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.

[Simple_Smith]

Very small update since I'm horrible at keeping up with this thread; I did attend The Vintage 2024 and managed to park next to a beautiful MT2 vert that put mine to shame (especially since my wheels were covered in brake dust thanks to that morning's drive).

Met up with @bitty627 in Lexington, KY and got some BBQ at Red State, which has become a staple for these trips since its right off 75 and really good food. We did a bunch of driving around Brevard, Asheville, Deal's Gap, and of course 209 into Hot Springs. It was cool introducing him to his first Vintage and getting overwhelmed with how cool it is showing up at Blue Ghost and the Clarion and having the parking lot completely full of vintage BMWs and likeminded wierdos that have decided to fill their heads with, in any other setting, useless information about 30+ year old BMWs.

8 hours into the return trip I had the RPMs drop to nothing while highway cruising and I coasted to the left shoulder then pushed the car an additional 100yds or so to the shade of an overpass. My initial thought was the crank sensor (that I had just replaced) failed me and considering all the very precarious places it could have failed down south, I was thankful the car had given out somewhere I could safely pull off. While thankful for the shade offered by the overpass and a shoulder separating me from traffic, the three week old unidentifiable roadkill I was feet from was giving off quite the unpleasant odor. Gotta count your blessings I suppose. Since I was about an hour and a half from home at this point and not really in a headspace for diagnostics, I called my dad for a road rescue favor and he was there with his truck and car trailer in a couple hours and we got my car home in another two.

After letting it sit a few days as I got back into my regular routine, I finally got the bentley manual [out of the back seat] and a test light [out of the glovebox], I started on the diagnostics. It didn't take long. The main relay had gotten jostled out of the harness to the point that it just wasn't making contact. Five minutes of diagnostics and the car fired right back up. Why I didn't do that on the side of the highway and get back on my way is beyond me. I try to prepare for all kinds of scenarios like this to keep me going while hundreds of miles from home by carrying all the tools I can think of needing for tearing down an M20, dropping trans, doing a timing belt, wheel bearing, etc. but just gave up on something as easy as looking at the main relay. And to top it off, a previous e30 had a main relay fail on me so I should've recognized this, although that was a no start issue, not a shut off while driving issue. I'm still a bit bothered by the fact I didn't diagnose this immediately and get back on the road.

[DEV0 E30]

After letting it sit a few days as I got back into my regular routine, I finally got the bentley manual [out of the back seat] and a test light [out of the glovebox], I started on the diagnostics. It didn't take long. The main relay had gotten jostled out of the harness to the point that it just wasn't making contact. Five minutes of diagnostics and the car fired right back up. Why I didn't do that on the side of the highway and get back on my way is beyond me. I try to prepare for all kinds of scenarios like this to keep me going while hundreds of miles from home by carrying all the tools I can think of needing for tearing down an M20, dropping trans, doing a timing belt, wheel bearing, etc. but just gave up on something as easy as looking at the main relay. And to top it off, a previous e30 had a main relay fail on me so I should've recognized this, although that was a no start issue, not a shut off while driving issue. I'm still a bit bothered by the fact I didn't diagnose this immediately and get back on the road.

You live and learn, it's often times the simple things. On a multi-day adventure with others across most of southeastern AZ I jostled a battery connection loose on my truck. I thought it was a more serious electrical connection or alternator issue. You often times don't have the bandwith to diagnose like you would if you were at home.

[Panici]

Sounds like an adventure! Some great roads around that area for sure.
Did you take many pictures?

Since I was about an hour and a half from home at this point and not really in a headspace for diagnostics, I called my dad for a road rescue favor and he was there with his truck and car trailer in a couple hours and we got my car home in another two.

Sometimes that's how it goes on a long trip, you're mentally and physically exhausted and poking around diagnosing seems like a big hurdle.
Glad you got home safe, it's nice to have family who can be there for you!

[moatilliatta]

Yay vintage!

In Louisville Ky, welcome to caravan depending on how 2025 looks like.

[Simple_Smith]

Yay vintage!

In Louisville Ky, welcome to caravan depending on how 2025 looks like.

Man I'd love to but I'm shooting for a trip to Japan instead of a Vintage trip. Definitely pencil me in for 2026 though!

[Simple_Smith]

Sounds like an adventure! Some great roads around that area for sure.
Did you take many pictures?

Sometimes that's how it goes on a long trip, you're mentally and physically exhausted and poking around diagnosing seems like a big hurdle.
Glad you got home safe, it's nice to have family who can be there for you!

