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

[irish44j]

Today: PROJECT DEAD PEDAL

SInce I took the carpet out, the stock "dead pedal" is gone. This is a problem since in rallycross I need someplace to brace my foot and right now the only two options are to keep it on the clutch pedal (NO!) or to realy extend my leg to the firewall (also not a good option).

So, time for the "Free Dead Pedal Mod"

Parts: 3 pairs of nuts and bolts, some 2" steel bar, and some sheet metal. A bit of bending, a bit of drilling (and using the bolt for my inner mudflaps, and it's done. I templated it in cardboard to make sure that the placement doesn't interfere with the clutch pedal use, but is close enough to make quick foot transitions. Tested it out by kicking it really hard and pushing it with all my strength. Doesn't move an inch.

bracket


finished




I'm also going to go pick up one of the foam stomp pads that come with Ride snowboard bindings (at the ski shop I work at), so give the dead pedal a bit of grip rather than smooth metal.

[irish44j]

Driving around today I managed to spill an entire large McDonald's soda all over myself and the car. AWESOME. not.

In any other car, this would be a major issue, but of course not in a rallycross beater. That said, can't have a bunch of sticky crap all over everything. And of course I bedliner'd the entire floor of the car. So, did the Jeep-style washdown. And got a ton of dirt out of it at the same time.

Also drilled some new drain holes (with plugs) since the places BMW put the drain holes are not where the water goes, lol

Left the drainholes open, though, since we're supposed to get 2-3" of rain in the next 24 hours, and I'm not totally confident that I took care of all the leaks in the car. Guess we'll see.

[irish44j]

Post-rain inspection. It's been raining heavy for about 2 full days now, with the e30 parked on the street (so as not to get any tree branches on it!). Happy to say that my sealing and prepping and weatherproofing of the interior seems to have worked. Not a drop anywhere in the passenger compartment (this after a small rainstorm used to leave a good puddle in the floorpan).

Unfortunately, the trunk didn't fare as well. I located three leak areas: the upper trunk seal (which was not very tight on the lip) and both taillights (which had visible runs of water coming down from both of them).

For the upper seal pulled it off, tightened up the clamping areas, and then put some black silicone in the slot and reinstalled (after thorough cleaning of all of it).

For the lights pulled them out to find that virtually the entire foam seal was wet, and clearly not sealing. It's supposed to rain more and I don't have new seals (nor do I want to waste the money on them), so busted out some bathroom caulk (in white, lol).



cleaned everything up, and put the gaskets on low heat in the oven for 10 minutes to dry them out. In the mean time, threw down a bead on the housing



foam seal back on top of that


and a bead on the outside


and reassembled everything. Yeah, real exciting stuff, right? lol....

[AbsorbantNut]

Always love to see you're updates on this thing, keep it up!

[irish44j]

Thx...I do the poor-man's updates :)

Then I go into a thread and see engine builds that cost more than this entire project (including purchase price) has. And I think to myself "damn, that would be nice....."

:D

[AbsorbantNut]

Thx...I do the poor-man's updates :)

Then I go into a thread and see engine builds that cost more than this entire project (including purchase price) has. And I think to myself "damn, that would be nice....."

:D

I know exactly where you're coming from, we're in the same boat if you take a look at my thread:p

If I had a whole lotta money, the things I would do:giggle:

[irish44j]

I know exactly where you're coming from, we're in the same boat if you take a look at my thread:p

If I had a whole lotta money, the things I would do:giggle:

Yeah, I've been following your thread, but I'm mostly a lurker except in my own threads, lol. I need to comment more!

[Mark 42]

I just subscribed to this thread.
It's going to take me a while to read all the way from the beginning...
this 318i Rally Report (w/ Video)may be in this thread already,
but I wanted to post it JIC.

I am really looking forward to reading it, but it looks like at least 400 pages
if I print it all.

From what I've read so far, I think if I ever want to go do Rally, I'll buy someone's
finished car!

