my new nurburgring whip

[Eric]

AST 5100's or magic, whichever one gets here first

[325ix]

A hovering E30?

[Eric]

A hovering E30?

The technology will probably develop faster than AST can make strut tubes and ship them from holland...:blowup:

[Eric]

The airbox from England showed up on my front porch today... so of course a round of pictures are in order!

The airbox is from Geoff Steele Racing and is quite a bit different than the normal S50 airbox. It reminds me of the E30 M3 airboxes a bit, which I like the look of much better. As for performance, this airbox has a larger opening than the normal hamman style airbox, so I hope it will help make more HP!




















And of course a carparts porn pic of all the parts that will soon be living on the E30.

-GSR airbox
-EVO airhorns
-Schrick 284 cams
-Burns stainless y-pipe
-Manderal 3" and 2.5" piping
-Magnaflow 3" in dual 2.5" out muffler

[acolella76]

ooooooo i like what's happening here

[Eric]

Yes, hopefully it will breath a bit better! To be completely honest, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the camshaft replacement after reading the TIS instructions.

http://tis.spaghetticoder.org/s/view.pl?2/38/42

Just weighed the airbox... 1.2lbs!

[325ix]

What were you running before for exhaust?

[Eric]

I had a replica of the Groupe-A E30 M3 exhaust made buy a guy in Germany named Oliver.


It was a very very nicely made exhaust, but it was dual 50mm all the way back. The factory euro E36 M3 headers are also dual 50mm, but after the headers they bump up to dual 60mm. This exhaust works great for the smaller S14 motor, but I think it was chocking the S50 up high on the RPM range.

Normal euro 3.0L E36 M3's dyno about 250rwhp & 225-230tq. My car dyno'd in texas on a mustang dyno 229rwhp & 251tq. This seamed backwards, so i did some reading on the internets, and learned about the bigger pipes above.

So now the plans are the burns y-pipe that ends in a single 3" exhaust. mandrel bent 3" to the magnaflow muffler where the cat usually is, and then dual 2.5" exhaust right out the side before the rear wheel. It's probably going to be silly silly loud.

[Eric]

So, playing around with my new airbox and trumpets, I think I've found something that I don't really like. Included with the airbox was 6 3.2L trumpets (different than the 3.0L ones). But with most other things bought on the internet, it wasn't exactly as described...

This is what the normal trumpets look like. The large ring in the middle of the trumpet is used to attach the big rubber boot that seals the airbox and the trumpets together.

3.0L is the longer one, M3 GT or M3 EVO is the shorter one on the bottom


with the big rubber boots installed. The trumpet part that cleans up the airflow is inside the rubber boot/airbox.



Well, from reading on a few UK boards, the GSR airbox is designed to fit with the factory airhorns, but they don't exactly fit with out a bit of trimming. I was under the impression that the supplied 3.2L airhorns were filed down at the trumpets to clear the openings in the airbox... I was wrong.






As you can see in the following pictures, these trumpets probably don't do a whole lot for cleaning up the air into the chambers...







I'm also not exactly sure how they install these into the airbox. GSR sells silicone hose to butt the two pieces together, but it looks like they fit pretty close as is. Maybe I'll just use some of that nifty gold tape that all the time attack guys love.






Finally, you can see that the nice radius in the carbon airbox isn't being used at all, and that with the origional trumpets still, it will probably work quite nicely! Now I'm debating between ordering a set of GT airhorns which is a common mod for a stock 3.0L or just modifying my normal 3.0L airhorns to fit into the airbox with the turmpets modified, but still intact. No matter what happens, the 3.2L airhorns supplied with the airbox are going in the trash. :(




Also, the outside diameter of this airbox is 130mm!!! I've been looking for a little bit, but does anybody know of an airfilter that has a 130mm i.d. flange?

[mikeedler]

Replacing the cams really isn't that bad, I did a complete 3.0 head earlier this summer, alot of the TIS special parts stuff isn't really needed. Valve adj. will become expensive all too fast, atleast it's the same as the S14, so you should be able to find some other tabs over there easiyl enough.

Important is reinstalling the vanos correctly so that it will still have full adjustability.

looks like some fun parts.




11 3 400---- I have that tool (it's not nec., but it sure is nice for that I know Im not going to snap the new cam in half while installing it). You can use it if you wanna pay for the shipping when the time comes also have the tool with the box for the valve adj. tabs. PM me when the time comes

[Eric]

Replacing the cams really isn't that bad, I did a complete 3.0 head earlier this summer, alot of the TIS special parts stuff isn't really needed. Valve adj. will become expensive all too fast, atleast it's the same as the S14, so you should be able to find some other tabs over there easiyl enough.

Important is reinstalling the vanos correctly so that it will still have full adjustability.

looks like some fun parts.