After 8 hours on the road and a lot of it driving through pouring rain, I just wanted to be home with the car, regardless of its running state. I didn't take a ton of pictures and I haven't resized any of them to host on r3v but I'll go through them in a bit to see if there are any worth posting. I'm super thankful that I have family members that I can rely on for support in a pinch and having a father with an interest in cars is huge. He's more into American muscle cars and has a pretty wicked small block S10 but its a great hobby to bond over despite the fact that we'd both be much more financially well off if we just both drove unmodified Japanese econoboxes, but what's the fun in that?

[Simple_Smith]

You live and learn, it's often times the simple things. On a multi-day adventure with others across most of southeastern AZ I jostled a battery connection loose on my truck. I thought it was a more serious electrical connection or alternator issue. You often times don't have the bandwidth to diagnose like you would if you were at home.

That reminds me of an issue I had with my dad's 85 Monte Carlo, weird weird electrical problem. It had just shut off on him while he was driving and we chased our tails on it for a while. You could take a test light from the negative battery terminal and ground it to the block and it would read 12v. Wild. After banging my head against the wall for entirely too long, we replaced the internally shorted battery and that was that. Weirdest problem I've come across when it comes to electrical work. I'm no wizard at electrical but given a wiring diagram and a test light I can solve most stuff unless its CAN related to the point I need additional tools. Or if a main relay jostles itself out of the harness apparently..

[Simple_Smith]

Here are a few pics from the Canadians at the Gap trip in September. We stayed a few days at Deal's Gap then another 4 days near Asheville, driving the surrounding areas west to Tellico Plains, south to Highlands, east to Black Mountain, and north to Hot Springs. Ice cream was had, BBQ was eaten, beer was drank around the campfire, and a few of us got to meet a very nice Tennessee State Trooper. Over the years of coming down there for the strict purpose of spirited driving and eating good food, our group has become good friends with some of the locals and our Touge Tour Guide (check him out on youtube) set up a couple routes for us to check out since a lot of the main roads have been explored over the years and we're always looking for a new fun road to add to the rotation of favorites. This year the new addition was a small figure 8 loop around Lake James State Park east of Asheville. This years group was smaller than normal so we actually got some time to just relax and hit some breweries along the way. Driving days with no timeframe or destination can be some of the best, just goofing around with friends, talking shit, and enjoying the day and their company.




The return trip from Asheville also plagued me with a less than ideal car issue. The clutch fan failed on me and wasn't keeping the car properly cool when we got caught up in some bumper to bumper traffic in Kentucky so I cranked the heat on and sweat it out until we got through the traffic. Thankfully it was about a 6 minute stoppage so not the end of the world, just something to put in the FCP cart once I got home. As a side effect of a week's worth of spirited driving, my Direzza IIIs were at the wear bars for the return journey, which wasn't a problem until it started to rain. It felt like I was driving in snow. I was limited to 60mph on the highway trying to stay in the tire wake from the car in front of me, which would've been fine except the e30 was narrower than the van I was following so one side of the car was just wanting to push absolutely everywhere. Miserable conditions. At that point I was halfway through Ohio so I jumped off 75 and proceeded to take abandoned farm roads north back home to Michigan. It was actually quite pleasant cruising despite it adding quite a bit of time to the trip. Ended up getting home two hours later than projected and exhausted from the last several hours of rain driving.

My search for a 225/45/16 200tw tire to replace the spent Direzza IIIs begins. A052s would be awesome but not at $280/tire or whatever they currently are. Knew I should've bought another set of the Direzzas when they were on closeout. Another option is ditching the RegaMasters and going back to a TRM C1 15x8 and running a 245/40/15 but not sure how much I want to do that since there aren't any new tire tech 200tw in that sizing, just the tried and true Rival 1.5s. One notable mod I did do before the Canadians at the Gap trip was swap headlights to US Ellipsoids and retrofit 9011/9012 bulbs and aim them properly. Literal night and day difference from the Japanese spec H1s. I strongly recommend this to anyone that does any amount of nighttime driving. Properly aimed headlights are so often overlooked and can change your driving experience drastically depending on the conditions.

About a week later I started seeing the devastation from hurricane Helene take its toll on the area. The bar we stopped at in Hot Springs had their patio seating swept away by the rising waters of the French Broad along with a ton of other damage to the town. The pictures I've seen are truly heartbreaking knowing how much of their lives these people have put into their businesses and homes just ripped away, not to mention the folks that have died and the others that are just struggling to survive.