My vacation at the shop.. that is swap (pictorial)

[Julien]

good progress! too bad i didn't get to meet you when i met rich & micah at the shop, maybe another time

[jpsfab]

nicely done man. very clean work.

[BBY1104]

engine looks great, did you change anything or was it just a fresher motor with less miles?

[DEV0 E30]

I didn't talk to him (I'm not too sure anyone really talked to him, he seemed accupied in talking about himself too much). I didn't get his autograph either.. It was all too much.

That's too bad, I thought he'd be a cool car guy.

I guess the fame and attention can make you a self centered person.

Oh well. I just want all of his gadgets in that car.

[Huff]

how hard id it to install e36 rack and do you notice the difference?

Well, it was pretty easy in the end. For once, having an airbag car really helped!! With the firewall, all I had to do was grind about 1/8 of an inch out of the steering colum hole. I was able to still use the stock rubber boot. The airbag cars only have one universal joint on the steering kuckle and has a colapsable steering column.. So all I had to do was give the column a little room through the wall. The angle is more straight to the steering wheel than stock now!!

The M3 rack (at least the 1995 one on my subframe) is shorter than the stock one. That is the tabs on the e36 will not fit into the e30. So, after qiute a bit of mock ups, we went with spacing the rack to fit into the top of the sub-frame. This makes the rack paralel to the control arm. I made a crappy drawing to poorly illustrate my point.


I used the e36 tie rod ends due to them being straighter than the stock e30's. So in theory, now with the car lowered, my tie rod ends are parallel to the control arms. This should provide an even more aggressive angle for steering response (along with killing some of the angle from the steering wheel to the rack).

The entire conversion took a single morning. Well, the motor and tranny were out of the car. I make people drive my car to really see the difference... It's pretty freaking amazing. It's an OBSOLUTE must for a track car. If you have any other questions, just let me know. I can shoot some photo's (or make some more MS paint drawings!!).

good progress! too bad i didn't get to meet you when i met rich & micah at the shop, maybe another time

I'm usually hanging with those guys some time during the week.. or day. Next time your in town just let us know. Cheers!

engine looks great, did you change anything or was it just a fresher motor with less miles?

Thanks!! The motor was a fresh build (bottom up). I'm going to probably chip it with the M30 fuel/ air swap. I really want to see where a new m20 stands from a dyno aspect before I tune it. Then, put the new management system on..