wash under the wheel wells/undercarriage, and had the nozzle set at the softest/widest spray, and ended making my clear coat flake off even more =(


It's sooo bad now =( Guess wrapping is out of the question. I'm just not sure I'm ready to even think about color or anything right now because I still don't know if I want to run these flares. I do know I'd like to run a 16x8+0 square setup to use minimal spacers as possible. Shopping in that size in 5x120 isn't really proving easy.

and as promised here's a pic of the ground clearance from under the pan, the rear of the pan is a little more than 3.25". I think i'll be leaving the ride height as is for a while. I'm not trying to get a ridiculous rake.


Here's a pic from kind of above at an angle to show how the current wheel/flare combo is working out.


I drove the car out for only a short distance. unfortunately ambient temps have been weird lately here in vegas, we're getting all the smoke from the san bernadino fires, so air quality is atrocious. As for cooling, it's been perfect, but it hasn't been as hot.

After my first test run I prefer running a rear sway bar endlink. The rear end almost feels like it flioats on the highway vs being tight. I also 3 wheel up into my drive way now. I'm pretty sure I want adjustable rear swaybar endlinks on here - which pretty much pushes me towards the IE 16mm rear swaybar kit with the reinforcement bracket - I just want to take it to an event first to see if theres a big difference in snap oversteer in transitions. All the "normal" spots we'd go for testing are blown up/hot LOL!!



oops.
-----------------------------
9/9 update:

local photographer/e30 owner sent me these photos from a euro meet i cruised by last night.

[s14brent]

So I got a few things checked off tonight. I was basically trying to figure out what would work in current form and future setups. I was playing with rack limiters as SLR provides the slip-on stackable style. With e46 arms and the SLR mini kit i was running 3 on ea side. I'm still doing the same amount with the new setup, but once I get the larger flares I can throw on some spacers and remove 1 rack limiter on each side and be able to utilize some of the increased angle this kit provides. I thought about setting it up and having the front wheels stick out a ton, but decided against it for now. Its truly an eye sore when i mocked it all up with 25mm spacers

In hindsight I'm not sure why I was afraid to go longer lca's over extended e36 m3 setup especially since I planned on going with different flares. The "super" length arms are only 27mm longer than the e46 lca's which basically means I'm 2mm wider than where I was with 25mm spacers (no big deal). The "ultra" arms are 11cm (according to their website - which is 110mm and I think those are more meant for e36/e46's vs e30s because they're more advertised so they can achieve full lock with 18" wheels/tires).

I think my kamotors standard flares are 1.25" flares, but that's not really accurate with the e30 front fender design since the stock fender lip sticks out past the mounting area. (technically 50mm-70mm flares would be ideal with this setup - 90mm is definitely going to be overkill unfortunately unless their measurement isn't true like a lot of ebay flares- but i doubt it based on charlies/tread and pics). I'm going to wait and see if there are any black friday sales for the BDC sedan m3 fender flares. I've been a fan of those since released. I just hate that shipping would be an additional $200 - so I may have to pick them up if anything.
Also, I have those AKG swaybar end links thinking they were going on extended e36 m3 lca's before I upgraded. I noticed SLR sells their own sway bar endlinks with a thicker machined spacer so the endlink doesnt have as bad of an angle as mine do. They also use 8mm hardware vs 10mm though.



sorry the whole car is pretty filthy since last event (months ago damnit lol) Heres a quick pic of the suspension when i only had 2 rack limiters in vs 3. Also turning from lock to lock it felt smooth, no binding or rubbing whatsoever. Also will be sure to take pics later to show difference in caster. I'm thrilled. It made doing all this totally worth it!!

also when the car's on the ground on its own weight, the sway bar endlink angle isn't as horrible as I thought it'd be.



Apparently not all 16" wheels clear these kits. it was this close before but I guess I never noticed. Hopefully I'll finish putting on the hood and drive it for once and report back.

[s14brent]

As far as oil pressure, the more work you're doing in the car, the more work the motor is usually doing. Its really hard to catch the oil pressure gauge on a low pressure scenario. Id get a 20PSI switch hooked up to a light if you don't have something simulator. Although the oil pressure gauge is good tool for diagnostics, but tough to monitor when in the zone.

