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**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:46 PM

I also managed to remove the black widow alarm that was poorly installed and repair the iginition loom (weight be gone). That alarm will find its way into my daily no doubt although installed quite a bit better. While doing all this I also found where BMW tuck the central locking computer away.

So further to needing to dissable the central locking for 3J I will also be able to remove some weight

Have also being trying to work out a way to remove the heater box and maintain functionality. That is, direct air towards the driver and demist the windscreen.

I found a universal window demister kit on ebay for $50 which might be worth giving a go. The only thing then is getting air from where the heate box intake was to my general direction. If i manage to dump the heater box thats another easy 5 kilos.

I know most 3J guys just use rain/fog x. But I just want to have it there on a button, "demist windscreens". Will save me tossing up before a track session (is it going to rain or not) and then having to wipe it on (I'm a lazy ass). Its also something else I don't have to remember to bring to the track.

Thats pretty much all the progress, cept for all the money I've been spending.

The rollcage tubing turned up yesterday. So did my clutch kits (race car and daily) and steering rack, but mum wasn't home to sign for them So the E36 rack, M20 clutch it and M42 clutch kit should arrive today.

Interestingly I had my M42 clutch off to compare the difference between it and the M20. Few odd things. My M42 clutch does not have two seperate rotating parts to it...the one currently in the car did. The clutch plate was in backwards and about 50% of the spoke materials connecting the centre and the plate is gone as a result (clutch failure was immenent).

My '90 engine has a '92 head on it. The intake heater setup is also completly different to my other '90 engine....I think some of the '92 parts found their way on to it. The flywheel bolts are most definitely not 25mm long like realoem said they were going to be and as a result would definitely not work with the m20 flywheel. I'm hoping the ones on the other engine are different. The flywheel/clutch assembly has had a damn hard life. I hate buying barstardised crap off wogs (no offence to the proper ones, but your dodgy brother cousins are messing shit up)

And after all that we came to the conclusion we can modify a clutch fork to use an original M42 throw out bearing and the M20 flywheel and I'm going to try cancel the $190 order I made yesterday for an e21 323i throw out bearing that has to come from Germany and generally stop project progress (3 weeks before it would get here)

Yesterday Arvo:

Rack, Clutches are here. Removed a further 6 kilos of tar/insulation from the cabin (total 11kg)

Tried fiddling with reducing the wires...in the process of working out what bits making the electric mirrors work so i can keep it for the time being. Does anybody know the password for the pdftown electric skematics? Or can you point me to a copy elsewhere?

All stereo associated wiring removed, and yer I've made a start on the unneeded wiring in the doors, so (electric windows, central locking, tweeters, etc etc)

Taking the shell to the roll cage man today! His just bending and notching some of it for us. We'll finish the notching and weld it in later.

So I have an e30 cabriolet now and the caged out money pit snaked a spot in the garage, pics to come laters

steering wheel purchased.

Note to self must upload pictures to interwebs....oh and turns out the rear exhaust valve on number four cylinder is stuck open a lil bit....equates to about 45psi compression

Dad wonders if the hydraulic lifter isnt jammed, so we are going to try some lifter flush, otherwise keep your eyes peeled for low kay, cheap m42's.

Apart from that the engine could use some rings sooner than later, pending exhaust valve situation and the engine hunt, money may be spent.

ok so i got set up with photobucket instead of imageshak, now i can upload multiple images at once, this is important for someone like me who can't be f'd sitting around uploading images for a couple of hours...that and i dont wanna fork out for super duper internet.

picture time!

Sunroof before removal:

Panel and the workings out, now to removal this stuff:

ready to remove weight:

roughed out:

all trimmed up:

Now to get some roof donor metal:
the problem i had was all the crap out of the parts car was in the parts car.....hmmm, lets stack it in the other parts car.

sweet now we're ready to go

1,2,3 i call a cut the roof off that parts car

And heres a good shot of why i need that bit of metal:

oh wait theres some bars in that roof!
Pretty much this is where the car is at:

snaked a spot in the garage, a/c, hoist, radio...."i'm loving it."

a few shots of the bar work:

The main hoop and diagonals, note belt bar/make-shift strut brace (well as close as i can get to one) in the rear

The pedals are going to be moving backwards within IP regs to mate up with the as far back as possible (comfortable) seating position and steering wheel with dish

A shot of where the main hoop rests. A suitable box and supporting structure for the hoop feet (none of which are made or shown) is yet to be created.

A shot of the main junction over the passenger side

and the drivers

The guy who did all the work (Adam) calls himself "Rock Art customs". His more focused on bending bars for rock crawling guys and such but he started out in motorsport much the same way i have and was cool with doing the work for some experience.

Since these pics as I've mentioned, removed the abs and some miscellaneous wiring. And just today dropped the standard subframe out of the rear in order to swap it with the adjustable one i previously made for my old daily. It just so happens that i made it to move the inner point 25mm, so complies with 3J. Even thou I'll be dialing in a fair amount of camber over the road setup. The adjustability will be more useful for the toe.

Something that has been occupying the thoughts alot lately is the shock setup and what to do. The general thought is commodore strut inserts in the front with the idea that there valving will be closer to right than the e30 ones in terms of controlling the much stiffer springs. Then the only other decision is what I'm going to do in the range, some koni's are $500 a pair and plain gas kyb/monroe's are $250. the key is the konis are adjustable and will have the facility to be re-valved etc. Some phone calls are to be made on this.

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:46 PM

but in the mean time we've also been working on the front strut tops. So far we have this:

And basically I'm going to use those to make these:

http://www.roadracetech.com/catalog/images/camberplate_e30_03.jpg

alrighty good night, hope you all had a great break and happy new year.

i have a whole lot more work to do still

started playing with the under car insulation, my blow torch thing is not as effective as i had hoped, going to buy a bunch of angle grinder wire wheels and paint removers today.

even just a wire wheel took the same amount of insulation off back to metal in about 1/5th the time compared to the torch. and the torch leaves a gooey mess behind.

eh.

Also nearly have the subframe out of my old daily, will be able to clean it up and put it back in the race car this week hopefully.

no its ok i got a 125mm wire wheel, it is even more effective! about halved the time to do the same area again. It is so effective that our second hand grinder bit the dust after about a minutes work :banghead

now i have to fork out for atleast grinder repairs

today i wrapped up the freeing up of the race car subframe, dad is happy with his standard suspension and my daily finally got a polish (but it probably wants atleast another days attention)

The steering wheel arrived on monday, very happy to find that i will still have room to fit a quick release of some sort. I am having trouble finiding a bolt on quick release that uses a taper pin for the locking mechanism (i'm not happy with the spring loaded ball bearing method).

