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

[irish44j]

I literally have no patience. I have a good month to get this all done, so could take a day or two off from e30 stuff, but once I get going, I have to keep going until it's done (and then have a couple weeks to test everything before racing, hopefully).

When I got home today, had a couple packages

First one is an early e36 airbox/filter. Not positive I'm going to use this, but I picked it up for pretty cheap so figured if i can make it fit it'll be a nice clean setup. A quick mockup shows it'll be pretty tight with the M20 expansion tank over there (got me considering going back to an M42 radiator/expansion tank setup, but probably not). Anyhow, more on that later. air box is literally the last thing I'm gonna address.

the other package was my 944 brake booster, from Just Joshin' Porsche 944 parts up in Maryland. He always has the Porsche stuff I want at a good price. It came in pretty good shape (it's the ATE brand one needed to make this easy), just needed some cleaning up.

Here's a pic of it next to the stock e30 booster. Note the shaft is much longer on the 944 booster, but otherwise it's a direct fit.



After measuring, I threaded the shaft about 2" farther down and then cut it off



And voila



Install was easy, and my cut was perfect length and everything bolted right up



If you don't know these swaps, the 944 booster is about an inch smaller than the e30 booster and gives the clearance for the M50 intake manifold (which still has to be shaved).

Anyhow, back to the engine. I took it of the stand to put the flywheel on. Just like the M42, the stock M20 single-mass flywheel is not a direct fit. Most people get it milled for clearance. Since I'm both cheap and don't really care, I just did what i did on the M42: ground down the oil pan ribs (and some other stuff on the back of the oil pan) to create the needed clearance. No problemo...



So, the flywheel is on (didn't bolt up the clutch yet since I can't find my centering tool for some reason....)



Then, since I had the hoist already out, and the engine all finished up.....well, you know what I did.



yup. it's an easy 1-man job with no transmission on it. Plus it allows me to tilt the engine forward on the mounts in order to hook up fuel lines, heater hoses, etc. Which is nice. Looks like we should be able to pretty easily put the G240 on from underneath.

This was mostly a test-fit, but I don't see any reason it will need to come back out at this point



Some things I figured out:

1. For the power steering hoses, everything will hook up just fine except I need to move the reservoir forward in the engine bay a bit. No problem.

[rzerob]

How much of a power jump are expecting from this swap from the M42?

[Jokester]

How much of a power jump are expecting from this swap from the M42?

He should get roughly 60-70 whp and torque.

[rzerob]

He should get roughly 60-70 whp and torque.

Isn't that a little too optimistic? I was thinking 30whp tops but more likely around 20whp gain. If it was an S50 I could see around 60.

I am not familiar with the M42 so I was curious of what you were expecting.

[irish44j]

He should get roughly 60-70 whp and torque.

Isn't that a little too optimistic? I was thinking 30whp tops but more likely around 20whp gain. If it was an S50 I could see around 60.

I am not familiar with the M42 so I was curious of what you were expecting.

I mean, on paper is on paper.....so on paper:

M42 is rated 135hp/107tq at the crank, stock/new

I had a Conforti chip, which is said to bump that to around 140hp/120tq but who knows.

But my engine was also pretty much all original internally, so who knows if it had lost some power over the years.

M50TU is rated 189hp/181tq at the crank, stock/new.

So, just for the sake of internet racing we can guesstimate around 45-50hp gain/60tq gain.

Since I'm using the same transmission/diff, drivetrain loss should be the same for either engine, so the power/tq differences are also the same.

All in theory, of course. M42 is a fun, lightweight engine that makes all its power way up high, so it'll scream at 6500rpm all day long. Torquey, it is not. I think in a much lighter car than a fully-equipped stage rally car, the M42 would still be a blast.

[irish44j]

Just a few minor things today - I spent a couple hours cleaning up the mess in the garage and putting tools away so I can actually find the stuff i need.

