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

[irish44j]

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!

thanks, and I don't think you'll have to worry about rusting, since the bumpers are aluminum :) . They're surprisingly light, which is why I just left them on. Also because, once tucked and painted black I think they look good.

So, being aluminum, they're pretty easy to drill through. The metal is fairly thick, but any good metal bit makes quick work of it.

three suggestions:

1. when you test-fit, open the hood. Remember, the hood folds over the grille when open, so you need to put the light far enough back on the bumper so that when the hood is open, the front of the hood is 1/2" or so away from actually touching the lights (with the covers on). Don't worry, there is room. Just put them as close to the grille as possible without touching. I test-fitted several times to make sure the grille and hood weren't contacting the lights. I think you can see the positioning in my pics.

Keep in mind that my bumpers are "tucked." I'm not sure what the clearance looks like if your bumpers are still sticking out OEM length. You probably couldn't do the "behind the hood" mount with stock DBs.

(on a side note, this might be a reason why guys use a light bar - to move the lights FORWARD of where the hood folds down. The stock DB untucked may not be able to accomodate the lights without clearance issues with the hood). I prefer the positioning (and the look) of them sitting close to the grille on the tucked DBs..

2. If your bumpers are tucked, you'll want to "pull them out" temporarily so you can do the bolt and wiring on the backside. If they're pushed in , you can't get hands or tools in there easily.

3. I drilled a second hole right behind the main mounting hole. Just a small one (maybe 1/4" or so, but I don't specifically remember) with a small rubber grommet, big enough to run the wires through before I put on the connectors to the main harness. I think it's a cleaner look than running the wires through the grille or around the bakc of the bumper. I'm not sure if my pics show everything clearly, so if you need pics of something in particular, let me know and I"ll post a few up.

[kingston]

Awesome! I'd love to see a pic of how you ran the wires (plus how you actually wired the Hellas to your fogs). I suh-HUCK at wiring! LOL!

My DB's are tucked a bit, too. I agree with you that having the lights farther back is a cleaner look, and a more elegant solution.

I'll be messing with flocking one of my more effed up dashes for my track car. Yours came out great!!

Thanks again!

[irish44j]

k, I'll take some in a bit.

Mine are wired using the Hella relay and new wiring, but spliced into the factory fog light wiring and switch. It was a bit of trial-and-error for me since I'm not much on electricals myself. Would have been easier just to run it standalone with the hella swich (as shown in the standard wiring diagram).

[irish44j]

ok, small modification to what I said before. Upon reflection, I actually wired the lights DIRECTLY to the original fog light wires, which were still there on my car, running behind the bumper (though the OEM fogs were long gone). I just spliced right into them, and it all worked. So I'm using the OEM relay in the fusebox and the OEM switch on the dash. If you car didn't have fogs, you'd have to do all the wiring yourself:

1. power line from battery to relay
2. power line from relay to lights
3. ground to relay
4. wire from relay to swich.

Hella instructions should tell you the right terminals to use.

A couple pics for you. One other thing to note: My bumpers are tucked as far in as they'll go, but I trimmed the rubber "gaiter" thing that goes over the bumper (pics earlier in this thread someplace). If you didn't trim yours, you'll need to cut some notches in it to mount the fog light directly onto the metal.

1. the tape measure is on the back of the bumper here, to show you how far out it's mounted. Alsoyou can see the small hole the wiring goes through. Then it just runs inside the bumper to the front left corner of the car where it hooks up with the OEM wiring and grounds.



2. here's the clearance with the hood open. It's close, but there's space. Hope that helps.

[irish44j]

so small daily update today.

1. upon further examination, it sounds as if it's my primary fuel pump (near the left rear wheel) that is buzzing/humming, possibly not the in-tank lifter pump (though that could be dying too?). So will replace the hi-pressure pump first, since it can still pull fuel without the lifter if needed, so I shouldn't be stranded. Ordered up a new Bosch one off ebay, should be here later in the week.

2. I was about to put the skidplate back on, and decided to add a bit of side flaps to keep dirt from gettin on the topside of it. I meant to do this before, but with the car on ramps it was a good time to.

As before, getting use out of an old heavy-duty Rubbermaid storage bin cover. It's pretty tough stuff, with some flex but enough stiffness to stop any debris from passing. I just riveted to the skidplate itself, and it tucks up right behind the OEM splashguards

not that I really care if the engine is getting dirty (it will get dirty, no matter what), but I'd prefer to keep as much mud and crap as possible off the fan, belts, etc.





3. unfortunately, my often-used, decade-old Gorilla Ramps (or whatever they're called) have developed a few cracks in them, so they're going bye-bye. Not getting under any car being held by cracked ramps. So today I used some old-school metal ramps that were out in my shed. Fine for the jacked-up e30. My WRX can't get up on them, not even close. On the upside, I've been looking for an excuse to buy some Raceramps, so here it is. My wife said she may get them for me for our anniversary in a couple weeks :)

grr

[kingston]

DUDE! Thanks so much for the speedy and detailed response!! I truly appreciate it!!