I may end up cooking something up on my own, shouldn't be overly difficult to replicate or even improve?

But now dads car is taken care of i can really get stuck in, over the next few weeks im aiming to get the underbody prepped and painted, so the drivetrain can be dropped in and stay in (touch wood). Will probably look more seriously at getting the dash mounted around the cage and work on organising some odd bods i need.

Dave its not the actual connection im worried about its the locking mechanism, from what i can tell most of those quick releases, use spring loaded balls that engage in a groove around the splined part of the shaft. IM no happy with this style of connection, i dont feel comfortable with it (based on experience with the uni SAE car anyway).

Maybe the ones you have a are better but it is sometimes difficult to tell if it is properly engaged etc until you go to reef on the wheel and end up with it in your hands, has happened. Really can be solved with checking before you rip off. I'm one of those avoid the danger kinda people, rather than just assess danger and continue (will help if you know your work place safety/hazard box thing)

What im after is the "speedway style" (as my dads mate who was in the aftermarket part business for a while) quick release. What they use is a tapered pin that engages in the same sort of groove. You push the pin in moving the taper towards the groove and you get to the point where the diameter of the pin is small enough to fit over the big part of the spline. Hope that makes sense.

If you can get something like that, then goodo.

A might get you to price up a number of things soon just to compare against my local speed shop.

Also got dad to check out the 125mm grinder today....he pulled the rubber groumet off thepower lead (my brother and i hadn't) bingo bung lead. Looks as thou it had been breaking for a while and when i've loaded it up it went big time. So fixed thsat up and im ripping in. Only get to do like 5mins on each grinder because its pretty hard work. I use the big mother to get the majority of the shit off, then use the 100mm to clean it up and get in all the tight places.

I prolly spent 45-60mins and got this far:

and also anyone wanting to do an e36 rack swap and has some machining skills. You can make the standard e30 bits work without having to buy any of the e36 coupler stuff.

Machine this step and cut the shaft to length:

and it will slide in here and bolt to the top half:

obviously i haven't done it yet :D

thats all for tonight

Dave, I have since had a thought on the whole quick release setup, I may just have a way of making a weld-on Speedway style quick release work.

Alright so today i've had more of a play with the underbody insulation:

And then i removed the fuel tank so i could do over the top of that. In the meantime of doing that the neighbours went to bed so i couldn't do anymore grinding. So i played with the E36 rack swap bits instead.

Here is a machined (with a file :D) step and cut to length lower coupler:

Note the upper and lower now bolt together:

I drilled the holes out in both to accept these 10mm bolts (a fairly tight fit):

TADA:

All thats left on the rack swap is to make a blanking plate for the input/output, Im intending to port the two together, so the rack will operate like normal just without the power assitance and to find/make the required mounting spacers. This will all save weight and parasitic power losses.

Yesterday we started the sunroof filler plate.
E30 roof section:

Front and unneccessary Rear parts removed:

Initial Fit:

After some tweaking to get the curves happening longitudinally and across the front edge:

Thats about it.

Ohhh and i organised the thinning of my wallet :D
Found out from the local speedshop (Monaco Performance @ Kotara) that King Springs make a rear spring for the e30 racing class in victoria. This is 300LBS/in and slips straight in. E30 racing guys also commonly run a ford falcon koni adjustable in the rear.

So E30 Racing King Springs, KYB Commodore Front and Falcon Rear shocks have been ordered. Along with some 250mm long 300LBS/in 60mm springs for the front (e30racing guys run this rate in the front).

The shock setup is not ideal for changes later on, but right now it gets me on the track is awfully affordable and for stage 1 will suffice.

The aim is to get out on the track, have some fun, get some time in the car and we'll go from there.

You can thank my dad for the efforts on the roof.
Our thought is if we connect them using the blanking plate the rack will be as it was, just without the pressure assistance. I thought the P/S fluid would have been the lubricating substance. If im wrong that would be great thou. Could you throw me some resources?

Gotta think tyre clearence as well.
And Dave do you recon you could chase up a price on something like this

If you find one with the 6 bolt pattern even better, but an adapter will be cake to make.

Today I did alot more underbody insulating wire wheeling :screwed
I'm getting there, just have the floors and wheel well to go which are nice big flat panels that the big grinder will just love.

Speaking of the big grinder, i think it has slowly been dying, its bogging down easier and such, gets hot quickly etc etc. So i thought i'd have a look at our 9" angle grinder. Hey presto it had the same shaft size. So i was good to go with 2000W of unstoppable power.

This is it next to the 125mm Grinder, note the size, also note it is fecking heavy...working on the car now = a weight lifting session :p

hoping to have the lot wrapped up tomorrow so that i can sweep the floor and not be picking bits of insulation out of my hair (even thou i've been wearing a balaclava)

this is progress:

ohh i also popped two holes above the rear diff bolts in the subframe:

i will put a suitable sized hole saw through eventually (depending what size rubber groumets i find). This will allow quick and easy tightening/undoing of the diff bolts. Making diff removal a bit easier ;)

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:46 PM

Today is a pretty good day. Checked in with the speed shop yeaterday, Springs and shocks have arrived, so I'm going to pick those up this afternoon. Grabbing a speedway Q/R hub for trial as well and a dual contact (shuts engine off) battery isolator as well.

But Self-Santa has come through with gifts arriving a lil late.

I got a call from toolies to say the guard roller i ordered has come in, woot can fix the roady's guards and have a play on the race car.

Not only that but i bought a Maxim branded toolbox off ebay as well and that has rocked up at home as well, woohoo, my bank account loves me.

And have also lined up cplagz to buy his Mega Squirt setup. I proably won't be installing it straight away but when things get a lil slow I'll have something to do :)

So later on in the year Ill set that up, after getting my head around all the sensors and things that i need and how im going to do the ignition.

While this is a somewhat basic cheap ECU, its only limited by your electrical/programming knowledge, and with my brother getting into building his own circuit board and about to embark on PIC programming it is the perfect project.

i have been making slow progress on the race car this week after work, taking a break from the major tasks such as grinding the insulation off :D But have also had an electrical gremlin in the road car...brake lights keep crapping out.

Had a pretty slow weekend, motivation was weak. I fixed my road car, with the jumper cable, haven't had any issues yet.

I built this this weekend:

Still need to get the appropriate fastening equipemnt but that is basically the steering setup finalised. It was one of those little jobs where you totally under-estimate the amount of time needed to complete.

