Another E30 GRM Challenger

[kamotors]

looks great, also try running some vacuum to the valve cover if your not already. When I ran a line from the turbo inlet to valve cover it completely stopped my holset from smoking at idle and off throttle.

[AbsorbantNut]

Ahahahaha, I remember the wheel!! I might go as a spectator this year just because I'm already in the area. Good luck!

[ForcedFirebird]

you better take/post pics!!!

For sure!!!!

[ForcedFirebird]

Good luck!!! Undecided if I will make it this year but I at $2011 a wheel almost hit my daughter and I getting a hot dog for lunch at the concession stand.

Have you tried restricting the oil feed for your turbo? 4an at 40psi is too much

[silence]

Can't wait to see this and many other challenge cars tomorrow!! Good luck guys

you better take/post pics!!!

[Mgriz]

So apparently I'm not very good at keeping up with this build thread...

We were super under-prepared for last years competition and it went pretty much accordingly and not without some much unwanted drama. But it didn't blow up and I was certainly thankful for that. We also met a lot of good people (albeit briefly) and had a lot of fun at the competition. Thanks Condor Speedshop for the Lug bolts! Anyway, you all can check out the build blog (which I have actually been updating) if you're interested in last years competition and the progress since... eldiablospeedshop.com

We'll be bringing the car to this years competiton later this month, anyone else going? The biggest difference in the car this year will be that its actually running and we can now control boost. We've had it running around for a month or so with a knock-off ebay external wastegate that has been working pretty well. Here is a recent pic



And here is a short vid of some messing around we did last weekend. You can see that it still burns quite a bit of oil off throttle. I think it has to be valve stem seals so I'm going to try some of that stop leak seal conditioner oil additive and cross my fingers. It's not that big of a deal but it does foul the plugs pretty bad and fills the cabin with nasty fumes (one major downside of the exhaust out the hood).

http://youtu.be/wL4_1nTnmFk

[mooseheadm5]

Good luck, guys! Glad the Isky worked out for you.

[AbsorbantNut]

Can't wait to see this and many other challenge cars tomorrow!! Good luck guys

[2002maniac]

looks great! Hopefully you don't have the teething issues that plague many challengers. Good luck!

[ForcedFirebird]

Those pits in the head were probably from a broken valve at some point in it's life.

Can't wait to see it tomorrow! Good luck!

[FunfGan]

I love you.

[Mgriz]

That's just about how it sits at the moment, with the competition only a few days away... Needs a lot of work still, I'll throw up a more extensive update after the challenge. :D

[Earendil]

Any updates? I'm interested in how this thing is coming along!

[Mgriz]

Two more weeks of progress, time for another update...

We rented an ISKY tool from Moosehead Engineering and cut o-ring grooves into our block. We decided to stick with the copper wire instead of opting for stainless like many do. We cut the grooves to a depth of 0.025" which with the 0.040" diameter wire gives us 0.015" of interference with the head gasket. We decided on a figure 8 pattern based on the tight spacing between the cylinders. I know people have done individual cylinder o-rings on the M20 but I felt figure 8 was more appropriate.





After the first go around with the ISKY tool I had a lot of trouble getting the copper wire to stay in place in the groove. After a bit of scratching my head and swearing I took a couple measurements and found that we had not cut the grooves as deep as we intended. After getting back in their with the cutter and fixing the groove depth the wire went in fairly easily. The grooves were way off to begin with (not sure why) and without going to at least half the wire depth there was nothing to hold the wire down...






Head reassembly... metric blues were the obvious choice given the budget constraints.




And it's back in the car sans transmission. Soo much easier going in without the transmission. Now its time to mock up the turbo plumbing.




Time is flying by and we still have a ton to do. I still have not gotten the Megasquirt together. We wanted to have the car running by next weekend, don't see that happening. I've also been neglecting the growing pile of parts I've got to get rid of, need to get some money back for the budget...

[Mgriz]

Brings back memories... Welcome to the GRM club, can't wait to meet you all, keep up the good work.

Thanks, we can't wait either. Sooo much to get done though... Hopefully we'll be half as fast as you guys.

Maybe I missed it. What kind of wheel/tire combo do you guys plan to run?

This event is alot of fun, youll love it.
Good luck getting the car together.

Thanks, the wheels and tires are still up in the air. The tires are going to be most critical for autocross so the plan is to let that determine what wheels we need.