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

[seatown88]

awesome, looks like a lot of fun!

[irish44j]

after much cursing, a couple broken screwdrivers, and using half of the tools in my garage to try to get leverage on things the stock rack and u-joint linkage are finally out of the car. By far my least favorite thing I've done in this build.

When it's all done and the e36 rack is in, I'll think differently I bet....The e30 rack seems to go almost 4.5 turns lock to lock while the e36 rack is about 3.2 turns lock to lock. They have the exact same stroke, in case anyone cares.

So will put it all back together tomorrow perhaps. Putting the u-joint back in should be just as sucky as taking it out was, grr.

to do this conversion, you have to shorten the joint since the e36 rack splined section is much longer than the e30 section. I probably could have improv'd it, but for 20 bucks picked up a kit with the correct spacers and hardware to do it off e30tech. One less thing to deal with.

freakin mess


stuff out


I manhandled the ujoin so much that I broke the OEM spacer/rivet attachment of the two pieces, lol. Luckily, those had to be drilled out anyhow


reassembled with the spacers


oh, also a few pics of the dirtiness picked up at event #1



not too dirty above the skid!


dust-o-rific

[irish44j]

ok, now that I'm more or less done, a quick writeup on the e36 steering rack. First of all, it was a PITA to get everything old off, but back together was easier, really.

There are how-to's on this on the web so I won't go through everything, but a few notes:

1. I used all the stock hoses. The early cars have a flexible HP line, so I was able to get both into position pretty easily, with new washers, etc. Accessing the bolts was a bit difficult since they're on the opposite side of where they are on the e30, but I managed.


2. The UJoint was a bit tighter than I wanted it, and the rubber guibo was flexed. Didn't much like that, and also didn't like the rack sitting at the bottom with the spacer on top. Lowered guys put the spacer on the bottom to reduce bumpsteer. I decided to go halfway, more or less. So I pulled out the spacers and found a comparable thickness in washers (7 of them). Put 4 on top and 3 below and the rack sits more where I want it now. As a side-effect, it also de-flexed the guibo for the most part.




3. As expected, the joint was still binding, just a bit. So got in there with the dremel and shaved it down enough to clear.


Also figured out the the big "bolt" on the bottom of the rack is actually just a cover for the inner pinion bolt. Not gonna mess with that



I expect this other adjuster (not present on the e30 rack) is for lash adjustment?


all installed


FIAMM horns - wonder if these were stock or not. I love how they sound. Tempted to put them in the Subaru, actually, in place of my Hella Supertones, which sound wussy in comparison



the max steering angle on the e30 with this rack is pretty crazy. And still no contact on the inside wheel well.

[irish44j]

and...a few other pics from the event that spencer took









the other e30, the Eta guys working on a busted radiator :(

[irish44j]

Some stuff today:

First, did oil changes on the WRX and 4Runner. yay.

Then, more oil. It's bothered me for a while that there was some odd oil drain plug on the e30...like a rubber stopper with a through-pin, making it so that the plug doesn't come all the way out and when draining the pan it takes like 10 minutes. Also just doesn't seem that strong.

Couldn't get it out through the drain hole, so dropped the pan. A shame, since it had no leaks and testing fate now.

Here's what I found:

outside:


inside:


awesome.

unfortunately, also found why some p/o did this: the threads for the drain plug are stripped (dammit!).

In the "good news" part, the pan was really clean - no shavings, no nothing. So someone maintained this engine at least.


Luckily, I happen to have another M10 sitting here, and it has a pan on it. Time to pull that one.

hmm....someone DIDN'T maintain this engine. Tons of metal in there, tons of other random junk. But the threads are good, so we'll use it.


cleans up nicely.


Spent about an hour prepping the block and pan mating surfaces, so hopefully will have no leaks. Also sprung for the good stuff. No more crappy gaskets, will use what race friends use for built engines. $25 for a tube! grr. It better not leak.



Not surprisingly, I did a terrible job putting the bead on and got way too much on there. So it looks sloppy on the outside. Oh well. More is better than less I guess.

Installed. Yeah, I know....pretty exciting.


oh, and a gratuitous shot of the oil pickup, etc. Didn't notice anything of note


---

next was to get the steering squared away. Did a home alignment (I'm quite good at them, actually) and zeroed the toe to get a "baseline" feel (will tweak it later).

tried about a half-dozen settings on the lash adjustment and I think I've found a happy medium between minimum "dead space on center" and steering effort (which is much heavier than the stock rack, but feels about the same as my WRX now, just how I wanted it). May tweak it a bit more, but it's ok for right now.

---

what else...?

Oh, a buddy dropped off an old CG-lock that won't work on his Z06. So intalled it. Haven't used one of these before (always had harnesses in my autocross cars). Works perfectly.



--

a few little shop things too. With a 4-year-old, I've been trying to keep baby food jars. Time to put some of them up and organize all my random hardware. Because I hate guessing on what's metric and what's SAE with cars here that use both.