The piece of scrap steel:

All marked out:

Drilled:

Yep it works:

Making the hole in the middle for the Q/R Spindle:

Yep that works:

Now that Q/R spindle is designed to be welded onto a shaft, not into a plate. So i cut up a 3/4 High-Tensile Bolt to get this:

Ready for welding:

Then the lot was put in the lathe (held by the spindle) and the outside was made round and the plate trued (and i forgot to get a pic):

Then i had to make the adapter plate from the 3PCD of the Q/R to the 6 bolt PCD of the Wheel.

Marking out:

Hacked out (yes by freaking hand with a hacksaw)/Drilling:

After a hell of a lot of drilling and spinning in the lathe:

apart from that we have figured out why our m20 flywheel doesn't work. A 325e flywheel has a differet pitch to that of a 323i, where the m20 starter motor i have originates from.

Few choices here:
Knock the ring gear off, replace with M42 and use the original starter. Net gain, flywheel/clutch assembly 4kg lighter, Starter motor is 4kg lighter also. Will take a pile of stuffing around and time i dont have, we have a machining contact but still.

Chase up a different m20 flywheel. Possibilty to get a lighter/earlier model e21 flywheel. Net gain flywheel/clutch assembly is 6kg lighter, 4kg heavier starter, but starter is beefier and not likely to break down with a high-po motor later on down the track. Will cost money to get the flywheel.

Chase m40 flywheel and clutch, lighter, more expensive clutch assembly, bolts straight in no worries.

give it all away and use my stuffed as dual mass flywheel. Spend money chasing m42 clutch.

decisions decisions.

aiming to get fuel tank and rear subframe back in by monday week (after long weekend), including any seam welding reinforcing i think ill do under the car.

flywheel sorted. purchased a 323i flywheel off Andrew (shotright). Turned out to be the lightweight one of 6.4kg so i have reduced the total clutch assembly mass by 6 kg or 33%. Should be a lil rev happier now.

I was thinking i would swap the ring gear anyhow, but have decided to just go with the bolt in solution, will bolt the m20 flywheel and clutch on using the 3mm spacer. And will use the m20 starter. Purely just so we get going a bit quicker.

the ring gear mod will be part of stage two where i dump 4kg of weight just swapping starter motors.

Nearly have all the bolts for the Q/R sorted. Also swapped the brake rotors and ceramic pads out of my road car yesterday. The rear subframe needs a wash and maybe fresh coat of paint. The sway bar mounts reinforced and then reassembly, with the drilled rotors, ceramic pads in the painted calipers and stainless brake lines. hoping to wrap the reinforcing (on the trailing arms anyway) up tonight allowing paint tomorrow and then reassembly thursday.

Thats the plan anyway.

Got a bit further than i was expecting with the subframe, the trailing arms are modified and painted.

and yep i can get the brake lines in and out of that gusset :)

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Alright...I had taken the day off today to go to BDO....after a few shortcoming of some mates *waves fist* i couldn't get down and back safely or atleast to the satisfaction of my parents. In the meantime i decided my time was better spent on the race car so cut my loses sold the ticket and spent the day in the shed. What a day it was.

I've only been doing more of that dredded insulation delete mod but its finally over. I got it all off as of 6 this evening after about a 10am start (i enjoyed the extra sleep!)

Before paint:

Then I applied shit loads of RUST GUARD to the bits i anticipate not welding...much.

while the paint brush was handy i gave the subframe a coat

With the aimm to be putting the rear suspension in this weekend i started work on the sway bar and rear shock tower reinforcements during the week.

And have also started working on the rear shock mounts. Here we have removed the factory rubber and started to prepare it to bore out the centre to a suitable diameter. We will then turn up a steel piece to hold the spherical and weld it into the factory mount. before doing a final bore (welding will stuff the accuracy of the turning etc)

My brother also got the other trailing arm together, so now all i have to do is put the bushes in and throw them on the subframe and into the car...

Dad went shopping today and found me these. We have decided to up the spec of the spherical....so that the a machined mag wheel nut will fit inside it. Here is the nut and bigger bearing on the end of the strut insert.

Tomorrow i should be able to throw the fuel tank and lines back in and the subframe. Will have to finish the sway bar reinforcement first. Will probably then start on the shock tower reinforcement along with the rear shock mounts.

Pending progress and how much assistance my parents need with the carport, it might even be possible to drop the engine in this weekend. Im trying to get the car rolling under its own power soon ish, so it becomes less of a pain in the ass in the shed for dad.....might help motivate him a bit :D

Otherwise progress is great and im going to bed :)

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:46 PM

Today was another late start. 3pm.....
was doing this previous:

anyway, it was worth it because after having done that for dad he was happy to help tinker for the afternoon. We managed to borrow a hydraulic punch for the weekend and as such needed to work out what gussets and plates we were going to punch for the rollcage and other associated stuff.

With that we came to the conclusion we need to build several "taco" gussets, for the main hoop, dash bar and roof bar reinforcements. These will be punched with the 2" punch.

To make the taco we built a mandrel and die to push the 1.6 steel into using the hydraulic press. My absent mind has forgotten to take picture off all of this.

I was focusing on the steering column and steering wheel mods.
Column on the removal...cut the horizontal anti-tamper bolts.

Then chiseled the other ones out. Then i had to work out how to get the steering lock out. See this roll pin:

remove it:

Then i hit on top of the lock with a punch and it popped out (broke the actuator).

This is what is left:

Then i remounted the column with some make shift, adjustable spacers:

Three nuts worked out to be pretty right. I will remake these out of some aluminium stock or what ever i find, that seems light :D

Some pics:

I also removed the 318iS fuel tank which has a few benefits. One smaller capacity (65 litres is unneeded. And also has a balance line across between the two tanks, reducing the issues with surge.

Thats about all I did today

Alright...so guess what the plans have changed again!
Yesterday was a day for thought. Basicallly we were looking and thinking about the cage construction again. and came to the conclusion that throwing the fuel tank in right where we are planning to weld the main hoop to is a bad idea!

because we aren't throwing the tank in we can't throw the subframe in etc etc.

so yer yesterday i focused on the taco construction and tag plates. so as to use the punch while we had it:

the punch, good bit of kit this, but it would want to be for $4000!!!!

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo93/e30guydownunder/Race%20Car/DSCF2719.jpg

drilled plates

ready to punch

A punched piece

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo93/e30guydownunder/Race%20Car/DSCF2712.jpg

The days work

Our taco mandrel

ready to press

started to press

Moved the mandrel along (it was too short)

A taco template

but i then decided to make the taco bigger

Finishing the taco bending

drilled the ends of the taco and getting ready to cut with plasma

taco ready for fine tuning

finished products, bar punching

stringline in the door bar to find the angle of cut needed

something along the lines of this

OKay that was yesterday. today we did even more thinking about the rollcage and have decided to plough on with rollcage finalisation and get the car rolling afterwards. we need to really have the cage wrapped up in two weeks. This is doable given all thats left is the dashbar and drivers door bar reinforcements. then chop the floor and weld the cage up. Its doable, but probably be pushed for time still.