[irish44j]

lol, yeah I think we all know Caswell :)

rallycross doesn't require nearly as complete/heavy a build as full rally does (especially baja stuff). You can basically do it with a bone-stock civic if you want to, and should be ok without breaking anything (or at least anything major).

For me I'd never buy someone else's finished car anyhow. I enjoy doing the work almost as much as I enjoy running it!

[Mark 42]

I'm still trying to decide between leaving out car (1991 DS 318i) stock for autocross & rallycross or putting the lowering springs and shocks I got with the car on it (which would make it non-competitive in the autocross class I'd get bumped up to)

I do enjoy building cars as a hobby - but just haven't got much time anymore ;(
(but do not enjoy maintenance and repairs anymore - I did when I was young though)

But, buying someone else's completed project can really save a lot of money.
I can understand the idea that doing it yourself is worth the extra cost because of the
enjoyment you get from building it though. When I did R/C planes, I thought "ready to
fly" was insane - I loved building them. I couldn't fathom that there were people in
the hobby who actually paid others to build kits for them!

I'm familiar with rallycros - was actually curious about how much time & money
you put into a car for it. I was thinking maybe the sport has changed since I did it.
We hosted a Rally Cross on our property in Alabama (It was sanctioned by SCCA so that it was insured). I think it was the first one in Northern Alabama. Not many people knew
what rallycross was back then.

Here's a short video of me testing the course. I think the guy who took the video may be active on this forum (his name is Otis, he was active in Twickenham Auto Club & SCCA in the Huntsville area. Our property was near Decatur, AL... in Trinity - a town even most locals had never heard of.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjllMpnbi-0

I really miss Alabama. Having enough land for auto racing, and shooting on our own property was great. My plan was to build a tower with restroom on the bottom and observation deck / timing stand above. The best laid plans... :roll:

[irish44j]

Today was the driver's school and test&tune at Summit. It was a long morning drive with no heater fan (and freeze warning in effect there)....luckily I was picking up a heater fan from Spencer at the event, so that solved that!

I figured I'd do the driver's school since I'm a noob to rallycross. It was a good setup, but I'm thinking it was more geared toward people that were maybe brand-new to motorsports in general, though I learned a few little things to keep in my head. In the afternoon we did a test&tune. Car ran well and I'm starting to get more comfortable with it. Dropped my tire pressures to about 28lbs which provided alot better traction than last time out at 35lbs. The rally tires are so stiff you really feel no difference in sidewall flex.

Also rode along with Shawn, the fastest driver in my class, in his RX-7. He clearly pushes his car harder than I do mine, and really stays on it hard much deeper into corners than I do. I worked on that in my later runs and though it will take some getting used to I think I probably was faster. His RX7 clearly has more power throughout the range than the 318 does, so to get closer to him I'll need to make up for it in the corners (no small task).

Also drove a run in Adam Kimmet's AWD Prepared class-winning 2.5RS frankencar. Fun to drive and I was thinking the whole time "damn, Subarus are so much easier to do this rallycross stuff in".....in short, it was much easier to drive fast. Could be because I drive a WRX daily, lol.

Also rode with Katie in her n/a impreza. She drives like Shawn (her husband) with alot of sideways, alot of countersteer, and a ton of aggressive. I tried to copy when she rode with me later :)

All in all the weather was cool and cloudy, but the rain held off until moments before I left the venue, and washed everything off on the way home.

One other little note: my rear control arm poly bushings are squeaky as hell!

Some pics:

The e30 trifecta


Grassroots in the Grass




The SR/PR champs from the last 2 years


uh...yeah


Spencer


1.8L vs. 1.8L


The ETA guys had a problem: their lower rad hose rubbed against the alternator pulley and sliced a hole in it. THe fix: 2 hoses spliced together with a 16mm socket inside and hose clamps outside. They ran the whole afternoon like this. I would expect nothing less from guys who also do ChumpCar/LeMons



best photo I took. Subies always look great in a powerslide


the top dog in my class


dirty scirocco


the ETA guys


over on the Main Circuit paddock

[irish44j]

Event #2 is in the books!