11 3 400---- I have that tool (it's not nec., but it sure is nice for that I know Im not going to snap the new cam in half while installing it). You can use it if you wanna pay for the shipping when the time comes also have the tool with the box for the valve adj. tabs. PM me when the time comes

Hi Mike,
THANK YOU! That'd be great! I'll be PMing you shortly. I have a friend that works at the dealership that I hope will help me with the install. He say's it looks pretty similar to S54 cam swap, which he's done a few times before.


Update:
So today, I played around with the airbox and car. I should have expected that fitting S50 parts in an E30 isn't always a direct fit. Well, of course things dont fit, but it shouldn't be too hard with a hammer on the firewall... the radiator might be a bit of a problem though...

Temp fitting:







Problems...

This isn't going to work, anybody have some ideas?


need more clearance. I figure I can gain a few cm by not sticking the airbox as far down the trumpet as it can go. This would put the airbox further outboard and hopefully gain the clerance that I need at the radiator. Or possibly trim the airbox back a bit and use some 130mm flex hose/silicone coupler to angle the filter a little bit.




Brake boosters are in the way. Not a big deal since the masters are inside the cab... I'd like to move them to above the golvebox like most racecars anyways.


Not sure if the box hits the firewall or just the new brake lines that were installed when fitting the manual brakes. I think I might just bonk the firewall in a few mm and bend the lines to fit around the airbox. 2nd option is to just move the brake lines lower, closer to the trans tunnel.


another close spot is the oil filter lid. I have the VAC lid with the ports for pressure/temp. I'm pretty sure they will touch right now, hopefully spinning the lid so the sensors are not near the box will give me enough clerance. I'm not sure where the factory lid is, so I hope it fits!!!



The custom oil cooler lines look like they have enough space. I've been wanting to change the ends from the current ones that have 0° arc, to one with mabe 30° or 45° arc. It sucks that these ends are soo expensive! I'd really like to have a bin full of them and just swap them out until I find the right amount of bend.


from right under the left headlight... That intake is huge!!!



Now, fitting the trumpets...

I think I'll be able to sand down the flute on the trumpets, and enlarge the airbox by a few mm. The airbox, since it's hand made, varies in diameter by a few MM. I was talking with our engineer at work today who mentioned owning a lathe:redspot I think I'll bring a trumpet in tomorrow and see if he'd like to help me trim down the trumpet, and open up the airbox all precision like!

OD of the airbox tubes, roughly 69mm


ID of the airbox tubes, roughly 62mm


OD of the of the intake trumpet (3.0L), roughly 68mm. The trumpet itself is about 52mm, so the flute goes from 52mm out to 68mm.




AAAAAANNNDDD of course, I had to poke around a little bit, and came up with a few questions/observations. :rolleyes

First off, what the heck is this thing? It looks like some kind of vacuum regulator? The tube at the top goes to a bar next to the fuel rail that looks like it links all the intakes together after the throttle bodies. The bottom tube goes back into the airbox. I'm guessing this is designed to link/stabilize the air pre & post throttle bodies?

Since this is a track car, can I remove it???



Also, the diagonal black tube thinge to the right of the part in question is the air/oil seperator. The tube that sticks into the side of the black thinge comes from the cam tray chamber. The tube on the top of the black thinge goes to the airbox, and the tube on the bottom drains the oil back into the sump via the dipstick. Since I have an E34 dipstick, I don't have the nice return line, so this tube has ALSO been returning to the airbox!:nono Needless to say, there is quite a bit of oil residue after a track day. Can I completely remove the oil seperator and just run a tube to a catch can like the old E30 M3 race cars did? example:


or:




Second, what is this thing? I couldn't trace where the hardline goes to, but that looks like a fuel line to me?


Now this question is more E30 related; are there 3 hoses for the fuel system? I'm guessing there is a feed line and a return line, but what is the 3rd line for? I'm wondering why this line is capped? When I have more time, I'm going to trace it back to the tank.


Finally, a little weight comparison...
-Factory airbox + rubber boot + MAF = 11lbs
-Carbon airbox = 2.4 lbs
savings = -8.6lbs!!!

[ian e30 318is]

The first question looks like your ICV (Idle Control Valve). If it is do not remove it. It allows your car to idle.

Not sure on the second but it looks like a filter of some sort.

Awesome car by the way.

[325ix]

What are you running for tuning?

[Eric]

The first question looks like your ICV (Idle Control Valve). If it is do not remove it. It allows your car to idle.

Not sure on the second but it looks like a filter of some sort.

Awesome car by the way.

It does look like the ICV. I wonder how the previous owner of the air box ran since there is no hose barb in the box to fit the bottom tube.

What are you running for tuning?

Right now I have a H&H alpha-n chip, but I'm hopping to have Mac autosport in Parker burn a custom chip to also use e85 gas.

[stinkydriverx]

I feel like you just run stand alone ecu with that airbox. Or else you won't take full advantage of your mods, even with a chip.