So i worked on finalising the door bars....passenger side was easier to work with obviously

Here i am using the stringline to find the angle of the notch

i cut the tube long. then measured the lengths needed for the lower and upper portion of the door bar, the two pencil marks. Then found the middle of this and made it so the middle of the notch went through this mark. Thus i have the same angle on each bar and should have enough lmaterial to construct each bar....i had shitloads

doorbars

door bars and the verticle bits

This gives you an idea of the finished product. The taco will obviously be retangular and possibly have a tube reinforcement on the bottom as well (this will require serious notching)

I also threw the handbrake cables back in for shits and giggles (more shit up off the floor out of the way

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo93/e30guydownunder/Race%20Car/DSCF2715.jpg

and started to assemble the subframe, again reducing the shit kicking around. I'm giving up on making predicitions of what work will be done because the plan keeps changing, who knows tomorrow arvo i could get bored and throw the engine in

but basically little things like shock mounts and spring seats will get made during the week after work while major fabrication can't really take place and then on the weekend ill focus on major things like welding the cage in and then throwing the suspension bits in.

hope you all had a great Australia Day!

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:47 PM

After my little play with the door bars i am so glad we paid a lil extra and got the cage bender to notch the majority of the cage. Simple notches don't take too long, its just getting your head around the complex ones and how you can use the notcher to get the result that takes forever....

i managed to jerry-rig the notcher to get more angle out of it simplifying the doorbar process a heap. might snap a picture of that when im doing the drivers side. The only thing limiting the angle of the notcher is the depth of the holesaw, so i spaced out the tube for the angle anyway and did the notch bit by bit, cutting out the waste material when the holesaw bottomed out.

it might be a lil dodge but it works and sure as hell beats doing it by hand with the grinder, much neater and quicker.

It does effect the steering knuckle and this is something i need to double check yet. It shouldn't be an issue thou, dave is running around with a spaced column, and the angle doesnt change a hell of a lot anyhow. Long lever, small angle change = big change in height of wheel

The steering wheel with the low and far back driving position feels a hell of alot better than my road car. Almost how its meant to feel

I'll get back to you guys on the steering knuckle.

Yeh mate, the nuts were just lying around. I figured they were quick cheap and adjustable. I will be making proper ones no worry there

The car wont be on the road quickly. Im hoping to make the bimmer nats, half way thru a weekend it seems achieveable, but afterwards you sit and thing i have to do this this this this this this.....its best not to think about everything there is to do too much and just work as best i can. I'll try get there, if i make it good o.

I will be able to check the knuckle soon, within the week, thou.

Been in the shed this arv after work...came home enthusiastic for once must be the proximity of the weekend!

I've booked the shed out for the weekend, kicked dads six out and took the car off the hoist (onto stands) so i could get in the drivers side. Got the door bar mocked up and did the tube from the main hoop to front legs.

Dad also finished making the mandrels to roll the punched holes in the taco's and tag plates. and we had a play with the tacos and one of the tag plates.

The drivers side is looking pretty nice, all that i need to finish it is the rectangle taco i mentioned before.

Pics:

Jerry rigged notcher for more angle:

cut a bit out and keep going:

After some initial grinding and a clean up:

Freaking good fit!!!:

top bar sitting in position:

notches are pretty decent:

hey presto more bars...yes the vertical bits are pilferred from the other side, need to make another set yet:

Also threw in the bar from the hoop to front leg like so:

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo93/e30guydownunder/Race%20Car/DSCF2744.jpg

this is where the punched/rolled tag plates will go after some trimming:

punched rolled tacos in situ:

the office...quite a fair way back:

what seat?:

the large roll set:

Ready to roll:

Taco is rolled:

One of the disadvantages of our big feck off single post hoist is these forks, they prevent the removal install of the gearbox, exhaust and tailshaft, also make the fuel tank slightly difficult. but more importantly unloading/loading cars takes up both bays of the shed.

We do plan to sink the thing in the floor on the right bay which will negate the issues with low cars as well.

I'll prolly throw the car in the middle of the shed tomorrow arv in preparation for a big weekend. Aiming to get the shell and cage prepped for final welding. This will require the making of the cage feet and some other bars not yet made. as well as grinding all the paint off the shell where i plan to weld the cage....will also have to remove the zinc off the taco's that i made out of galvinised steel (what we had).

Anyway, lets see how we go, way past bedtime, guess i wont be getting to work early.

and then there was more

Hey thanks for the heads up Dave i had completly forgotten about those. I can imagine the shit fit when i realised this after fully welding them in. Will be back in an hour or two with minimal pictures.....visually today we went backwards.

The cage is back out of the car (in two big pieces however) and we have been preparing things like the rear firewall and getting the feet for the cage sorted etc.

Thanks for the tip alan

as always i didn't get as far as i wanted...moving the accelerator pedal back 50 has proved difficult. Still working on the solution but anyway heres how i progressed today.

sketch as rust repair (not ground clean):

passenger backleg foot:

the rear bulkhead (needs some more grinding):

driver back leg foot in and cleaned up:

rear seat mounts in:

wasn't enough room on the tunnel side, so used a stud (bolt):

Driver side rear mount

the brake and clutch were considerably easier to reposition compared to the accelerator, yes this will slightly modify the acting ratio (barely noticably thou):

Proper column spacer (40mm RHS) no i didnt put the coupler in this weekend sorry guys:

Template for the main hoop feet:

Main hoop feet in steel (used the process detailed below to cut them out)....SA of a bit over 14000mm^2.....well over the 12000 required:

rust repair on passenger side front corner:

And the inside edge that was gooooooooonnnnnnnne!!!! is now back in existance

Plate ready to be cut:

Template for plasma:

remains of plate (freebie steel):

going to do my best to get everything sorted for the weekend so i can get the cage over and done with. if progress is looking good (i.e. sort that damn accelerator pedal) i'm going to take saturday arvo off and go race the buggy. so keen for a drive...will help up the motivation a bit too, if i can get out there

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:47 PM

Spent some more money yesterday:

RPM Window Net -$25
Waterproof momentary Push Switch (for start) - $3.95
NOS switch (toggle siwtch with aircraft quick-off cover) - $5.95

The switches will be mounted on a switch panel next to the seat with the battery isolator i previosuly bought. The column switch is too far away (along with the dash) but as Dave mentioned in his build thread having to turn the key switch back to ACC before restarting can be a pain in the heat of the competition.