[Delraco]

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

People seem to love it, but I'm curious to see how this worked for Mr. Irish too.

[craiggroves91]

People seem to love it, but I'm curious to see how this worked for Mr. Irish too.

Yeah, I need to figure something out for my built 2.8 m20 turbo!

[FunfGan]

Looking good Josh, that container is being put to good use hahah. I'm ordering my new Hella setup today :D

[shEck3lls0]

Looking good Josh, that container is being put to good use hahah. I'm ordering my new Hella setup today :D

New hella set-up? What do you need a new set-up for?

[shiboujin]

FYI space the steering rack as high as you can get it to lessen bump steer.

[irish44j]

Well the updates have been in short supply recently. First because I've had some other projects going on that needed attending to, and also because the list of things I *want* or *need* to do on this car is getting fairly short here. I have to be honest, though, that the monthlong hiatus between events is killer...I want to get this thing back on course and work on my driving, and still have 3 weeks left to wait...

Anyhow, the remaining "to do" list is as follows:
- fuel pump(s)
- muffler
- wheel bearing

So today addressed the first one: fuel pump.

I've been getting the buzzing from both fuel pumps recently. Yeah, the early e30s with the dual-pump setup (a lifter/transfer pump in the tank and the high-pressure pump under the rear rocker). The high-pressure is more important since it can (in theory) still pull fuel by itself. And it's alot cheaper, surprisingly. So took care of it today. Nothing special, but it's definitely a hassle due to the location and the way the brackets and lines are set up. But after spilling gasoline all over myself and my driveway, got it done. New Bosch pump there. And it's still buzzing. WTF. So it must be the lifter pump or the pickup filter causing the HP pump to work harder. The lifter pump new is $$$ so that's a no-go....so going to pull it out and check the pickup filter "sock" tomorrow, and keep my eye open for a used lifter pump or check the junkyards.

I was going to just switch over to a single in-tank HP pump (like later models) but didn't really feel like running new HP line to the tank and soforth.....probably in retrospect a bad decisions, but what's done is done.

While I had the fuel system empty also did the fuel filter in the engine bay. It was about 100x as much of a pain, since it's pretty crammed in there between the charcoal canister, brake MC, etc....



old one


and another little project. After the first event my trunk had about an inch of dirt througout the entire thing. WTF....the trunk has no holes, no rust-through....but it has the two damn vents under the bumper, which I forgot about. I guess they're not as "one-way" as they're supposed to be, lol.

Not like dirt is a major problem, but I'd rather not have it in the trunk than have it in the trunk, you know? Also, I really don't care to have my battery caked in clay...



So....I don't want to stop all airflow from exiting (since I like to close my doors with the windows up, lol). So found an old engine air filter and cut it up, and "wrapped" the vents. We'll see how this works.





Also pulled the GT6 out of storage and did some spring cleaning. THat also means the e30 loses its indoor parking spot, since the GT6 is not terribly weatherproof, and gets the garage bay. The upsdie is that the GT6 is so small, now I have like 7 feet of open floor in front of it, so I can actually work in the garage with the car in there, lol.

I worked pretty hard to make sure all the e30's water leaks were fixed knowning this was coming, so hope it works :)

[irish44j]

People seem to love it, but I'm curious to see how this worked for Mr. Irish too.

Working fine so far, no leaks. Also did the valve cover, which was a bit leaky even with a new OEM gasket. I haven't used the stuff before, but I did a good amount of research on it, and it seems to be some of the better stuff out there. Alot of high-boosted guys I've talked to use it as well.

It had better be good, because it is freaking expensive, lol...

Yeah, I need to figure something out for my built 2.8 m20 turbo!

If you haven't figured it out yet, you can deliver the 2.8 m20 turbo to my house, and I'll install it in the rallye30 :)

Looking good Josh, that container is being put to good use hahah. I'm ordering my new Hella setup today :D

New hella set-up? What do you need a new set-up for?

to replace his imaginary one?

FYI space the steering rack as high as you can get it to lessen bump steer.

IDK....bump steer isn't really a concern with this car, Yoshi. You've seen how high it sits, right? lol. Usually BS is more of an issue for lowered cars, to my knowledge. Right now my angles are pretty good on the LCA and TR's, so we'll see.

It's spaced up about as far as it can go anyhow. I didn't use the milled spacers, I basically shimmed above and below with washers, about halfway.

On that note, if anyone needs the e36 steering rack spacers for the rack, let me know. I have a set in new condition!

[shiboujin]

*shrugs* I suppose. lol. Glad to see the car gets use. My bud at work knows you. He's the guy with the 2.5rs navy blue ish. I think it's a GC8... ish you know? lol. Ted

[irish44j]

*shrugs* I suppose. lol. Glad to see the car gets use. My bud at work knows you. He's the guy with the 2.5rs navy blue ish. I think it's a GC8... ish you know? lol. Ted

Mike, John, Ted, or Adam? I think those are the guys with blue GCs that were out there....and for a "Subaru guy" I have little clue as to tell a GC8 from a regular GC, lol...

When is your build gonna see some action? Seems to be getting there, eh?