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

[irish44j]

Dropped the 4.10 diff today. It's nice not having the spare tire well there any more. I did the whole thing with the car sitting on the ground :)



After much de-mudding, got to taking it apart. I thought my new LSD clutches would be in today, but I guess not....in any case, the bearings feel good and the seals weren't leaking so I'll probably just leave them as-is.



Nothing else to do late-night so got out there and cleaned and painted the case and cover. Seems kind of pointless since it's going to get dirty/muddy/sandblasted in no time, but hey, it's something to do.





While I was out grabbing some cash at the ATM, this nice M4 followed me into the lot and stopped next to me. He had seen the Condor Speed Shop sticker on the side of it, and apparently he went to high school with the owner (Carlos). Not a huge surprise since Carlos is from this area originally, but still very small world.

[irish44j]

Finished up the diff today. While waiting for DHL to get here with the clutches I disassembled. Fluid looked good, but the old clutches are clearly worn on the contact side with little friction material left. On the cheap I could have flipped them and used the other sides, which looked decent, but that's not what we're doing...




The DHL showed up with some new clutch packs and pressure washers (I forget the actual name for these things) from RacingDiffs over in Europe.







The ramp plates looked perfect, so didn't need to use the little shim pieces the kit comes with (which requires some minor machining). So, after dousing everything in some fresh fluid, assembly is reverse of removal, other than a third set of clutches replacing the 6mm big thick washer/spacer thing.




And all back together







And easy job putting it back up in the car (if you don't have studs on the top of your diff to replace the stock bolts, you should). Also, the access holes down through the trunk make tightening the upper nuts much, much easier (not shown)







Another item for the car came today as well, but not going to discuss at the moment since they sent the wrong thing so I'll have to do a return and wait for the right one.....grr.

[irish44j]

So still doing break-in on the diff, but with the new higher-strength Bellvue washers, as-tested right now the breakaway torque at the hub is slightly over 100lb-ft (compared to ~60 for a stock 2-clutch one and half that for my old tired one). Havne't done anything crazy since I'm still breaking it in, though, so can't say yet how different it feels on the street or dirt.

In the meantime, got a few things from my friends at Condor




So that's just a replacement diff mount bushing for my other diff (3.73 LSD) which still had a OEM-style bushing in it. I also added mounting studs to it for easier swapping, if needed.




So a couple weeks ago I ordered an ebay radiator listed for a Z3M. Unfortuntately, when it arrived it was only a 2-row, not the 3-row I expected (my mistake, not theirs, for not reading the listing well). Anyhow, the vendor basically just returned half my payment rather than pay for return shipping so that's now either a spare or one to sell to someone else. It's basically the same as the one that's been in the car and worked fine for about 7-8 years now. No complaints on the Chinese radiators.

That said, I've never liked how warm this car runs. It may be in the "normal" range, but I'd like it a bit cooler. So I want a 3-row radiator. So today the correct on arrived...a full 3-row knockoff from China. Yeah, I'd love a Mishimoto but not spending triple on something that may get impaled by a tree branch at any time. Also, pretty sure these are made in the same factory but sold as an off-brand, lol. IDK.

In any case, there it is. MAybe I'll put it in tomorrow. Should be drop-in fit since I don't have an OEM crank-driven fan.




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[irish44j]

Got the radiator installed today with no issues. As expected it was a drop-in fit other than drilling a couple holes on the upper lip for my top mounts (same as the old one), since I don't use the OEM-style setup plastic thing, since it seems pretty weak.

Here's a couple comparison shots of the one that's been in there for years vs. the new one.










Say what you will about "Chinese quality" (or lack thereof), the old radiator survived probably 50 rallycrosses and around 10 stage rallies with no issues at all. no cracks, nothing broken or whatever. Anyhow, now I have a spare as well, which I haven't had previously.

Here's it fitted in the car. Since I'm on isolation right now can't go pick up any antifreeze for it (I run an 80-20 mostly water mix in the summer, but will go full 50-50 for winter). So will have to bleed it later.

A little tighter fit, but sill probably 2" of clearance from the radiator to the nearest engine part. Other than that, dimensionally it's the same as the old one.




Ah, also - don't think I mentioned it, but early Black Friday shopping and picked up a second halo seat for Jim's side of the car. Same as the one I got for myself earlier this year.




So, that's installed now. Still need to order new harnesses before the next rally, but may wait until Chrismas/New Year's sales and let the parts budget recover a bit. Between this, the Raider, and the Sequoia I've spent more on car stuff in recent months than I probably should have lol.