Had thoughts about putting the net on the door so it was out of the way for getting in and out, while it is within CAMS regs, I dont fancy trying to get out with the car upside down, So will be working on the conventional method of mounting to the cage. Now to find a solution that doesn't get in the way too much.

Apart from this everything in preparation for the cage going in properly is progressing well. The main hoop feet are made and ready to be putin after the cage is in and together. All the rust repairs and patchs have been handled. Just the front feet and any paint/seam seamer that will need removing is left.

"I'm excited" as the late Big Kev would say.

Weekends progress was slow and steady. Found a bit more rust on the right hand guard side that still needs to be fixed. But the back half of the cage is in and welded together. Didn't get to the front half yet. And the camera batteries died so i dont have any pictures.

forgot to add....i cracked the wirewheel out again and took the foam off the c-pillars, musta been another 0.5kg of glue and sticky shit i had just left there...."eh that can't be too heavy ill pull it off later"

HAHAH i think i classify as harcore? That will comeout once i get some power back on the windows to put them up.....considering running the power windows just to get started, making the window winders work is going be painful and take time i dont have.... :(

The rust in the front right corner is sorted now...pics to come of course :)

Going to mount the seat tonight and pop some holes for the seatbelt reinforced mounts, which are also made, just need to be put on the car.

So status:
- Clutch, brake pedal sorted
- Know how we are going to sort the accelerator pedal and the mount has been moved accordingly
- Seat mounts are in
- Rust in front corners sorted
- holes in floor and rear bulkhead are patched
- the shell is ground up and prepped where it needs to be
- main hoop feet are made
- front feet are all but done, just need some tweaking
- seat belt mounts to go in tonight
- steering sorted.

So thats pretty much everything driver related? Guess we are ready to weld the front half of the cage in and together!!! I have hadf a nice lil break and ready to hit hard again. The main struture of the cage should definitely be sorted this weekend, hopefully will finish all the tag plates and associated bits as well. Which will leave me ready to start getting the car rolling again. Still need to reinforce the rear strut towers and make the rear shock mounts yet, but the rear suspension is ready aside from that.

Front half of the cage is joined to the back...everything is nipped up except the door bars...top of cage painted and cage hoisted into position.....

floor in the front has been replaced....

floor in front clean.....got the super duper thinners out....contact adhesive on rear bulkhead still wont budge thou :(

put front leg feet in tomorrow, door bars, then weld cage to feet.

tag plates are punched rolled ready to be trimmed to fit and welded in.

basic summary.

80% done 50% time left WOOHOO! optimistic goal is to have the interior done and painted tomorrow evening :) thinnners is good shit in closed environments :yesnod and the back seat requires a degree in planning and some form of advanced experience in gymnastics for entering/exitting.

Thanks Glen.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I didn't get to my optimistic goal (paint), but there were also several details i had forgotten about which prevented this anyway.

All the tubes are in and welded, just a lil touch up to do on the main hoop bars (haven't welded round the back where it is extrexely difficult to get to yet), going to put a few stitches along the tops of the doors inbetween the front legs and body metal, lil spot to do on the dashbar under the passenger dash mount. And I have half welded the passenger door tacos on at the cross intersection, whilst i still need to make the drivers lower taco and weld.

Aim is to finish the welding over the week. Look at putting the sunroof patch in (if this doesn't happen i wont paint that general area yet. But by the start of next weekend I want the cage sorted and atleast the back half of the interior painted out (some of which will depend if we can find a piece of alloy to make a rear parcel shelf cover)

Haven't uploaded all the pics of this weekends mayhem yet but they are there ready to rip.

Once the cage is completed focus will be getting the front crossmember ready (swaybar mounting mods) fitting all the rear suspension (those RSM's aren't done yet!), fuel tank and lines, clean the drivetrain and engine up and fit!

Have a tentative aim to have the car on its feet (the front struts wont be done yet) with the majority of assembly done and running by the start or first week of march. Going to be pushed for time, but if it doesn't happen its probbaly won't happen for a while (uni starts up in march).

I'll do the pictures tonight

ok today was fairly productive for an arvo after work. The left side of the car is now done, finished the tagging on the main hoop, front legs and dashbar, finished around the main hoop foot, finished the door bar reinforcing.

Now to the pictures from recent times:

Rust hole I repaired near fusebox (obviously not fixed in picture):

RPM Window Net:

Ignition Switch and Start Button:

Accelerator pedal gimmying:

75x50x3 Seat Belt Pad:

Seat Belt points on drivers side (fifth point to be added):

Seat Belt points on passenger side (fifth point to be added):

Front left rust repair:

Front right rust repair:

Cleaning the floor up before final installation of the cage:

Cage on an angle, welding the top/front half up:

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:47 PM

Used these to maintain doorbar spacing while we repaired the floor and got the rest of the cage zipped up:

Floor repaired ready to begin fully welding:

Welded Stuff:

Some of those welds look pretty sketch in the pictures :screwed but believe me they are well and truly fine, with a cleanup for paint and a coat of paint everything will be beaut, you can see some of the silve paint on the top of the cage, this is the colour i'm planning to paint the interior, althou i might darken it up a touch looking at the pics.

anyway uploading 55 pics took a bit longer than i expected, wont be getting to work that early :laugh

Another quick update from this arvo.
Got the drivers side intrusion done. And did the tags along the front legs to the roof. Just have the main hoop welding to finish on the drivers side and the cage is welded.

Throwing some ideas around this arvo for a dead pedal, window net mounting and dash mounts, as well as general switch locations and things. Think we have the dash mounts sorted, its fair to say the dash will be a heap easier to get in and out now :)

Going to be making a fair bit more stuff before painting than I intended...so its pushed back again :) Aiming to throw paint around by the end of the weekend so i can send the paper work away for the Rollcage Approval and then the Log Book etc.

haha thanks for the tips matt. Got any on getting free time and money :p

Made the dash mounts, just two tags sticking off the front legs behind the dash sides, thing is even more solid than the factory mounts very impressed. Going to finish them off, modify the dash and get stuck into the cleanup stages of the cage for paint this arvo.

Things to do before paint:
Finish Dash Mounts
Make a mount in the middle of the dash
Dead pedal
Finish the weld on the back of the drivers side main hoop leg
Weld sunroof patch in
clean up the cage and weld spatter
wipe down with thinners/wax remover/prep wash

No doubt I'll think of a million other things to do, but the aimis paint on the inside so i can get the paper work away and the log book happening.

