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

[irish44j]

today was a bit under the weather so called in a sick day (mostly so as not to get my co-workers sick, more than anything). Was feeling better after lunch so spend the afternoon in the garage watching 6 episodes of the 5th season of Dexter on the laptop and working on the car.

A few things accomplished:
First, finished up a few things with the dashboard re-install. Nothing exciting. My daughter tested it out for me, and everything appears functional



She also pointed out some wiring issues under the hood



Next I messed with wiring for a bit, trying to wire up the Hella fog lights to the factory harness/dash switch. Kept on having problems with it not working. The switch was ok (tested), and when pressed I could hear the click of the relay in the box. Fuses good too, but still no light. Ended up tracing the wiring harness and found that the connectors to outer wires (the round 2-pin connector near the headlights on each side) were corroded and not forwarding the charge. So cut them off and soldered in some direct wires to the lights. Now everything works, except the OEM dash switch won't click to stay on - the little plastic tab inside is broken off. But if held down the lights stay on. So next junkyard trip will look for a working switch, no biggie.



cleaned-up wiring and splashguard installed



Ah, also yesterday I picked up an e36 steering rack (off a 318ti). The p/o switched to a quicker ratio and the rack is in good shape and not leaking. Eventually I'll swap this in, once I figure out where to get some new copper seals for the power steering lines. Otherwise the plan is to use all the e30 stuff, since the lines in the car look pretty new. Will need to verify that the tie rods from the e30 rack will work with the e36 rack, but I've read in most places that they will. The rack was pretty gunky, so did some wire-brushing.

also cleaned up the spare throttle body, for no apparent reason other than I want to swap it in so I can check out/clean the one currently on the car.



and installed the driver's side mudflap. I'm going to wait on the rears until I get the new muffler put on, since I'm going to have to cut the inner flap to clear and not sure where to cut right now, so it will wait.

[irish44j]

minor stuff tonight on the car. Spent about an hour doing a home alignment "the old way" with my string setup, boards, and tape measure. I've found that this method on other cars has gotten me pretty much just as accurate as the local alignment shop with a Hunter machine (I've gone and checked a few times, just to see).

In any case, the front alignment was all out of whack, probably due to the shot balljoints and bushings previously on the car, and compensating for them. With fresh stuff everywhere, plus the camber top hats, the fronts were off-center overall and more than 1/2" toe out. Not acceptable.

First I lined up the mark on the steering linkage with the mark on the rack to center it (a nice feature that not all cars have), and locked the steering wheel.

Then did a four-wheel alignment. The rears were pretty close to zero toe, but I didn't check too closely since I can't change them anyhow, so they might be a tad in or out. Rear camber is sitting at about 1.5* negative on both sides.

Up front I just zeroed the toe as dead-on as I can get it. From there I'll tinker to see what I like - I'm guessing I'll want it a hair toe-out when all is said and done. Also checked the camber up front and both sides are sitting between 1* and 1.25* negative, so that's pretty good for now.

All in all that was a nice easy thing that should make the handling tighten up significnatly, especially considering how much freaking toe I was running previously.

more later....

[irish44j]

grr......bit of a botch today. Saw I had a pair of new sunroof seals sitting around, so decided might as well go ahead and do them (the old ones looked old, but weren't leaking). Removed the sunroof no problem, did the seals, re-installed. Went to crank it closed and something must have been jammed in the rail, and of course I thought it was just sticking so I forced it. Oops. Snapped off one of the rail mechanisms. Dammit.

So, gonna have to find another one, because at the moment there's no way to close the sunroof (and I want it, I don't want sheet metal there).

This is in the category of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it...." dammit.

[FunfGan]

Can you get a pic of what broke? I still have most of my sunroof assembly.

[irish44j]

if you do, that would be excellent....

here's a pic. The other side is cracking too (the plastic is just brittle), so if you happen to have both sides, that would be 2x as good!

the main thing I need is the metal piece here, but the black piece would be good too, for both sides..

[FunfGan]

I believe I do! I'll check this friday(car/ parts are at my friends house) and I'll pm you.

[irish44j]

excellent, smithers.....

[KI4UJO]

Subscribed, glad to see someone doing this to a M10 car.