I don't know though how drifting and E34 oil pans handle oil starvation.

Whats the limiting factor in the fuel rail?

agreed! I wanted to look into hooking up a light, but tbh it seems like getting some nicer/newer gauges with built in warning lights would be nice. i've set warning lights on the apexi' el series gauges in my old s-chassis, and they were simple to operate. Ideally, just take all the gauges out and throw in a STACK but loool money. The car won't be for purely drifting - I don't think. I'm doing a lot of this stuff to just learn/teach myself how to do things really and most of it is unnecessary for drifting I'd say. it's just sad that I think my ideal auto-x alignment specs are not what I currently run for drifting and I really don't have an alignment hook up either so it adds up quick - and my local auto-x.....i dont know if they've changed, but I showed up 25 min late and wasn't allowed to participate and lost my entry fee. It really shouldn't be THAT serious for auto-x in my opinion. There are a few track days happening this month (spring mountain, and our local rip off "race experience" track, but they are $350-375+ track membership or fees. Kind of out of my price range at the moment.

So the e34 oil pan is pretty much why my car ride height is so damn high....I'm not used to it still - if I stare at it too long I always want to drop it lower but I have to remind myself of that stupid pan that i'm so scared of cracking. I'm currently running one of the 1st gen hik fab skid plates for a m20 (modified to fit the s52), the thing is super beefy, i'll try to remember to take a photo of how low it sits though.
I have the achilles e34 oil pan baffle and oil cooler setup, but I do the old e36 track guys trick of adding in 3/4-1quart of oil extra at the track. and i use an evacuator down the dipstick tube to take it back out before driving home. - but i've been changing the oil after every track event also, so it seems to be overkill. I also go on a full tank because I worry about fuel starvation. I really want to do a 2.5-3qt accusump setup and a radium fuel surge tank just for peace of mind, and most likely will eventually. I priced both out and it'd be about $800 for the accusump with the electronic valve tapped into my oil cooler setup, but I haven't found an ideal place I'd like to mount it without running 10' of -12 AN. The Radium setup would probably cost pretty close to that after putting -AN lines into account with the second pump.
(sidenote: have you seen kmiata/kpower industries oil pan clearance for their swap kit? It's pretty damn amazing, i believe its even with the subframe - it looked in the pictures they posted at least, and it's a baffled custom pan, that you can have a oil drain bung added if you want to boost it) I'm pretty sure touge factory's oil pan is similar - it might be higher capacity. Anyways.....lots of cool swaps out there now days - but the s52 is strong and takes a beating like a champ so I can't complain - I think I'd be happier with a little more power but I'm definitely okay with only burning up a pair of tires after a full track day - and the power level for local track layout is good enough to link most of it)

I don't think theres a limiting factor in the m50 fuel rail. I just wanted to convert the front half first since my hardlines are kinda questionable, and eventually do the surge so it'd be nice to have the whole feed/return lines done.
The problem I'm running into with the m50 fuel rail is that the hardline coming from the rail (both feed & return) is really short and has a large barbed end. It won't fit inside the -6 compression fittings, and I thought about getting another from the junkyard and grinding them down to test fit, but I don't think I want to chance that kind of crap on a fuel system. theres a perfect oem rail out there, but it's super hard to find. BMW part # 13-53-1-436-468. It's actually more expensive new than buying a nuke fuel rail which is stupid, but I'm not sure I'm wanting to do an external FPR because I'd have to find a place to mount that, and it seems unnecessary for a basically stock s52. The nice ones are li $3-400!! and not including the gauge, fittings, or lines! Everything is just money - It'd definitely be easier if I didn't have a house about as old as I am that I am that needs constant attention. Anyways, the plan is to keep checking junkyards or ebay for the oem rail, no real rush to do that or keep my car down longer than necessary.

Oh, and for image tagging/keywords, I do that all for work, but I never do it for any personal project stuff. Most the time it goes straight from my phone to the app/gallery.

sorry for the super long response. sheesh.

[moatilliatta]

I did photobucket's yearly plan, Not sure how much it is, Maybe $40-$60. I don't use it commercially though, just hobby. The app is ok, I do need a lesson and make some reserved time in photo management.