A few little projects after that. First, a bit of bracket alterations. The stuff on the left is the e34 bracket that holds the x20 plugs as well as the power distribution block for the starter wires. Rathre than re-use the lousy e30 c101 holder (which probably won't fit anyhow), I decided to do something different, especially since the e34 harness is a lot longer than the e36 version and I don't want to shorten wires or loop anything.



So, after playing around with some locations, I riveted the altered bracket on the shock tower (riveted, because I'm trying to keep stuff welded to other stuff in the engine bay to a minimum, to avoid difficulties if I want to move it later). Note that the PS reservoir will be relocated as well, to a TBD location.



And the wires fitted....



I also installed the distro block on the firewall HVAC fan cover. Basically this just has one big wire going across the engine bay to the stock e30 distro block lug, and another wire going down to the starter. But it'll be nice to have a jumper lug in an accessible location as well, in case it's needed.

[irish44j]

Got some more work done today, as I continue to look for a driveshaft. This is pretty boring stuff, so I'll forgive you if you don't read it, lol. But posting for posterity nonetheless.

i spent about half the day rewiring stuff (much of it unrelated to the engine itself), since the haphazard wiring in this car drives me crazy. At the end of last year I was having intermittent issues with the electric fans coming on via the thermostatic switch (which was tested and works fine), so was using the over-ride switch. I think the stock wiring/relays/etc have just gotten too old or something, IDK. Rather than unwrap a billion wires and try to chase the problem, I just wired an entire new electric fan system with new relays, fuses, wires, connectors, etc. Looks much better too. Then I finished running and connecting all my gauge wiring, among other things.



And all hidden away (ish)



Now messing with intake/filter ideas. I had hoped to use some kind of stock airbox, since it keeps mud/dust/dirt out better than a cone filter - but that may not be easily possible. My M42, e34, and an e36 airbox i picked up are all no-gos since they don't give enough room for coolant hoses (primarily) with the M3 radiator and M20 expansion tank. I could go back to an M42 radiator and probably make it work, but don't really want to do that.

Kind of annying since I thought the e36 airbox would fit and I bought a couple filters for it (plus buying it off ebay). Damn. IDK, may address it again later or do some modifications. For the time being I think I'll just get a cheap ebay cone filter.



To make more room for filter, MAF, throttle body elbow, etc I decided to move the PS reservoir down to an empty area over the engine mount along the frame rail. I think this will work out well. I modified the stock bracket, cut the hoses shorter, and added a weld-nut into the side of the frame.





That clears up some more space



What else what else...some "custom" hoses to orient the brake booster vac and check fitting correctly. I go out of my way to make sure nothing touches anything else, since that usually doesn't end well. But that means I can't just cram stuff in wherever I want it..



Ran the e34 harness through my new firewall hole. Pretty pleased that I cut correctly and it fits perfectly. Still have to figure out mounting for the DME and relays inside, but that shouldn't be a real issue.



Pulled out my "spare" G240 transmission. I ran this one for years and only swapped it thinking my other one would be smoother downshifting into 2nd. Not the case, and the other one is a bit whiney, so going back to the original one. Adding some tune-up parts (new 323i TOB, new Condor Speed Shop brass pivot bushing, new Condor carrier bushings, etc). The old pivot bushing was literally worn down about 1/4"...







That also reminds me.....while changing out the 318 throttle cable for the e34 one (it fits a bit better with this engine), I noticed to my amazement that my accelerator pedal's main mounts have NO bushings in them at all. SO just the round bar holding the pedal assembly, pivoting in a couple metal holes that are about twice as large. IDK whether they just finally disintegrated of if they've been gone for years, but definitely need to replace those!

Did some other stuff that isn't very interesting to talk about, so a couple more pics and I'm going to chill and have a beer.

[rzerob]

If the late model coolant reservoir is what is keeping you from running one of the stock air boxes, then would an early model coolant reservoir mounted on the passenger side work for you?

[irish44j]

If the late model coolant reservoir is what is keeping you from running one of the stock air boxes, then would an early model coolant reservoir mounted on the passenger side work for you?

possibly, but then I have to relocate the washer reservoir lol. And this being a rally car, I like to have the stock BIG reservoir because we use a lot of washer fluid.

