Corey's JDM-Tech 2

[litu]

Cool story, so sub to follow more

[Simple_Smith]

Maybe one day I'll make a habit of updating this more often than year to year. Anyways, I haven't done a ton of work on the car since the last post but I did iron out a couple small details I've been putting off. With the way factory short throw shifters sit in the OEM e30 shift arm, they put the selector rod on an undesirable upward angle and the E60 545 lever i had in there was no exception. I had purchased a Turner(?) shifter ball cup riser from a forum member as a sort of junk sale and was never sent the actual bushing the shifter sits in so I had to improvise a bit. I had already done this mod on a previous e30 so I just had to track down the necessary parts. AWDBOB came through with exactly what I needed, a broken shift arm so I was saved from massacring a nice piece. Basically I needed to raise where the shifter ball sits to level out the shift selector rod and make it both physically easier to shift and less stress on the trans internals by lining things back up to factory specs. Firstly I chopped up the broken section so it was just the actual shifter ball cup, then I massaged the bottom of the factory shift arm so the selector rod wouldn't hit when engaging any of the gears. Without clearancing the bottom, it would undoubtedly hit going into 5th or reverse with where the pickup points are. Luckily I had a spare trans to do the test fitting on the bench so I didn't have to do this with the car in the air or take out excess material. For the front bushing of the shift arm, I used Condor's delrin bushings and the rear I left the factory rubber. This lets the drivetrain have some play but keeps the shift feel crisp. I'm not a big fan of running all solid everything because I like building a sort of "fuse" into the system, a bend instead of break mindset I suppose.





Another small project I tackled before Canadians at the Gap 2023 was an axle back exhaust. I had been low key watching facebook marketplace for exhaust stuff after picking up a straight pipe e30 axle back for $20 (deals are still out there people!) I came across an almost brand new Magnaflow 14815 for $100, purchased a few elbows from the local parts store and got to work. This was to be a low-buck axle back just so I could actually hear my own car when running with a bunch of goons with built cars and minimal exhaust setups. Originally I wanted to build a diffuser and have a muffler tucked higher up and do dual turn down tips dumped right into the airflow created by the diffuser but beggars can't be choosers. After chopping up a couple elbows, doing a bit of math, drawing some circles, and making a round to oval plywood block, I got to hammering. Dual 1.75" merge to 2.5" round collector turned out quite nice for someone with limited tools (I outsourced the welding on this project). After getting the merge collector fabbed up and welded it was just another two elbows and the muffler. I think it turned out quite nice for what I have invested. Nice exhaust tone, not too loud, and way better looking that the 2.0 exhaust that was on the car previously. Only downside is a bit of drone at ~1900RPM but unless I'm slugging along, I'm usually not in that rev range, so its an acceptable shortfall. I'd like to eventually incorporate a diffuser into the works but that will likely be a next year project.

[Simple_Smith]

A final bit of work before the trip to Tail of the Dragon was to do a front wheel bearing, oil change, and a valve adjustment. There's a drop off in the power as if there's a step in the powerband, not the smooth ramp up from 3600ish to 6k. It's not quite a hesitation but more like a slight plateau of pull around 5k. The valve adjustment definitely helped since a couple were out of spec, but there are still gains to be had. Someone please talk me out of doing standalone again. What's the quote about insanity being where you do the same thing over and over expecting different results?? As for the wheel bearing that was pretty straightforward and not unexpected with how hard I drive the car and the wheel offsets adding extra leverage, but sacrifices must be made for style.



Unfortunately, because I only did one of the bearings before the trip, the other decided to go while we were on the trip. Luckily I was able to get one in a pinch and did it in the parking lot of the parts store. Its funny how efficiently you can do a job when you just did it a few days ago.



One last touch before the trip was getting my Sparco Pro 2000 back in the car. Again, pretty straightforward since I already had the mounts and whatnot, just had to figure out my seating position again since the mounts had been moved to accommodate the seat in my sim rig. Another thing I wanted to change was where I kept my tool bag. I wanted to put it on the rear passenger floor so I made a mount to attach a ratchet strap through to make sure the 30lb bag of metal wouldn't become a projectile in a worst case scenario and would balance out the weight better in a best case scenario.

And before I completely gloss over it, here are a couple from The Vintage 2023 as well:

[Simple_Smith]

And just one last photo dump

[DEV0 E30]

Looking good man!

[Panici]

I love your wheel choice. Looks spicy.

I'm going to need more info about this "Canadian's at the Gap" event. I wouldn't mind coming along!

[Simple_Smith]

I love your wheel choice. Looks spicy.

I'm going to need more info about this "Canadian's at the Gap" event. I wouldn't mind coming along!

Thank you for the kind words! Canadians at the Gap is just a small group even I've been doing with some folks from the Niagara region that I met back in 2014 at a car show in Kentucky of all places. They were headed to the dragon for a few days after the car show and my roommate and I told them we'd tag along for the trip next year when we booked some additional time off. Once we did a trip down there, we were hooked. That was 2015 and its become one of the yearly vacations that is a non-negotiable.