So some good and some bad. First the bad:
1. during the morning session, I was getting a horrible clunking from the front right. Everything seemed to perform fine, but it was loud and annoying. After much investigating between sessions I finally found that the collar at the top of the strut housing had loosened itself. And then I remembered that when I put the front suspension together I couldn't find my loctite and was a bit worried about the collar loosening. And it did. Duh. Managed to tighten it between the spring coils using a big channel-lock. Will do a full tighten before the next event.

2. Halfway through the afternoon session in the middle of the run the car started making a terrible hissing sound and lost a ton of power. It was hard to locate the sound. Checked every vac line, the TB elbow, etc with no luck. Eventually figured out that I must have an exhaust leak at the bottom of the manifold where it bolts to the exhaust. Maybe the gasket blew out or something. That explains the loud/annoying noise and the fact that it only happens under higher loads (if you drive like gramma, it's fine). Also would explain the power loss, since that is before the primary 02 sensor. Will pull the exhaust in re-do all that stuff this weekend.

Now on to the event. The course was run on Summit Point's "Barn Course" which is new to me. It rained the night before, so the morning runs had a soft-packed clay surface that was pretty grippy actually. The course design was awesome and they actually had to change one part since people were getting a bit of air over a big bump apparently, lol. We got 5 morning runs. Morning course was very technical with at least 2 haripins that required many cars (icnluding me) to drop into 1st or really bog down. Dropping to first also helped me rotate through them. Also took a few detours through the grass after a few over-oversteer moments, haha...Nothing like plowing through windshield-high grass and hoping you're heading back onto the course and not into a gopher hole or something!

Afternoon they reversed and changed the course and by then it had fully dried out and gotten REALLY hard. Most of the course was essentially really bumpy asphalt by this point. The clay was hard enough that there were black tire marks at all the launch and braking zones. I kept hearing the rally tire guys lament that hey should have run with snow tires for better traction.

I felt very comfortable in the morning course and pretty sketch in the afternoon, personally. On rally tires too.

So also in the afternoon after my car had the exhaust issue/power loss I ran the last 3 runs (out of 6) in Spencer's 318is on snow tires. His car has a perma-reclined seat (I could hardly see over the dash, lol) and damn the stock steering is slow. HIs car clearly has alot more power than mine (M42 vs M10) but since he hasn't done much "fixing" on it it was alot looser and sloppier handling and with the stock big steering wheel and stock rack. I had trouble controlling it, honestly. My 3 runs with his car were 3-4 seconds slower than in my own, even with the higher power. The afternoon course defintely catered more to the cars with more power, whereas the morning runs were more technical.

Overall I drove well, at least in the morning. Was a bit too tentative in the afternoon, upon reflection.

Results are here: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/UP2eT0e...im_results.htm

I took 2nd in RWD Modified, but only 10 seconds behind the class leader (about average of 1 second per run). He did have one DNF run that took the max, so if he hadn't had that I'd have been more like 30 seconds behind him overall. But then if I had my own car for the last 3 runs, I would have been back within 20 seconds. Also of my 4 cones on the day, 3 of them were running in SPencer's car since I couldn't control the damn thing! Whatever, in either case it was an improvement over how badly I got spanked in the first event.

Not that they really compare since the course conditions change constantly, but I felt like the conditions didn't change that much on this course since it was all hard-packed all day. Anyhow, of the 12 RWD cars/drivers entered I was 3rd fastest, behind Shawn (MR winner) and Roberto (PR winner), both in RX-7s. And within 15 second of both overall, which isn't too bad considering the gross times were in the 750-770 second time.

I was also fastest of the 6 e30 drivers overall, though not fastest on any particular runs. More consistent for sure. Granted I am in the highest class of the e30s, but I'm also way down on power compared to the others as well.

