E30 Rally Build Thread

[MasterOfPuppets]

Do you settle on a cage builder? I talked to my guy and he would sell you a pre-bent cage that you can weld/have welded in locally. If you're interested, I can ask him for a price.

I've pretty much settled on myself and a few buddies to build the cage, but I'd still be interested to hear what the pre-bent kit would go for. Could be a good way to hit a time target if things get down to the wire (I'm starting to think Lake Superior Rally 2012).

What is the product you used for the dash?? It looks good. It'd be cool to use so that i could salvage my cracked dash and not have to source a new one. It seems like all the cracks in yours filled nicely. The car is lookin good by the way. I like your ideas man!!

Its the "Nylon Mini-Flocker Kit" from donjer.com. It seemed to work well, the only thing I would recommend would be to pick up an extra bag of the fibers as I almost ran out. Total cost would be something like $35 if you did. And yeah, looking at it now, it did do a decent job of crack filling. Bonus!

whoa whoa WHOA now...

Come on, that was vague enough... and any story that involves Waffle House at 3 AM is worthy of the internet.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Rally Day at CORE

For whoever is interested, iamcreepingdeath and I will be hitting up the rally circuit at Colorado Off-Road Extreme (CORE) on May 28. The r3v invite to join us is here. The guys at CORE (which is in Deer Trail, ~45 min E of Denver) charge $10 for a full day of driving, which is pretty unbeatable.

I'll be doing a little initial OT&E on my rally car, as well as practicing with the manual/LSD combo. Come out and watch/ride/participate!

[rstraugh]

As the owner of this car for the previous 14 years I thought I might chime in. This has been really entertaining watching what you are doing with the car and I can't wait to see it racing. Unfortunately I have plans the weekend you will be out at CORE so I won't be able to make it out there this time, but I really wanted to.

Tomorrow the roof patch goes on, and I try to find out what the clunking in my passenger-rear suspension is!

The clunking has been around for a while and I think it is related to the the rod ends for the sway bar links. Their spherical bearings are not protected from the elements so I assumed that one or more of them has worn out. I never had the time or money (or maybe motivation) to track it down, but that is where I would start looking.

I assume it's something that can be fixed, but from what I can see, not from outside the bellhousing. Which means while I'm in there I'll just install the binary race clutch and call it good. Which means I'll just wait for this one to burn out.

Back when I was about to quit my job at the Poudre Sports Car in Fort Collins and go back to being a poor college student I decided to replace the clutch since it had 206,000 miles on it. So I replaced it with a stock Sach's replacement clutch. Unfortunately that was a mistake. The original clutch had at least 20% of its life left. As soon as I got the car back together I noticed that the pedal feel was MUCH less stiff than the stock. So I drove it hard like I always did for <10k miles and the clutch was slipping so bad that they gave me a replacement clutch. Unfortunately it was just another stock Sach's replacement clutch. This one did feel better but from then on I decided just not to drive the car hard anymore since I couldn't really afford to put upgrades on it.

If you haven't done so already, you probably should replace the air filter before you play in the dirt too much. That K&N filter was installed in 1998 or so and is pretty beat up. I think this is the replacement that has the right 5 degree angle in it: http://www.knfilters.com/search/prod...x?Prod=RB-0810 At least its only $30.

[iamsam]

Hey, Ryan, Welcome to R3V!

The spherical swaybar endlinks are now in my car providing the cacophony of clunking all the way to school and back, the rally car (your old car) has my stock 318is sways in it.

But it seems like every E30 has some sort of rear clunk involved with it, and it is especially noticeable when you remove ALL of the interior...

I sent you a gchat message, ryan, to invite you to rally, oh well, there will be tons of pics, and I'll let you know when we will have them up!

[MasterOfPuppets]

The clunking has been around for a while and I think it is related to the the rod ends for the sway bar links. Their spherical bearings are not protected from the elements so I assumed that one or more of them has worn out. I never had the time or money (or maybe motivation) to track it down, but that is where I would start looking.

Back when I was about to quit my job at the Poudre Sports Car in Fort Collins and go back to being a poor college student I decided to replace the clutch since it had 206,000 miles on it. So I replaced it with a stock Sach's replacement clutch. Unfortunately that was a mistake. The original clutch had at least 20% of its life left. As soon as I got the car back together I noticed that the pedal feel was MUCH less stiff than the stock. So I drove it hard like I always did for <10k miles and the clutch was slipping so bad that they gave me a replacement clutch. Unfortunately it was just another stock Sach's replacement clutch. This one did feel better but from then on I decided just not to drive the car hard anymore since I couldn't really afford to put upgrades on it.

If you haven't done so already, you probably should replace the air filter before you play in the dirt too much. That K&N filter was installed in 1998 or so and is pretty beat up. I think this is the replacement that has the right 5 degree angle in it: http://www.knfilters.com/search/prod...x?Prod=RB-0810 At least its only $30.

Thanks for taking the time to sign up and post, this is all great to know. Hopefully I can keep you entertained over the next few years with the build followed by race footage As Sam said, the good sways are on his car now, but it's probably even more likely that his old stockers I have now have a bad bushing somwhere (especially the way he drives). It's on the list of things to check out when I get it on stands.

