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

[irish44j]

and it's only gonna get dirtier!

[Mark 42]

After significant use of scotch-brite pad to get rid of the sheen, and adhesion promoter, did 3 coats of NHT epoxy paint in matte black on the entire chrome frames, mirrors, b-pillars, ...

I'd like to know more about the adhesion promoter and the epoxy you used.
(e.g. where to buy, and how much it costs - and a part number like NHT 360 or something?)

[irish44j]

ask and ye shall receive

bought at local auto parts store

[Mark 42]

Aaah, now I see. VHT = Very High Temp... I think it said NHT (typo?).
I looked up NHT Epoxy, and it was some sort of industrial pipe coating.
It looked like it was made to be really thick, like truck bed liner stuff.

Thanks! I need to do the window trim on my 318i.

[irish44j]

oh, whoops. Yeah, VHT is the brand. They make things like translucent red paint for "redding out" taillight lenses as well (which I also used on this car, if you look up farther in the thread). They also have engine paint, header paint, etc....all specialty products basically.

[Mark 42]

Thanks.
I actually copied the whole thread into 7 .PDF files (40 posts each) so
that I could print it out (color laser printer at work - let's me see the pictures in color).
I print it out in small bits as I read the thread. I couldn't get the web page
to print correctly, so I did a "Print to PDF" to be able to format it so that
the edge didn't get cut off... for some reason the "Scale to fit page width"
was being ignored by the printer until I used Adobe to print it from the .PDF

I'm about 120 posts into the thread, so far.

I plan to add a bulb into the unused spot on my tail lights like you did,
but I think my tail lights are different, even though they have a blank
spot too. I'll have to take pictures.

I got a few good pictures of how I fixed the knob on the sunroof crank
last night (drilled and tapped a hole in the shaft the knob goes onto so
I could hold it on with a crew).

I always find pictures of how people solved or did things helpful!

[irish44j]

Been working on a couple other projects recently so no real updates in the last week or two. On the e30 I've done a few little projects but nothing much worth talking about - primarily maintenance-type stuff.

Until today. I picked up my e30 "project for next winter" (aka M42 swap).

Conveniently the seller was literally in the next neighborhood over, and I had some background on the engine. He pulled it out because he did an M20 swap (with plans to turbo it), and not because of engine problems. So a good start. For $250 I got the full engine, transmission, all the wiring harness, the ECU, driveshaft, and some accessories (alternator, PS pump).

The engine is pretty gunked up, and the oil pan did have a crack in it (fixed with JB weld). I'm taking it on faith that engine will run fine once swapped in, but I do plan to do at very least a mild refresh to include timing chain and/or tensioner, seals, water pump, and maybe the head gasket (we'll see).

Engine has a bad clutch fan, but I planned to remove that anyhow. Also already has AC delete.

Thing I will be working on accruing over the next 9 months or so:
- radiator and plumbing
- intake system (including MAF)
- exhaust system (including header)

Anyhow, some quick pics of the dirty engine. It will probably sit under a workbench until the winter as I have limited time and very little car money available this summer..

[Mark 42]

I have an M42... my odometer shows 210,000 miles, but I have no
way to know if the engine has been rebuilt.

How many HP is the bottom end of an M42 good for if rebuilt w/o
a lot of beefing up? Of course, I'm dumb enough to look for HP,
and risk another explosion and fire (MR2 - long story).

The stock M42 is pretty strong as is - spins the tires all too easily
when it rains - much stronger than the 1.6 L 4AGE in the MKI MR2.

[irish44j]

I have an M42... my odometer shows 210,000 miles, but I have no
way to know if the engine has been rebuilt.

How many HP is the bottom end of an M42 good for if rebuilt w/o
a lot of beefing up? Of course, I'm dumb enough to look for HP,
and risk another explosion and fire (MR2 - long story).

The stock M42 is pretty strong as is - spins the tires all too easily
when it rains - much stronger than the 1.6 L 4AGE in the MKI MR2.

