E30 Rally Build Thread

[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.

[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]

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...!

[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!

[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.

[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!

[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.

[iamsam]

Flocking on the hood might be the way to go, although I'm more of a back seat kind of guy (Sam is too, right? Remember that one time with Kara in the Saab, testing the brakes? Good times.)

whoa whoa WHOA now...

[drutt23]

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!!

[SlapDash]

The dash really does look good. Roof does too!

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.

His car's sittin' in my driveway right now. My car's getting the skid plate, diff cup and other bits put on. The only problem is, after driving his, I don't want to give it back!

[MasterOfPuppets]

Maybe you should flock the flocking hood too.

There's nothing like a good flock on the hood of a car...

Flocking on the hood might be the way to go, although I'm more of a back seat kind of guy (Sam is too, right? Remember that one time with Kara in the Saab, testing the brakes? Good times.)

i really want to do this to my dash. it looks so awesome.

I have a few recommnendations if you do:

1.) Buy extra fibers - the 3 oz bag I had was barely enough
2.) Do it on a cold, humid day so the adhesive lasts longer. Mine was dry just as I finished up my fibers. As long as you're not in 5% humidity at 7000' in NM it should be fine.

[SlapDash]

There's nothing like a good flock on the hood of a car...

[Dj Buttchug]

i really want to do this to my dash. it looks so awesome.

[iamsam]

Yeah it is really noticeable that the flocking is so much less reflective than even the flat black hood. Maybe you should flock the flocking hood too.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Dash Re-install

I slapped the dash back in today along with the instrument cluster and a shift light. The shift light I bought, the cheapest one from Summit Racing, turned out to be waaay to weak for use during the day. I'll try to crack it open and replace the super weak bulb with a decent LED. Here's how the car sits now:




And most significantly, here's a shot from the driver's view, facing straight into the sun, at roughly 3 pm, at 7000' altitude, on a clear day (i.e. the worst possible condition for dash reflection on the windshield):



The bright spot you can see just above the drivers' side front corner of the hood is the reflection off the VIN plate. This flocking stuff flocking works!