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:48 PM

Well for once i have achieved the overall goal!!! There is paint on the inside and damn is it hot. I havent taken all the detail pics for the roll cage certification thou :( will do that tomorrow and get the paper work off in the mail tuesday.

But yeh, the dash mounts are finalised, and after buggering around with cardboard for an hour i decided to leave the dead pedal for later.....so i weled some nuts in to provide a mount system....this will give me the opportunity to change designs as the driver changes shape :) and the seating position changes (inevetible).

Then we threw the roof in, tacked it along the edges in something that resembled even intervals and around each corner, trying to be careful of heat build up, was going good till i got the flapper wheel out to knock the tops off the welds, doh the roof pulled in one spot :( ah well we'll have the bog out anyway.

Also did a few stitches on the seam inside. Then we have filled the seam with devcon...its a metal filler based product, basically powdered metal in an epxoy based resign.....the roof is solid "as brew". :crazy

And then for shits and giggles (well not really, shit off the ground and in/on the car is always good) i got the 318is fuel tank in the car...i added new rubber lines where ever they were used for some preventative maintenance, one thing i can tell you is the 55 and the 65 litre tanks are very very different. I've had to modify the fuel filter bracket in order to run the big fuel filter under the car as the 6 cylinder do.

i wanted this because the ones the 4 cylinders have in the engine bay are, smaller, more expensive, slightly harder to change and may get in the way of future developments....BOOST :hehe

So after modifying that threw it in with the tank. something else that will be different is there is no lift pump on the 55 litre tank because it has a line between the tanks.

Anyway some pics from the weekend, I'll get more up later today was pretty flatout, painting took 2.5 hours on its own :screwed

Today my car became a true Australian Race car...ZIPTIES!

The roof after filler metal

Beautiful paint

Modded fuel filter bracket (lip and bush removed):

Lines in:

over the past two days i have been working towards getting the rear suspension in the car....this has included finishing off the rear sway bar mounts and actually strengthening the strut towers.

Yesterday i did the towers:
Profiled plate:

After some work:

Ready for full welding:

Welded (yes i had issues with the sheet metal blowing out :():

I was trying to avoid creating a stress point in the corner where the strut mounts are prone to cracking and ripping out. This is why i welded the profiled plate to the vertical strips and not the cars sheet metal. The strips then transfer the load down the stronger sheet metal....in theory anyway.

And today:
Here is the swaybar mount in position:

I threw an L and R on them to tell them apart, no doubt they are different side to side:

This all means that with some paint thrown around the wheel wells and on the sway bar mounts im ready to throw the rear suspension in tomorrow...and am planning to do so. Everything is ready except the Rear Shock mounts, so for the time being i'll leave the shocks out.

Im hoping to get the engine and box in over the weekend and give the car a good wash. Then it will be all systems are go on making the front struts, fitting out the interior and painting the roof (shit loads of bogging, sanding and painting to be done).

Here are the two holes i put through the boot to make diff instal, removals quicker, easier :)

going to plug them with these out of the parts car:

Now just random shots of the cage:

So on thursday i got most of the rear suspension bits in:

And yesterday i finished things up and then...taaa daaaah

No rear shocks are in...still need to make the rear strut mounts and hook the sway bar up along with the fuel filler.

Ohh and finish painting the wheel wells.

Didnt get my engine or gearbox mounts in time so just going to get everything ready to drop the engine and bx in over next week.

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 04:48 PM

Have done some work on the roof over the weekend.....

Then some filler

We did spray some filler/putty over that lot but i forgot to take a pic, and thats about where the car is up to.

Decided we weren't happy with the finish on the interior paint in some places and have got that mostly ready for repainting...with the spray gun. Also made a mount for the bonnet catch and welded the accelerator base mount in prepartion for this.

We spent most of saturday cleaning the shed...visitors are coming during this week, plus it was majorly needed....but anyway, it basically means im not allowed to make too much mess until after wednesday, so planning to get lots of little things orted like the front swaybar mounts and accelerator pedal etc....

started on the random little jobs today,

front struts:

Quiet exhaust (LOL):

but the focus getting the interior repainted so the fitout can start. And then drop the engine/box in so the car is really mobile, at the moment thou me and my brother can push it up the driveway on our own.

So the list for engine install:

Powersteering blank plate
Steering coupler needs mods
Swaybar reinforcing
Engine mount reinforcement plates on subframe

Clean up engine and box
New gearbox oil
Tighten upper sump pan and lower, install a few helicoils
Heater Plate, powersteering, a/c Delete - already did the cooling fan delete
New Fan/Alt Belts
New plugs
Paint rocker cover and upper intake manifold
New gaskets here and there
Could prolly install coil on plug and engine loom before installing engine in car.

Wont have time to do my custom gearshifter so will temporarily run my brothers short shifter in the hope i can still select reverse :P

and still tossing up going to sydney to collect a spare engine (blown up) gearbox and diff that are awfully cheap. I know i should get them, but at what time is the issue.

Did some work on the front cross member today.....

Standard Sway Bar mounts:

Then I added some plates and welded the nut on cause im lazy:

Then i modified the swaybar mount. The problem is with big bars and poly bushes that are very stubborn, getting the taggy bit of metal int he subframe and around and then bolting the mount down is very hard. So i straightened this piece and cut it:

Then i added a tab opposite the factory one that picks up on the crossmember mounting bolt (IE very freaking strong):

Added some gusseting plates on both sides and had something like so:

And the finished articles:

I will be adding some strengthening to the engine mount positions, but can't do this until i have the urethane engine mounts. As there are no 318is engine mounts avaliable because of the offset studs.....I'm using some generic White line mounts with inline studs and as such will have to drill new mounting holes....easy as cake

Besides painting, i can now make the throttle pedal, front struts or rear shock mounts. Should prolly do the rear shock mounts and painting just so one end of the car is done and dusted

Finally got around to making the extendo accelerator pedal.....this basically moves the pivot point of the top section back about 75mm....All will become clear when i assemble it if your slightly confused atm:

And I also painted the seat mount and sway bar mounts while i had the gloss black out:

Hehe thanks luke...but turnernmotorport are already selling all the reinforcing things i have been doing...except the front swaybar ones....and the rest of the stuff i have done requires fairly in depth fabrication on the body shell....which most people are scared of for some reason.

If more people were to pipe up and say they wanted stuff thou, i could measure it all up properly and get all the plates laser cut (have a contact :) ) then with some jigs be knocking them out a bit quicker.

But to be honest its not that hard from scratch either, just hoard some cardboard for your templates, get a good quality scribe and access to some nice bench shears and away you go.