I decided just to order an AEM cone intake off Amazon and I'll build a filter box of sorts around it. That'll do for now, at least.

[irish44j]

Today I did a little road trip to pick up an e36 driveshaft. I had planned to just get an e30 M20B25 DS, but having a hard time finding one locally for a decent price. e36 stuff is cheap and available, and works with minor changes.

So off I went into the middle of Maryland to a guy who parts out e36s. A bit of winter driving to get there on some nice country roads





And picked up a e36 318 driveshaft, which is about 3-4" shorter than mine overall and shoudl be a good fit.



So, the one downside to the e36 DS is that the bolts on the front flange are M12 size, but the e30 transmisison output flange is M10.



So on the way home I swung by my buddy's place to say hi, and asked him if he knew where I could buy some sleeves (he does a lot of machining). He didn't, but offered to make some for me right then. So after some measuring and looking for dies, he got to work. Chris has CNC stuff, but also some big, old machines like this huge lathe.





And there we have perfect-fit bolt collars..





So, that was pretty neat.

Pulled the e36 CSB off the new driveshaft



And grabbed a new e30 CSB that I bought as a spare a while back. Hmm. Problem. The close on is the new one. The one behind it is the one that just came off my car.



So apparently post-1987 e30s have a narrower bolt mounting pattern on the CSB to the chassis. I didn't have any idea, guess I just got lucky when I've replaced them before that I bought the right one. So, I guess I could get the welder out and modify the base, but these things are pretty cheap so willl just go ahead and order a new one. Ugh.

So yeah, that's today in a nutshell. Happy I got a DS, one of the last things I needed other than exhaust.

[econti]

Snow driving for me is very aesthetic as we never get it here, but I imagine it's a giant pain in the ass to deal with every day.
Post more snow photos please

[irish44j]

Snow driving for me is very aesthetic as we never get it here, but I imagine it's a giant pain in the ass to deal with every day.
Post more snow photos please

well, that was really just wet roads (temp was 34*) but it was snowing. Most of my good snow-driving pics were from previous years in my WRX lol.

[irish44j]

So, some stuff came in today:

1. An e36 intake elbow. Which, upon further consideration and fitting, isn't as good filter placement as the e34 elbow I previously got. I got the e36 one with the hope that I could fit an e36 airbox that I picked up off ebay. But with the m20 expansion tank and larger radiator, that's not gonna work. So now I have a new intake elbow, an airbox, and two new e36 air filters. Whoops. So, the stack of stuff I can't use is getting taller...



2. Amazon provided an AEM cone filter for cheap, so that's what I'm using for now. Fit is really good



So I used some partial bracket leftover from the car's M10 days as the base for a mount that I fabbed up with some Thule fairing brackets and two rubber mounts off the OEM M42 filter box.





Attaches via a bent "tab" through the MAF housing slot



Works pretty well, but the stock bracket was flexing a bit so I quickly tacked on a little support brace for it lol



Then messed around with some templating for an airbox to keep the intake from sucking in as much hot engine/post-radiator air. This goes back to the e34 elbow size, which puts the filter in just the right place to make a square box and not having to do anything funky





put the clutch on. will deal with the transmission later this week



Then, the other thing that came in was an M20 power steering line. People on the web say it fits with minor adjustments. They must mean it fits a STOCK rack with this swap. The z3 rack, of course, has the hoses coming out on the opposite side of the "neck" and there is NO way to make this M20 hi pressure hose fit. So, add that to the stack of wasted parts.

So after almost buying a fancy braided line, I got back under the car and did a bunch of bending on my original line (which I think was from an e36 in the first place). After much cursing and much visualizing of angles, finally got it to fit decently where it's routed where it wont' touch anything or rub. I used a pipe-bender that I bought for fuel lines to make some bends, but I'm a bit worried about one that I mildly kinked. I think it'll be ok but will keep an eye on it.