Honestly, I know very little about M42 other than the published specs that tell me that it has ~140hp vs. the 100hp in my M10 (and similar difference in torque). At the last event I did 3 runs in an M42-powered car and the power difference was massively apparent - that car felt 3x quicker than mine in exiting corners and in a non-prepped car with beat suspension and snow tires I was only a couple seconds behind my own car's time (fully setup, lighter, and with rally tires), so that said enough.

I don't really plan to "add" any power as I thin the M42 stock power is more than sufficient for my purposes - that and I want it to be reliable since the events are a 90 minute drive from home!

[Mark 42]

I don't really plan to "add" any power as I thin the M42 stock power is more than sufficient for my purposes - that and I want it to be reliable since the events are a 90 minute drive from home!

Not even a mild turbo? Do you think you can resist the temptation ;-) ?

[irish44j]

Not even a mild turbo? Do you think you can resist the temptation ;-) ?

easily. I have a VF52'd WRX as a daily driver and aside from a mile stage 1 tune, I haven't upped the boost in 2 years now.

for my purposes I want the e30 to be as reliable as possible, and FI works against that (and won't help much, if at all, for rallycross). When I want to go fast I'll go in the subie ;)

[Mark 42]

Good point. Turbos probably don't like dirt.

[FunfGan]

I have a radiator, as well as the intake stuff, btw.

[irish44j]

cool, that's what Spencer said too :)

[irish44j]

Today we had event #3 at Summit. Perfect weather for rallycross and a great course setup on the "big course" with the runs bordering on about 90 seconds each. 10 total runs.

In the morning session I felt pretty fast and was handling the car well IMO. Times proved that out with me being only 10 seconds behind the class leader in total time for the morning session, and I did beat him 1 run where he picked up a couple cones. The goal has been to be consistent since Shawn is very consistent. My car is a bit down on power to his RX7 but overall I think they're a fairly even match all things considered. So to be within 10 seconds is good for me there. Averaging only 2 seconds behind per run, not bad for a 90-second course.

Morning course was dry (for our session) and fast. It really flowed and I'd say we were hitting 60mph or so on the straight which had only a mild slalom that could almost be straightlined. Course was mostly hardpack, softpack, grass, and some gravel areas. During our session no mud or wet stuff (though the first session had the slickness after the water truck).

Here's a vid of the course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwvbuQfdjK0&feature=youtu.be

In the afternoon it was a reversed course with some different features, and the water truck came through first thing since alot of dust was going onto Summit Main where alot of pricey vintage racers were running. On the multiple parade laps (to help dry it out) the RWD cars were all over the place (actually alot of fun), and the first few timed runs were pretty slippery with alot of sidewayz yo.. Sadly my GoPro was left on for the entire lunchbreak (duh) so no vid of the afternoon.

Not positive of the PM times, but I felt fast again. Unfortunately picked up several cones on a couple runs in the tight finish area (grr....worst place to cone!).

The prelim results I saw had be 22 seconds back of Shawn and a couple seconds back of Gorka Arrieta in a different RX-7 maybe, but we'll see. Me and Gorka seem to go back and forth all the time, both of us with the goal of catching Shawn somehow (which has yet to happen, lol).

Didn't see their times yet, but I'm pretty confident that I'm getting much quicker in comparison to the 4-person team running the ETA e30 in stock and prepared classes. But then again they're in a stock car on snows and I'm on rally tires with alot less weight, so that doesn't mean much at all. More of a friendly competition than anything else, just to push us all I guess.

After packing up and changing tires at the end, the car wouldn't start. Thought it was because I had the radio on while packing, but a jumpstart did nothing. No crank. Dammit. The guys gave me a push down the hill and dropped the clutch to dump-start it. Ran fine all the way home, but for some reason I lost my turn signals, brake lights, speedometer, and radio. All fuses fine, WTF. Drove carefully 90 miles home in almost no traffic without getting pulled over, lol. Luckily only like 5 stoplights so wasn't an issue.

Turns out the ignition switch is probbably bad. I have another one, so will swap it out this week.

Anyhow, 2-day event in 3 weeks so have some minor tweaks to make before then.