[epiphy]

Man that looks fun. I gotta get my car out on the dirt ASAP before it gets too damn hot!

[irish44j]

yes, you do!

Her in mid-atlantic SCCA they actually have events March-June, then take July and August off (due to heat making dust = the guys on Summit Main go crashy into walls at 150mph because they can't see), and then resume September-November.

So basically July and August will be WRX autocross months....

[irish44j]

nothing exciting to talk about today. I spent the day converting my daughter's toddler bed into a twin. I can take apart an entire suspension in 2 hours but trying to figure out how to convert a simple piece of furniture takes half the afternoon.

but, mission was accomplished with a minimum of cursing



then did a few little things. First noticed that my newly-installed oil drain plug was dripping. Dammit, I knew the washer in the little baggy wasn't the correct one, grr. So tomorrow will go get a copper or crush washer, try to pull the plug, plug it with my finger, and re-install with the right washer without losing $15 of brand-new oil. Maybe just a quart, which is fine since I have a quart left in the jug, lol.

Also took the gray gasket maker and re-did the valve cover, which was leaking a bit with the brand-new OEM craptastic gasket torqued to spec.

a few other little non-interesting things (seatbelt receptacle adjustment, etc) not worth talking about or taking photos of.

So, the photo "mod" for the day. "Beacauz Racekar." And because my wife won't let me put it on the family ride, lol

[FunfGan]

That. Is. Fantastic.



(the Stig stickers).

[kts]

then did a few little things. First noticed that my newly-installed oil drain plug was dripping. Dammit, I knew the washer in the little baggy wasn't the correct one, grr. So tomorrow will go get a copper or crush washer, try to pull the plug, plug it with my finger, and re-install with the right washer without losing $15 of brand-new oil. Maybe just a quart, which is fine since I have a quart left in the jug, lol.

just pick up another drain pan. i had to do the same thing once w the Subaru when i didn't notice the oil crush washer had stuck to the bolt and i put another one on there. i figured a cheap $3 drain pan from Walmart was cheaper than wasting all that fresh oil. as a bonus you'll have an extra drain pan which always comes in handy when you least expect it.

[irish44j]

I was able to do the plug swap with minimal oil loss (maybe 1/4 qt at most). Just plugged the hole with my finger while I switched the washers with the other hand, lol.

Thank God for 20w50 oil....it drains thick and slow when cold!

[kingston]

Irish44j,

I have a question for you... Have you had a chance to use the Hella Rally lights at night? I'm wondering how your mounting worked out as far as vibration shaking the lights around. I had intended to mount my set just as you have, but I have had people recommend that I use a light bar. Given that the bars I've seen mount to the DBs anyway, it seems like I should just cut out the middleman. Curious as to your results!

[irish44j]

Irish44j,

I have a question for you... Have you had a chance to use the Hella Rally lights at night? I'm wondering how your mounting worked out as far as vibration shaking the lights around. I had intended to mount my set just as you have, but I have had people recommend that I use a light bar. Given that the bars I've seen mount to the DBs anyway, it seems like I should just cut out the middleman. Curious as to your results!

I only used them around the neighborhood (since I don't take this car out at night much), but I didn't notice any vibration of the beam. I mean, they're on the bumper directly rather than some flimsy mount or plastic piece. Much more firmly mounted than (for example) the OEM foglights on my WRX or 4Runner (which bolt to little flimsy brackets and plastic).

Which brings me to the fact that the OEM BMW foglights are mounted to the bumper as well on the early models - they just hung below the bumper rather than above. My bumper still has the holes and you can see the "squares" where the OEM fogs were mounted.

So if the bumper is good enough for OEM, it's good enough for me.

I think most guys go with the light bars so they don't have to drill holes in the bumper. The lightbars just bolt up to the licence plate holes anyhow (which, of course, is part of the bumper).

[craiggroves91]

Is that gasket stuff you used on your oil pan pretty proven?

[kingston]

I only used them around the neighborhood (since I don't take this car out at night much), but I didn't notice any vibration of the beam. I mean, they're on the bumper directly rather than some flimsy mount or plastic piece. Much more firmly mounted than (for example) the OEM foglights on my WRX or 4Runner (which bolt to little flimsy brackets and plastic).

Which brings me to the fact that the OEM BMW foglights are mounted to the bumper as well on the early models - they just hung below the bumper rather than above. My bumper still has the holes and you can see the "squares" where the OEM fogs were mounted.

So if the bumper is good enough for OEM, it's good enough for me.

I think most guys go with the light bars so they don't have to drill holes in the bumper. The lightbars just bolt up to the licence plate holes anyhow (which, of course, is part of the bumper).

Exactly my train of thought! I don't care about drilling into the DBs...if they rust, I'm PRETTY SURE I can find another one somewhere :D I can't find anyone make the bars right now anyway, so now it's settled.

How much of a PITA was it to drill into?

Thanks for the response, man. I always love checking in on your thread!