Pitchblack Motorsports Rally e30 318i (now with M50) - and some Porsche 924S stuff.

[irish44j]

yeah i was asking because i want to get some euros too, i guess 205s would look a little more beefy?

I would guess so. These the tread width is 7.4", but of course a 7" wide wheel has an actual total width of 8" outside the lips, so the wheel is a tad wider overall than the tire tread is.

If this was going to be a track car, I would have looked more toward the 215-225 range. But 195s are sufficient for an M10-powered, sub-2400lb, LSD e30 I think.

[irish44j]

Took a nice drive this morning to feel everything out. Aside from the M10's lack of power, the car drives pretty nicely at this point, though it definitely needs a rear sway. Stopped at Home Depot and took the prime-time parking from the Benzes, lol..



Also fiddled around with the engine trying to correct my 2k idle. I tried to check the timing but through the tranny hole I just can't see the marks. Too coroded or something. I'm going to do the marks on the drive pulley so I can read it there, when I get around to it. Will address this stuff another day when it's over 35 degrees.....

Sanded and painted the sport lip spoiler and installed it as well. Turned out pretty decent I think.





Also did a little project, seeing as I have no console any longer I wanted to put something to hold my phone, drinks, etc. Used a seat-mount cupholder from the auto parts store, cut it down, and used the old console bracket to bolt it to the HVAC front bracket piece. Sits in a good spot - drinks are accessible, doesn't interfere with the shifter, and doesn't look like total crap, lol. And of course had to decorate it.









Test-fit of full set of tall rallycross wheels/tires. They fit, and my tiedown locations hold them securely. Excellent.



Also ordered so Rallyarmor basic mudflaps, but in the longer (SUV) size. Will cut to fit. Would love the urethane ones, but not dropping $150 on the at the moment..

And took some exterior shots with the new wheels/tires. 4X4 STANCE OWNS! lol... When I was out driving I didn't slow down for speedbumps, needless to say.

[iwantspeed]

the cup holder and rear seat delete with hooks for the straps came out great

[FunfGan]

This is looking great! Will I see this or the wrx tomorrow?

[irish44j]

the cup holder and rear seat delete with hooks for the straps came out great

thanks, I'll fiddle with them a bit more (the cup holder needs some rubber/foam under it so as not to rattle), but pretty happy with how they came out for sure!

This is looking great! Will I see this or the wrx tomorrow?

lol, sorry....the e30 has to take baby steps before I just roll up for a 130-mile round trip to B-more. Plus the WRX got there alot faster than the e30 would have ;)

Thanks again for the parts. Was just looking at how the muffler hangs on my car (the stock muffler uses straps), and it looks like it has a currently-unused inner hangar and then the front hangar goes to that little "eye" in the edge of the wheel well? Don't suppose you have any pics of it on your car do you?

And once you finish this 5.0 project, I may be consulting you next year haha...

[FunfGan]

lol, sorry....the e30 has to take baby steps before I just roll up for a 130-mile round trip to B-more. Plus the WRX got there alot faster than the e30 would have ;)

Thanks again for the parts. Was just looking at how the muffler hangs on my car (the stock muffler uses straps), and it looks like it has a currently-unused inner hangar and then the front hangar goes to that little "eye" in the edge of the wheel well? Don't suppose you have any pics of it on your car do you?

And once you finish this 5.0 project, I may be consulting you next year haha...

Haha, I forgot how long of a trip you had
And no problem, appreciate you grabbing some parts for me as well.

As for the muffler, those sound like where it hangs. On mine, it had two, thick rubber "o" rings that held it on to the metal mounts themselves. You may just need to pick up some cheap mounts at pep boys or advanced auto, or even something generic from home depot or something. That muffler was installed when I purchased the car, so I can't tell you how I did it :???: I'll pm you if I can find any detailed shots of how it was mounted!

And wait, does this mean 5.0 rally car? ;)

[irish44j]

And wait, does this mean 5.0 rally car? ;)

would be interesting, though I don't know if I want all that weight up there. Rather have rear bias, lol. More likely I'll but something BMW in, to keep it easy as well. But that's maybe in a year or two.

[FunfGan]

would be interesting, though I don't know if I want all that weight up there. Rather have rear bias, lol. More likely I'll but something BMW in, to keep it easy as well. But that's maybe in a year or two.

It definitely does add some weight up front, especially for a rally build. Even with aluminum heads, you're looking at around 400lbs compared to an m50 which weighs around 340lbs. Thats one of the things I'm going to be messing around with when this thing is running; suspension rates and ways to lighten the 5.0. Looking forward to whatever you do though!

The muffler though, how big is the stock muffler? Say, would it be possible to cut the current mounts off and use the straps/ bands to mount the magna flow?