Id like add a gallery to Wix, and have a pool of photos that you would could search by scroll down list of "Tags" Like "E30" "S52" "Suspension" "ECT" and it would sort the photos as such "TAGS" you selected from the list.


As far as oil pressure, the more work you're doing in the car, the more work the motor is usually doing. Its really hard to catch the oil pressure gauge on a low pressure scenario. Id get a 20PSI switch hooked up to a light if you don't have something simulator. Although the oil pressure gauge is good tool for diagnostics, but tough to monitor when in the zone.

I don't know though how drifting and E34 oil pans handle oil starvation.

Whats the limiting factor in the fuel rail?

[s14brent]

thanks guys'.

As for photo hosting, photobucket took too long to offer an affordable fix. IIRC they wanted $500+ for their low resolution hosting services basically holding images hostage for people's blogs, websites, etc. I wasn't going to sub with a company willing to do that to their users. And it wasn't a price thing, I already was paying almost $200 for my client viewing site through zenfolio which is why i switched everything over the first time. They had great service back in the day, and they had a semi-decent mobile app to make life easier. However when the images stop loading in a timely fashion, it just becomes an embarrassment and frustrating for both me and the clients. I do not mind the back-end work, (it actually wasn't that bad) with the new site layout you just double click your images and replace the link, no need to retag anything with [ img ] bars.

I haven't taken the car off jackstands yet, I wanted to address a few more things which should be wrapped up by Saturday if all goes to plan. I've been dealing with a few other issues so I had to take a break from the car and focus on work as more money is going out than going in. I highly considered going CSR Rad, but literally no issues with my mishimoto currently, and I can swap out a radiator fairly quickly. And thank goodness theres barely any humidity here. It's absolutely miserable when there is though.

edit: I have a vdo oil temp gauge, but to be honest i keep an eye out on coolant temp/oil pressure more than anything. I'll try to make not of oil temps on my next time bringing her out.
----------------

I got the fittings/ptfe hose in from deatschwerks. I came to a conclusion I'm going to need to upgrade fuel rail* as i dont feel comfortable shaving down the short barbed ends on the m50 rail to make this work. I'll probably be looking for the same rail charlie's using (528i) rail with FPR on the end.



and I just got these delivered maybe less than an hour ago, so I'll be installing these along with akg sway bar endlinks, and most likely going back to the normal Fortune Auto camber plates since the akg fcabs should be able to dial in the caster appropriately on its' own now. test driving the car might lead me straight to the alignment shop after, and i'm doing this even though my wheels will be sticking out a lot further. - No ETA on the flares I ordered yet unfortunately.



-----
edit: no sense in posting twice in 24hrs. I had to drill out the sway bar mount holes on the new LCA's to fit the beefier 10mm hardware AKG supplied. I actually mixed some of the old swaybar hardware in there to fit into the SLR opening.



I had to upgrade the tie rod arms from 8" to 10", but I think my alignment should be spot on since all I had to do was swap the outers. I'm pretty pumped to drive this thing this weekend hopefully - nothing special, just want to check my alignment and drive around with ac on and watch my temp gauge - pretty much to see if all these mods helped or not for city driving at least LOL. Even though the LCA's are all bolted down and torqued to spec. I still have to check wheel fitment, spacers, and make sure there's no rubbing lock to lock. I'd like to see if I can get rid of a SLR slip-on rack limiter - but I doubt it unless I put on a large spacer. Oh and I need to lower it down, and adjust sway bar endlinks on its own weight.
The SLR "super" LCA's aren't actually that much longer than the e46 arms, I thought the measurement they gave me was on top of the e46 arm length not stock. I think the 90mm flares are going to be wayy too much but its taking way too long for this set *as of right now its been 31 days since ordered and I think they're still in Russia. - so I don't plan on ordering another pair - might wait to see what kind of cyber monday deals are going on. Oh and since these aren't the extended e36 m3 lca's as planned - i think the caster is somewhere between e36m3 arms and e46, (which isn't bad...but isn't great either) so I think I'll be leaving on the SLR camber/caster plates and leaving the jam nuts off the akg fcabs also.