Anyhow, it kind of curves like 5 times and then runs up and over the reservoir and back down to the rack. BMW's hose positions are moronic. Just put them on the same plane so any "flat" hose will work...grr



Also picked up an elbow for the reservoir so i can link it up with the coolant hose from the engine.



meh...and then messed around with ways to mount the DME. Can't use the stock bracket (long gone) or the way we had it mounted before (wiring won't reach) so I may have to make some "custom" brackets. we'll see.

While I was there I tracked down the tach signal wire and hooked it up to the lead i left loose from the engine harness.

And, with the e34 harness, I was able to bring the main engine relays into the car (electronics inside are much nicer for a dirty rally car!). Then had to find a place to mount them. I modified the e34 relay mount bracket and stuck it up above the dash bar in some empty space. Looks like that should work well and give easy access.





So, that's good for today. I feel like it's the home stretch now. Transmission and shifter stuff *should* be pretty easy, and once that's done it's mostly just fitting the ebay header (which I've heard can be a pain) and fab up an exhaust (which I'm not looking forward to....)

[irish44j]

Only had about an hour to work on the car today, so figured I'd just bench-press the transmission up there and get it hooked up. Still need to tighten everything up (and figure out how the heck I'm going to get to the backing nut for the 2nd starter nut), but initial thought is that everything fits pretty much perfectly, with good clearance to the chassis/transmission tunnel. So, that's good. As expected, the trans mount crossmemberwafflessits about 2 1/2" farther back than before, which means i probably can't put the other chassis brace back on (not sure if it will fit forward of the crossmember. But we'll see.



Everything is just up there fairly loose until we get the upper transmission bolts tightened up





Also got my new fan in today. Though I've had good luck with SPALs, I went with a high-CFM flex-a-lite one this time, mostly to save some money. As noted before, it's pretty tight for a puller fan - my 2000CFM Spalwafflespuller definitely would not fit. My 1200CFMwafflesSpalwafflesslimline will fit, but only leaves about 1" of space from the front of the engine pulleys. That's too close for a rally car that may hit things and bend things.

So 80s.



In any case, it's a perfect fit where i want it, and since it has squared edges on two sides, it means I can mount it really easily - another plus.waffles



Also while under there I was looking at the clearance between the oil pan and steering rack, and it was pretty much "none." So I added a thick washer to each engine mount, and moved a couple steering rack spacer washers from below to above to move it down just a tiny bit. After that there is more clearance, at least enough to be comfortable. With the Condor mounts, I don't expect the engine to compress them at all.waffles

[irish44j]

Got a few things done today. First order of business was to set up/mount the new fan and get the radiator back in. Radiator setup has worked great for years, so just going to replace the rubber lower mounts and upper grommets (which are from a stock airbox). Fan is almost a perfect fit for the space it needs to go in, in front of the radiator. I built a little aluminum mount bracket that seems like a better way than using the through-radiator mount ziptie things. At the bottom I'm using big zip ties until I can weld on a couple mounting tabs.







Then, something I had been somewhat not looking forward to - fitting the headers. These are $60 ebay pieces, and reports from others indicate fitament is iffy and that modifications need to be made. I initially thought the holes for the mount bolts were a bit off, but as it turns out they actually line up fine, so no need to get my rotary tools out.

After doing a test fit-up with a few bolts tightened down. I was pretty pleased to see that clearance doesn't appear to be an issue anywhere. The pipes themselves pass about 2mm apart at one curve between the two pieces, but that doesn't matter anyhow. More importantly, there's plenty of clearance at the control arm lollipop (in fact, enough room to leave the heat shield on it). And they curve right around the footwell with about 1/2" clearance, nice and tight.

The output pipes are a bit mis-aligned but I think I can work with them - and more importantly they may almost exactly line up withe the 2-1 collector pipe from the e34, which I kept around for this possibility.

So far I've gotten all but three of the rear bolts tightened up with new studs. Those are going to be a major bitch to get to - I may have to order a flex-head ratcheting 11mm wrench, which I don't have one of. Else will be doing it the old way, with 1/4 turns using a standard box-end. ugh. Hard to take header pics, but here are a few.