Scott (the ETA team captain) posted this up, just for fun:

Fastest E30 single lap time, obviously afternoon:

66.356 Steven (PR) (Cut the course.)
66.473 James (SR)
67.103 Chris (PR)
67.318 Jay (MR)
67.375 Scot (SR)
68.023 Spencer (MR <-- why, come to SR)

E30 day totals, There will be surface differences, but who cares:

772.034 Jay (MR) (Must have cheated.)
776.290 Steven (PR)
790.331 Scot (SR)
792.298 Spencer (MR)
799.929 James (SR)
809.330 Chris (PR)

The E30 CONE Crazy (highest award):

14 James (SR) (Had the most fun of the day!)
10 Chris (PR)
6 Spencer (MR)
5 Scot (SR)
4 Jay (MR)
1 Steven (PR) (Paid some flag people.)

So pretty pleased overall. More when I think of more!

In the meantime, here are some vids of the courses (good quality, and sound isn't too terrible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edjRGsdiOjw&list=UUZDzORFSilgFFHMqcT8uyIA&index=1&feature=plcp

And some random pics from the day:







Spencer


Crowner's croo


Other randoms










Sexy Peugeot 505 that ran

[Mark 42]

It's all about the fun... the first time we did Rallycross, 4 guys went together on a
$500 Buick. It was luxurious (in its day). They also dropped $40 on used snow tires.

They got their own class... the classes were FWD street tire, RWD street tire, RWD Offroad tire, and Buick.

The second race, I had blown the motor in my MR2, so I ended up joining 5 other guys racing that same Buick (they were nice enough to let me use their car). The six of us got our own class again.

That car got air off of a bump & pulled the lug nuts right through the holes in the
steel wheels - once at each event. I was driving the 2nd time.

The nice thing was that when a car broke, I could just run a chain from the
box blade on my tractor to the bumper of the car and lift it & drag the car
to the pit area. Of course, that was only if they didn't care about the car's bumper.

[irish44j]

post-event fixin' time. Knocked out a few projects today.

First switched in some later-model door panels that I got from Spencer (no pics right now), but that's not terribly exciting.

Second, swapped in a new (junkyard) blower fan that I got in some parts-swap action, to replace mine that squeals like a pig at any speeds and is really annoying. Not that I use it much, except when it's cold outside, but still worth fixin.



Then it was time to investigate my issues noted above regarding the exhaust. Decided to pull the entire exhaust and see what's happening.

Taking the skid off was a bit of a dirty job


After taking it all off it was clear that none of the flanges were leaking (at least not that I could see) or cracked. But as I picked up the primary pipe (from manifold to middle flange) I heard a "clunk" and it was clear what the problem was: The catalytic converter substrate had broken apart inside the cat, and under hard acceleration was sliding back and clogging the exhaust pipe (and opening up under braking, as I noticed).



Problem solved. Now I was going to just weld a test pipe (or flex pipe) in there, but don't have a welder here and don't want to deal with more clamps at the moment. So decided to gut the cat since it's right near the flange. Poked away at it with a long screwdriver for a few minutes and it all came out in pieces.



With that taken care of, and waiting for the mail to arrive with some new exhaust and manifold gaskets, time to take a look-see at the underside.

Yup, that's a rallycross car!




Gaskets finally got here later in the afternoon. The old ones looked OK, but since I have it all apart I might as well seal everything up good to avoid having to do it later.



Also took the time to get some matching nuts and bolts in stock sizes, since my current exhaust was all bolted together using a mix of whatever metric and/or SAE stuff I had sititng around the garage last winter. A PITA since it takes like 7 wrenches to get it off, lol.

And installed my other exhaust manifold (stock also) that a P/O had powdercoated silver, since the one on the car was just ugly rusty.

So, it all seems to run well now. Still need to tighten the front strut collars just to be sure, and use some loctite this time. The family (minus me) is heading to the beach for a week, so I'll have plenty of time to drink, wrench, and generally make noise and mess for the next 7 days :)

My pixie

[shiboujin]

kinda dirty there josh lol.