[moatilliatta]

Thanks for keep us updated. Glad to see your still at it and motivation to help keep me at it.

I just stuck with photo bucket and paid them, in the end, nothing is free... And all other options were more work.

No chance to see if things are running cooler? Do you have oil temp gauge?

As far as radiators, I have the Z3M mishimoto radiator that if I was to do it all again, I would do an E36 C&R. Thinner more efficient core, good enough for S54 E36s.

I was measuring it out, E36 radiator has more surface area than E46. And the thicker the radiator, then harder it is for the air to go thru, not to mention some weight savings.

Im sure aero and frontal area need work for track use, I’m not even sure about drifting, seems like fans are your hope when sideways.

At least it’s not humid there?

[vWBIRDWv]

good read!

[s14brent]

i like to be able to have a place to store images for both work & personal (via mobile - that I can then delete off mobile device) in one place - that has a mobile app I can upload/export from and offers password protected galleries for work clients. This whole thread has now been updated to new smugmug links for e30 content. (i'm glad that's over) I even added a few missing photos which was kind of fun seeing the build again. This is the one build thread I actually care about since the amount of work that's gone into it.
------------
no real actual e30 updates here, but I did place an order with deatschwerks, I'll be converting the front half of the fuel system over to PTFE steel braided lines and got all necessary 5/16 to -6 fittings. It's pricey stuff, but I have been feeling a little uneasy with my fuel feed & return hardlines being in pretty bad shape towards the front half of the car. (If you follow the hardlines from the front, maybe 6" after the actual hose connects the hardlines are in perfect shape. I think both feed/return hardlines can be had at about $150-160+shipping. So i'm trying to look at it like I spent about $140 more towards the complete front upgrade since i won't have to replace the 8mm rubber bits. And if anything - it will give me the confidence to do the rear half eventually, which I may want to add a fuel surge with the an additional 190lph pump. I swear, fuel and oil starvation are my biggest concerns most the time.

Also...I'm not be getting the extended e36 m3 lca's from SLR, but rather the tubular "super length" which is 110mm over stock e30 stuff. Production is backed up at SLR (thanks to the pandemic), and I decided to simply just get what they had on hand - which is actually probably something I should have done in the first place. Oh and I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I ordered a pair of 90mm flares from jumdoo or whatever - shipping is gonna take probably another 2-3 weeks since it's coming from russia. Those flares should accommodate these longer arms - so it's all working out!

------
here's some pics of what I was complaining about a few weeks ago in an earlier post


^ new pump, and i coated the inside with a textured evaporative cooler undercoating spray. It wasn't looking so great prior with all the calcium build up and crap, used the opportunity to clean out the filters really well (i replaced them right after I bought the unit 2nd hand). I'm pretty sure the calcium build up is what killed the other pump, so I put some of those basket filters around the pump itself - not sure if those are just a scam or not, but I figured anything to help prolong the life of the unit would be welcomed.
I also installed a new drain that i just hook up via garden hose now, no more pushing the unit outside to dump out.

The trick is to throw in ice or an ice pack during use. makes vegas summers somewhat workable in the garage.
I also had to change the spigot out, there was a slow leak from the old unit - decided to try one of these sediment filters out to help prevent extra crap going into the cooler since the mesh micron screen is a lot finer than the little net baskets installed around the pump.

and finally, i had to change the 3' section of air hose on my compressor that goes to the air regulator/moisture trap. I also changed the oil in the compressor - it was long overdue.



oh and i know I haven't done a mini-update in a while, but I fucking love this damn bike so much now. I finally found an exhaust I wanted to try out (this is #4 i believe - most of them being wayyy too loud for neighborhood hooning. It also has the removable spark arrestor/silencer. I threw on some spare titanium exhaust wrap that I had from my last exhaust on the bike.



It doesn't look as cool now, I threw on some ghetto diy crash protector on there (hose clamp and spare hose LOL) but this exhaust costs way too much to replace in event of a wreck so i'm trying to preserve it


and i've been trying to go out once a week to get my stamina up riding in the heat. Next time I go to a socal kart track I don't want to take any breaks during our sessions LOL!! Here's a quick clip from the end of the night last saturday night