Too bad to hear about the clutch, although it's good to know that the original lasted 206k! Sounds like it may be a pressure plate and/or flywheel and/or pedal linkage wear/setup issue if several different friction discs have exhibited slippage. I may just replace the whole shebang, we'll see what it looks like apart.

Also good to know about the filter, I'll probably order one this week. I knew it looked a little beat, but 1998...!

[KennyT]

I hope you guys make LSPR11 even without the car. I could show you around while you are in town.

I'm out in Portland Oregon right now for the Oregon Trail Rally starting tomorrow. Today we had press rides and an invite only parc expose downtown. Anyone interested out west here should head to PIR by 6pm tomorrow.

[MasterOfPuppets]

I hope you guys make LSPR11 even without the car. I could show you around while you are in town.

I'm out in Portland Oregon right now for the Oregon Trail Rally starting tomorrow. Today we had press rides and an invite only parc expose downtown. Anyone interested out west here should head to PIR by 6pm tomorrow.

I will almost certainly be at LSPR this year as I will live in Houghton by that time, and I would love to swing by and check out your car and race setup. I'll probably volunteer to help with execution of the event, but I'm sure I'll be able to spare some time. Good luck at Oregon, that looks like a cool event from what I've seen.

[rstraugh]

Thanks for taking the time to sign up and post, this is all great to know. Hopefully I can keep you entertained over the next few years with the build followed by race footage As Sam said, the good sways are on his car now, but it's probably even more likely that his old stockers I have now have a bad bushing somwhere (especially the way he drives). It's on the list of things to check out when I get it on stands.

Too bad to hear about the clutch, although it's good to know that the original lasted 206k! Sounds like it may be a pressure plate and/or flywheel and/or pedal linkage wear/setup issue if several different friction discs have exhibited slippage. I may just replace the whole shebang, we'll see what it looks like apart.

Also good to know about the filter, I'll probably order one this week. I knew it looked a little beat, but 1998...!

I replaced the friction disc and pressure plate both times. If I had it to do again I would have kept the stock pressure plate and replaced the friction disc. The flywheel is original.

Double check the measurements on the air filter; I found that one from memory. My memory obviously isn't that great since I didn't remember that the swaybars were in Sam's car.

If the clunk you are hearing is more of a thud while cornering on bumps you might check to make sure the exhaust is centered well. I chased that clunk for years and thats why it has the group N rear subframe bushings. Turns out that the exhaust was hitting the body under high cornering forces because it was slightly off center.

[LuckyHenriksen]

Haha off topic but I am going to be up in the different stages of the ORT today through Sunday, working as a road marshall. Maybe I will see you there!

[jasonsnoddy]

I hope you guys make LSPR11 even without the car. I could show you around while you are in town.

I'm out in Portland Oregon right now for the Oregon Trail Rally starting tomorrow. Today we had press rides and an invite only parc expose downtown. Anyone interested out west here should head to PIR by 6pm tomorrow.

were you at olympus? which car?

[blalor]

Haven't read the whole thing, yet, but this is a fantastic build thread. I love these; they show me how little imagination and resolve I actually have. I put that same (er, I think) shift light in my teams LeMons car. It's screwed into the dash right above the gas gauge (on the slant) and works great (and is nearly mandatory, since our tach stopped working). But I think the angle is really important. You're obviously a smart, resourceful guy so I'm sure you'll find a solution, but I don't think it's intended to be that far out of your line of vision.

[MasterOfPuppets]

But I think the angle is really important. I don't think it's intended to be that far out of your line of vision.

I don't know, I had to put it straight up to my eye to even tell it was working when I first tried it out. I've used other shift lights made by actual brands (autometer specifically) and they blind you completely if they're pointed at your face at all. Most of them I've run with the caps on they're so bright. So I think this model just sucks. Either that or I wired it poorly, which is unlikely, but worth checking.

[blalor]

I don't know, I had to put it straight up to my eye to even tell it was working when I first tried it out. … So I think this model just sucks. Either that or I wired it poorly, which is unlikely, but worth checking.

This is the one I've got, and it looks very similar to yours (but I bought it 3 years ago): http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G2945/

I'll be visiting the car next weekend and can take a look at how I wired it, if you think that'll help.

[MasterOfPuppets]

This is the one I've got, and it looks very similar to yours (but I bought it 3 years ago): http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G2945/

I'll be visiting the car next weekend and can take a look at how I wired it, if you think that'll help.

Same one, but don't bother looking for my sake. The wiring was simple enough, I just need to make sure all my connections are good. I think it's just a crappy light that needs a super-bright red LED slapped into it.

[cjm]

Not an E30 but thought you all might like to see.

I took this Sat at service for Oregon Trail Rally. This is a newly built car. They put coil overs at all 4 corners with new brakes from the same company to fit 15" wheels. I can't remember the name of the company, sorry.


BMW E36 M3 Rallycar by ChrisMason, on Flickr