Hehe yer...money is a big factor :) im still a student remember and on green p's at that!
have been trying to convince him to slot a m6 motor in the race car...but its not happening yet :( i might get as classy as a mid mounting m30 eventually....with some boost and develop the rest of the car to run in sport sedans, but thats when i have alot more money to play with.

Cheers for the cage comments....the reality is if i had paid somebody to do it would be a 3-4k cage. Besides all our time and welding consumables it owes us just under a grand!

Yep strut housing are free and i had planned to put the gusset your talking about in, ala Ground Control. Was also going to go with m3 sway bar mounts but the suspension guys i have talked to advised against it as it binds the sway bar up when your turning.

I can has painted interiorz????

yes i can, dad donned the spray mask and shit this evening and threw the second coat of epoxy around, we also darkened it up a touch and looks a million miles better.

Engine/Gearbox mounts are in the mail and expected to be here tomorrow...have canned ideas of wasting time in sydney this weekend and will be aiming to drop the engine in....fair amount of shit to do is an understatement :)

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 05:17 PM

got this shit going!!!!

Built front struts:

Sitting on the ground:

the first drive:

also picked up a fivelug doner for lateron when im spitting out driveshaft busting power :)

just need to sort the wiring and interior out and im ready to go racing :)

Alrighty so i made it to the track day in the end....here are some pics

Scrutineering (no issues with the car great start):

Venturing out onto the track:

This looks like just after the bridge:

down the main straight:

going home, car intact, pride through the roof, absolutely exhausted thou.....lol it was a big night and big day:

End result is the unhealthy engine is very unhealthy....a power up is in the planning stages along with planning to refresh the engine. But to get things kicking along i bought this:

600x300...prolly a bit on the big side for my target of 200 at the wheels (on unleaded), but for $150 brand new can't go wrong.

But that is all for the off season (christams/new years) so between now and then besides aquiring parts im going to be developing my driving and the car as is.

I'll be doing a budget turbo conversion, in that i wont be building the engine for big boost, but i already have a mega squirt so will be jumping to full engine management straight away. Am still undecided on running e85 fuel and more boost. These will all be things to work out later.

But essential that will be stage 3 of the build, stage 1 was the inital build, stage 2 is fine tuning and abit of development (loosing some more weight)....then stage 3 will be the power up.

Besides the engine management and a fairly small turbo (thinking a t25g off a nissan silvia for starters). There will be a surge tank setup to go in, bigger fuel system in general (with head room to run e85), will need a new exhaust system, somewhere to put the intercooler and modifications to the front end to get air in there. Going to modify the oiginal intake manifold for a round throttle body for starters. And probably a bunch of other stuff i haven't even considered yet.

Little update, boost on the horizon. Have an intercooler, turbo, some stainless piping. Need injectors, intercooler piping and stuff for a surge tank setup...and enough 3" pipe to build an exhaust.

Then i just need to rebuild the engine :S

just thought id throw it out there:

also have the actuator to go with it, some stainless piping, boost guage, nd a t25 flange ready to go...now just need to learn how to TIG.

ha its all in the scale of things, the turbo is tiny actually. Its a gt2560. Here's the maps:

The long and the short of it....on estimated engine flow at 3000 rpm the turbo should be sitting at about 70% efficiency on 10psi (compressor side) and 76% at 6500.

The turbine is well and truly on song by about 3000rpm as well so should be a nice little kick along. Its rated at about 300hp which is my optimal, not necessarily desired aim. I'll be happy with 200hp at the wheels (which is about 230-245hp at the fly).

Have a lead on some 55lb injectors also...

another update...track day was an absolute ball...few new goodies and mods etc.

thanks for the reassurance luke....at the end of the day the t25 flange series have a wide range of bolt in or close to bolt in replacements

But its time for an update aye? Well yeh it is, got a drivers floor in finally, new wheels and did an event

Here are the spacers i made for the floor:

And the installed pic (minus fasteners lol...they are in there now):

Heres some pics of the new wheels:

As you can see i've lowered the front a touch...sits so much better and the car didn't feel like it was driving around on its arse so much.

And the few I have from wakefield (should have alot more once my mate gets them organised):

Car looks a lot more like a race car i recon, those wheels were a bargin $820, 6.5 kg each, bolt on to the car and have the right offset and everything and look great!

took my mate for a spin (i mean instructor ;)) recon he looks worried?:

GPS says i was only doing 140 down the main straight...need more power!

Somewhere along the way i forgot the idea was to stay on the track...the car found the mud a few times

While i was washing the cars i figured this picture was pretty hilarious:

never mind the seven though it is getting picked up later this week.

And the 3 318iS's that have to fight it out for time and money:

So pretty much the wrap up is i got the award for completing the most laps on the day, it was basically a private track day and with only 30 of us, there was hardly anyone complaining that i just kept on going...more to the point i think i was good entertainment value

Put 70 litres of fuel through the car and had an absolute ball....i have incurred some damage for my efforts thou, the standard sway bar links it seems are not up to the 6mm increase in diameter. So now i have an excuse to fix those. Speaking of sway bars, i stiffened the rear bar one notch after the first session. and it made a world of difference. The car instantly stopped the understeering caper and was a whole lot more responsive. The only downer being that i was then picking the inside rear wheel up on some tighter corners.

I think i will try softening the front bar and put the rear back the notch and see what happens...its that or i need to find a short ratio lsd, which will be quite a task. But overally had a great day!

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 05:17 PM

I think I'm kicking into stage 2 as well, or atleast im spending the money for it.

MegaSquirt II w/PCB v3.0 - got
GT2560r Turbo - got
600x300 Intercooler - got
Aimsports MyChron3 Dash and EVO 4 Logger Setup - In the process of ordering
Bosch External Fuel Pump - got

Pretty much besides the raw materials needed for the Exhaust and Intercooler piping and Surge Tank along with some uprated injectors is all thats left to get for the turbo bits.

I need to start accumulating the bits for the engine rebuild now.

And i will need a shit lot of electrical components for the rewire of the engine loom and digital dash setup.

I'm also on the lookout for a medium case diff and LSD centre. Not sure what ratio yet but i'll prolly drop down a few to take advantage of the lower end torque and the higher terminal velocity :)

Thanks for the compliment BeamerIS

Now the updates are going to start happening again :)

Didn't get as far this weekend as I would have liked but i did do stuff! Most of it has been more preparation stuff, cleaning the shed, organising spare parts, cleaning the front cut, cleaning the spare engine.

After the recent success I had with this stand for our hoist:

A plan had been hatched to make a similar one, that makes the removal installation of the gearbox possible (currently you cant because of the forks on the hoist). So I am making a car dolly!