[irish44j]

I had to go into work for a couple hours, and afterwards I swung by a local guy (EvilTwin - aka Viet)'s house to pick up some parts. Kind of funny since he and I met each other almost a decaded ago when we both had Maximas - back then he was like 16 years old and it was his first car. Now he has a nice house with a 4Runner and 2 e30s in the driveway...I feel old.

Anyhow, for next to nothing he hooked me up with a stock 325i rear swaybar and mounts/bushings. I almost laughed when I saw how tiny the stock bar is (I think my battery cables are thicker!), but it's still an upgrade over NO rear bar, which is what the 318 currently has. Stopped by the Olympus on the way home and picked up some cheap endlinks, though for the life of me I can't get the damn things on the ends of the bar with it on the car....just can't get enough leverage to push them on...grr.



He also had door weatherstripping/seals from a sedan sitting around - which is convenient since two of mine are total FUBAR'd. Grabbed those as well.



With it being 65 degrees today, planned on having an afternoon of car work without my fingers freezng.....

Unfortunately, upon arriving home there was a crisis: The clothes dryer not working, and my wife with 4 loads of clothes to do. So....the next half-hour was spent taking things apart and the culprit was found. The tension roller for the belt (which used to have a bushing in it). Apparently the bushing had seized and over God-knows-how-long it just wore the bushing away down tot he metal collar, and then wore down the pin it rode on, until it was loose enough to throw the belt off. Spent 2 more hours driving around to find the local appliance parts store and get a replacement. THat is some bad bearing, lol:



Then back to the car. Installed new dizzy cap and rotor, and set the timing to factory spec. Car is running smooth and quiet now, though it feels a bit sluggish. May need to advance the timing slightly to perk it up.

Also toyed around with my spare AFM. Took it apart and adjusted the "sweep" that had worn grooves into the contact surface. By adjusting the assembly height I was able to get the sweep into some fresh surface, so maybe it will get a cleanier/more consistent signal. Found this trick on a Porsche forum, since apparently it's used alot on 944's, which have the same Bosch AFM as the e30. Will check out the one n the car next.

[irish44j]

Got the rear swaybar endlinks on today (after digging around for some lower bolts). Though it's a tiny bar, it's a vast improvement on the overall handling of the car after a quick test-drive.

I also tweaked the timing a bit, with a slight advance, and now the engine feels, if not exactly "powerful," at least somewhat peppy. Since the car is pretty lightweight at this point, it actually gets up and goes pretty decent. More power is always good, but it'll do for the time being.

Finally got around to replacing the platinums I had previously installed with some 9DS Bosch plugs, which are the "most suggested" for the M10 engine.




With the sunroof off, decided to address the peeling paint on it by sanding it down and painting it again, except in a color that (more or less) matches the replacement hood. Just because.....lol. I think I'm just gonna put stickers and crap all over it anyhow. Again, just because.



Little interior project. With the center console gone, there's nothing to attach the ebrake boot with. Though I like the raw look of it without a boot, I don't feel like jabbing my hand on the bolts or anything if I have to grab it quick. So I busted out the dremel and cut the center console apart so I could use the lower bracket where the ebrake boot originally attached. Used the rear bolt-down bracket, and then just put a small sheet-metal screw in the DS tunnel at the front. Works perfectly and doesn't look bad either :)

the part cut-out




the leftovers...


installed..



buttoned up for the night

[Dj Buttchug]

awwww yeaahhhhh

[kts]

Nice I like the modified center console. Maybe I shouldn't have given away my old center console so I could have used it for something like this with my car. D'oh!

[FunfGan]

Nice I like the modified center console. Maybe I shouldn't have given away my old center console so I could have used it for something like this with my car. D'oh!

If you have/ can find the rubber piece, you can have my left over center console.

[kts]

If you have/ can find the rubber piece, you can have my left over center console.

I have a spare rubber piece. I think I'll be good with my current setup, but if not I'll drop you a line, thanks!

[irish44j]

A buddy of mine finished wrapping his Z06 a while back, and dropped by with a 3x5 remnant piece of matte black vinyl, thinking I could use it for whatever. After a few weeks of seeing it rolled up on the workbench, I decided it was time to have a little bit of cheesy fun. The nice thing about a rallycross beater is that I can do things to it I would never do to my daily driver. And of course vinyl comes off if it needs to.

So here it is. Flame away! I plan to continue the stripes down the side of the fender (which won't show up as much since the fender is black).