[irish44j]

So, as Stuart (FunfGan) mentioned, I shot up to Baltimore today to hit Crazy Ray's, one of the big local pick-n-pull yards. I had a list of parts to find for myself, and picked up a couple things for him to trade for some things he had for me. Overall a very productive trip.

And it was COLD....I was bundled up like a mofo..



I paid a grand total of $38 for:
- 3 dash/gauge cluster trim pieces
- a good-condition power brake vacuum hose (the reinforced kind)
- a bottlecap center cap (missing one)
- the "elephant trunk" drain piece in the engine bay that nobody seems to have
- a pair of yellow glass pieces from a Benz (used for yellow headlight/foglight conversions on Subarus and other cars). These sell for about $30/pair on the forums, so I try to grab them anytime I'm at a junkyard.
- the front left engine bay cowl piece (that covers the inside of the headlights and routes the "air scoop"
- the cover for the fuel/evap hoses in the passenger wheel well.

Also pulled a Mustang 5.0 distributor and an e30 main wiring connector for Stuart's V8 swap project - which I traded to him for:
- a Magnaflow muffler with a nice tip (will have to get it welded on to my pipe, with a reducer.
- a sport steering wheel sans horn (just a backup, since I have a Momo on the way).
- a glovebox with working latch (my latch is broken/missing).

So that's a pretty good haul for $38 (and another $15 in gas) on a cold holiday morning!



The real prize was this piece, which nobody seems to have one of for sale, and most junked cars have it completely rusted to oblivion (like the one on mine). But on my third e30 of the day I found one in great shape, though it was quite an effort to get off the car with the rear wheel on and the car on the ground. Of course the two with rusted covers had the wheel off and up on blocks. figures.



installed, along with some undercoating on the wheel well where it was peeling off


power brake vac hose installed. Had to modify slightly since it was off a 6-cyl e30


also took a few pics of the firewall electrical distro block. I was going to pull it but didn't have the hex wrench I needed.....the only tool I needed that I forgot! In any case, may do a different kind of distro block anyhow, we'll see.



So all this stuff is installed (except the muffler and steering wheel) on the car now. Also spent some time adjusting the parking/ebrake. Which is a bit of a hassle now that I have studs for the wheels instead of the threaded lugs. I had to take one out on each wheel to access the adjuster (as shown in Bentley). Not much fun since I Red Loctite'd them good. Had to get out the torch to heat them up to free the loctite. *Mental note*

[irish44j]

It definitely does add some weight up front, especially for a rally build. Even with aluminum heads, you're looking at around 400lbs compared to an m50 which weighs around 340lbs. Thats one of the things I'm going to be messing around with when this thing is running; suspension rates and ways to lighten the 5.0. Looking forward to whatever you do though!

The muffler though, how big is the stock muffler? Say, would it be possible to cut the current mounts off and use the straps/ bands to mount the magna flow?

...and compared to the M10, which weighs probably 200lbs (guess), lol.

The stock muffler isn't that big, but it's round profile so the straps won't work on the Magnaflow. No worries, I'll figure it out (or have a muffler shop do it, since I have to have them install anyhow).

[irish44j]

This week's project:

Dash revitalization (or ruin).

I plan to pull the dash, which is badly cracked. The plan is to sand it and bondo up the cracks (or something like that), and then FLOCK IT! Ordered up some flocking stuff from Don-Jur, in charcoal gray (black will get too dirty, too fast).

So, we'll see how this works out. Worst case it looks terrible and I go find another dash at a junkyard (or just ignore it). Best case it will look epic, and I will be the idol of all rallycrossers everywhere (lol)

[FunfGan]

Interested to see how this turns out. I was debating flocking mine, but decided to just fill the cracks and paint it.

[irish44j]

Interested to see how this turns out. I was debating flocking mine, but decided to just fill the cracks and paint it.

how did yours turn out? Got any pics?

[FunfGan]

I'm in the middle of it, will get some up this weekend. I ended up using caulk instead of bondo. Its a little harder to sand and get smooth but its nice that it has some give to it. I might add that mine had at least 15 very large cracks in it, so it wasn't worth much to begin with. How much did you spend on materials?

[irish44j]

I'm in the middle of it, will get some up this weekend. I ended up using caulk instead of bondo. Its a little harder to sand and get smooth but its nice that it has some give to it. I might add that mine had at least 15 very large cracks in it, so it wasn't worth much to begin with. How much did you spend on materials?

I just ordered the $24 basic kit from Donjur with the shake-on applicator. I had already filled some of the cracks with black silicone, but it looks like shit. And since the dash already looks like crap, figured it was a good candidate to use to give the flocking a try, just since I've always wanted to try it and see how it comes out. If it doesn't work, I'm out 25 bucks. I can deal with that :)

Even if it's not awesome like some I've seen, it should be an improvement, at least in terms of glare reduction off the dash (which will be an issue at rallycross events).