Here is the start of it:

This will double as a stand for the front cut making the mocking up of the new engine postion a sinche with our overhead chainblock and beam setup and the front cut on the dolly.

In the meantime lots of thought is going into the sump. Trying to work out how custom to go, its a case of sticking it in the front cut and having a look which is why im working on getting setup to do so. ope you all had a nice weekend in the blistering heat.

Mondays Progress:

I've had a quick play with the engine in the bay....initial finding aren't looking good for the e36 sump fitting in an e30....more measuring to be done

Payment for one of these bad boys was sent today...my bank account hurts :(

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Our advanced Engine Control Unit (ECU) solutions are trusted by automotive enthusiasts and professionals alike, providing the precision, reliability, and control needed for both high-performance race cars and custom road vehicles. Our ECUs give complete control over engine management, from ignition to fuel.

Also ordered the elbows and trinkets im going to use for the exhaust manifold from Blackwoods today, should be in next week.

Alrighty So I have been playing with the engine in the front cut now. Initial concerns over e36 sump fitment are unfounded. It is going to be workable with a few mods.

Here are some pictures of the engine in the proposed position (back 95mm and rotated clockwise a bit)

Plenty of room for a radiator and intercooler out here. The RHS has a socket welded to it, thus locating the front of the crank.

Note that we tried clearencing the firewall here. We were expecting to need a bunch more clearence and were concerned we weren't going to get it. But the firewall only needs to be lightly massaged which is great news.

You can see how much we have rotated the engine by looking at what was a vertical oil filter housing. This will be going in the trash anyway, not to worry. (Yes thats a home made load leveller, we make everything!)

I haven't taken a shot but there is a shite load of room down the side of the block now. Plenty for the turbo and dump pipe.

Here is a standard sump:

Plan is to cut the blue and yellow pieces out:

And then cut a second sump up:

Note the forward edge (right of picture) is longer than before. It would be ~30mm longer. Thus welding into the original sump to move the forward edge of the pan back 30mm. Alternatively (if i can't get a second pan cheap) we would move the yellow piece backwards the 30mm and then add in plate to fill the void left behind.

SO to sum it all up. I need another E36 sump, can come off any 318i or 318iS same part numbers, anyone got a cracked one they want to donate? I'm also chasing up an M42 gearbox, I believe the M40 is different. I just want to use it for fitup purposes so if someone were willing to lend it that would be great :)

Its a catch 22. The chassis rails are tapered. I will have to section the jig to get the right height one i finalise the fore/aft positioning. BUt yer made moving the engine back heaps easy, mark position, move, clamp

ECU is in the country and Injectors are making their way across from Perth as we speak!

ECU and Injectors have arrived! Progress is slow atm, alot of thinking and not much doing.

I got my hands on a getrag 260 curtousy shotright. Thought behind this is, its a stronger gearbox and its something I can bolt onto the engine without ripping the box out of the race car.

Anyway as it is this turns out to be somewhat advantageous, because of the amount I have rotated the engine, the 260 and its matching gearbox crossmember BOLT UP! Less fabrication is a win! Note how far back the crossmember is in the mounting slots.

Now that I have defined the engine and gearbox position I started looking at the fitment of other pieces...like the turbo. I have pretty much decided on the following position, with the dump pipe heading over the top of the steering coupler and down beside the block. There is plenty of room for 3" pipe!

Next I threw on the intake manifold for shits and giggles:

Woah OHHH! The intake manifold and the brake booster are sharing the same real estate.

The E30 M42 manifold would be fine, but it is a horrible reverse flow design and I'm doing my best to steer clear of it. At some point later on I guess I will make my own plenum, but not just yet. All this does is move my plans to throw the booster in the bin up the list. That will come later, and whether or not I jump straight into a twin master/balance bar setup or just retain the standard master is yet to be worked out.

The only other things I started to give consideration was the engine mounts. For the passenger side it looks like we will be able to modify the existing E36 M42 motor mount arm to suit. But the drivers side is going to be interesting!

Here is a rough layout of the plans:

The standard mount pad will be removed in favour for a lowered pad mounted closer to the block (the blue bit)(increasing turbo clearence). Then a custom fabbed motor mount arm will join the block and the new mount pad (the yellow bit). Overall I'm pretty happy with how things are going at the moment.[/QUOTE]

I'd just pick up an M3 and do it properly ;)

Yeh you can say it was your idea. I executed it though :D

The clutch will be even better than it currently is in my G240...as its all G260 stuff

The shifter is going to be a DIY version of UUC's DSSR, complete with V8 supercar inspired shifter, all working together to make a nice solid-feeling, short shifter

The engine mount will obviously go around the turbo :)

Have you posted a picture there? I can't see anything, but that might be because I'm at work.

Ben, all about the priorities. I want this car to go fast, I'm going for strong, hot exhaust pulses into the turbine. So the turbo was going right next to the engine no matter whether it was top or bottom mount.

and with it setup this way the dump pipe shouldn't be too difficult. Its nearly a straight out the back job. If i went between the steering coupler and chassis for sure, would have been two 45 degree bends sort of deal, but between the block and the steering and I will have to use a 90 degree. not ideal, but will work. But more importantly the whole system (turbo position, intake pipework, exhaust manifold, dump pipe, wastegate screamer) will work better in this spot.

**e30guydownunder** · 12-09-2009, 05:36 PM

Last night I got stuck in with some cardboard. Have made up some templates for the drivers side mount and half of the passenger side. Need to work out exactly what is happening with the alternator before I go getting a mount plate cut. So should be able to get started on the engine mounts this week.

And now that I have mentioned it, I am looking at putting a smaller alternator on, with next to no electric features in the car now I dont need a massive alternator. We have a few spares kicking around :D

I've got my hands on a brand new 50amp and I also found a couple of 35amp ones in unknown condition. At the moment I'm thinking I'll go the 50amp because it's a brand newy. It's about 1/2 - 2/3 thirds the weight of the standard 90amp and given the one on the road car took a shit recently I now need a replacement for the race car!

ALRIGHT thats you guys up to speed, hope it wasn't too painful to read :D

**88driftIS** · 12-09-2009, 06:52 PM

Just read through about 95% of this, looks amazing dude. Gives me much motivation for my future track build. Won't be anywhere near has hard core as yours, but same idea.

**SamE30e** · 12-09-2009, 07:32 PM

Just read all of this. Absolute tits!

Good job!

Announcement

e30guydownunder: Project M42, probs definitely got more power than your S50

e30guydownunder: Project M42, probs definitely got more power than your S50

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