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

[irish44j]

sorry, i'm not being clear. What i am referring to is your level, It needs to rest on the small arms of the throwout bearing, not the tops of the throwout bearing.. the arms are what contact the clutch fork, the tops dont contact anything.

yep, that's what I'm referring to as well, Carlos ;)

[irish44j]

vid from the event:

[irish44j]

counting down to the Susquehanna region event this weekend (a 3-hour drive....). Will be heading up there with some of the guys from the ETA team. Looks like a full event with quite a different group of cars than we usually have at Summit. The usual subies will be there in force, of course, but other interesting cars on the sign-up list include a 2012 maxima, a Cooper S, a Buick Regal, an old Celica Supra, a Grand Marquis, Honda Element (??), several Neons and Civics, and an NX2000. In my class it's just me and Shawn's RX-7 with him and Katie (who usually drives an Impreza). Gorka and Roberto aren't going to make it due to some exhaust manifold issue, so that kind of sucks.

In the meantime, working on a few little things as I wait for some parts to come in from Blunttech so I can put the flywheel/clutch swap in and install the tranny.

Drilled out one hole in the "spacer" off the M42 flywheel to fit behind the M20 flywheel and put it at the right depth. The hole needed to be enlarged since one lug has a locating collar on it.



Also built a little rolling stand for the refurbished M42, so I can move it around once the tranny is on it, and free up my engine stand for other things.



And pressed out a torn OEM diff bushing for Pat and pressed in a poly one that he got.





Also started to put a list together of off-season priorities. Since the car is doing pretty well right now, the list is pretty short aside from completing the engine swap - and hopefully that won't entail much more in terms of monetary cost (fingers crossed).

Other than that, the plan is for:

1. New tires. I'm leaning toward DMACK tires, since they seem to get good reviews from rally guys and are siginificantly cheaper than the similar tires from Yoko, BFG, etc. Worth a shot, I think. Plus they spell tires "tyres" which always puts a smile on my face :)

2. Aluminum Mishimoto e36 radiator. I have a decent M42 radiator here, but really don't like the integrated expansion tank design in terms of "holding up" to being beat up, failing seals, etc. So might just spring for the aluminum e36 one, which can be fitted with some different hoses.

3. Some color. The car is too boring. I'm playing with photoshop to see what I can do to make it look better with a few rattle cans. Possible themes include - German Flag colors (since I already have the black), Irish colors (green and white, in this case) for obvious reasons, or BMW blue and white like the roundel. Or something totally different. We'll see :)

[irish44j]

so here's my first template of what it's gonna look like. i cribbed much of the design off some european tarmac rally e30 that i saw a pic of. but i'll make enough changes to make it my own (:D)

and will try the white wheels again, i think...

[Holland]

I dig that design, especially with white wheels, but I am biased.

[irish44j]

In other things....today I did some receipt-adding to see how much I've blow the budget.

Total costs for this build so far is below. And keep in mid that this INCLUDES:
- The car itself
- Used rally tires
- New star specs (for getting there and future autocross/track days)
- New Bilstein HDs
- Replaced ALL bushings and balljoints
- Brake pads all four
- Hella fog lights (for poser rally looks)
- Used porsche seats
- New Kirk rollbar
- TWO M42 engines and transmissions with all accessories
- M20 clutch/flywheel components (new, but bought at used prices)
- and minus a couple hundred bucks of stuff I've sold off

Total: $4700. So, the price of a beat-up old WRX with everything worn out. Or the price that real rally teams spend on just their brake kits, lol. Take out the stuff I didn't really NEED (rollbar, star specs, second M42 for parts), and then it's just over $3000 total.

So, it's not Grassroots Motorsports Challenge or LeMons budget, but the car is great to drive on the street and on the course, and i'm fully confident that it will hold together fine on a trackday or two as well, and be safe and reliable.

And it's way more fun than a beat-up/worn-down old WRX on the course :)

[kts]

Knowing what a few teams spend on Lemons cars you're on budget/still under budget of a lot of Lemons teams.

And every car needs Star Specs and a roll bar!

[irish44j]

Today wrapped up the rallycross season with a one-off event at Susquehanna Region SCCA up at Susquehanna Speedway in York, PA. Before I talk about that one, I'll just make a little note here about the season as a whole, done in a 27-year-old BMW!

- Over 1500 miles transiting to and from events (the car drives great at above-highway speeds, but there is some front end lift over 70mph, especially when I have all my gear in the trunk/back).
- Logged in something like 140 minutes of seat-time on course this season. That is, by far, more than the TOTAL seat time I've had in 10+ seasons of autocross.
- Had a great time at every event, even the ones I drove badly at. Can't say that of other motorsports I've done over the years (drag, autocross, etc).
- The car had ZERO engine, suspension or other mechanical failures this year. Never left me stranded. The only significant issues were a disintegrated cat (now gutted) and various electrical gremlins, and some exhaust banging. Pretty good considering I abused the car all year.

Can't wait until next season!

Now, back to the Susquehanna event. They hadn't had a rallycross program in that region for a number of years, so a good group of the Washington DC crew went up there (3 hour drive for me) to support this one-off event that they would use to determine if there was enough interest. It was us, a good number from Philly SCCA, and a handful of locals in some interesting vehicles (including a SBC-swapped longbet S10 pickup!). Over 40 cars were registered, so pretty good turnout.

Some snafus right from the start with timing issues. They were using laser lights (form their autocross program) rather than the pressure-sensors that we use in WDC. Don't know if that was the issue with dust in the way, or just getting stuff aligned due to uneven surfaces that the lights were sitting on. Anyhow, that took like an hour at least to sort out. In the meantime we took some fun runs, which were not much fun since they transitioned from hardpack/rocky/bumpy surface to a slab of tarmac, to wet grass, back to hard, back to wet grass, and so on. And basically the whole course was a ton of slaloms, since it was at a dirt circle-track oval, using the infield and part of the banked section.....thus limiting layout options.

Overall it was kind of weird, and more like an autocross on a very small lot. No real speed sections, no big sweepers, just a lot of slaloms and big switchbacks. And a couple areas that got a bit too close to the outer wall of the track for my comfort level. One car did kiss the wall lightly (he was driving pretty out of control that run), but didn't do any damage other than a little scuff on the bumper. I would have liked to see things laid out a bit differently, but then who am I to say ;)

Here's a video of one run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfgtBA2Sm7g&list=UUZDzORFSilgFFHMqcT8uyIA&index=1&feature=plcp

In the end the course was a big equalizer, with the fast AWD cars only a second or two faster than the RWD and FWD front-runners. I had times that were similar to several rally-prepped subies, for what it's worth (not much).

Shawn took MR class with fast times I think about 50.2 seconds. Chris Nonack took second in his V6-swapped AW12 MR2, edged me out by a couple seconds. My best run was 51.5 I think, but I had a spinout on one run that ruined my comp time, especially since we only got 5 total runs, and ended up 3rd. Last I saw the guy with the SBC-swapped S10 took 4th ahead of Katie driving Shawn's car, but I think they screwed up Katie's times.

In the end, it was a so-so venue. Any rallycross is better than no rallycross, but 3 hours drive is a hike for not many runs and a not-very-fun course. But I expect if Susquehanna starts up a full program it will get better once they get some more experience, so we'll see next year. There's a lot of countryside up there, so hopefully they can find a venue with more open space.

Or maybe we're just spoiled since Summit Point is one of the best rallycross venues in the country (or so I'm told!).

Pics of the event:

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j85/irish44j/BMW%20318i%20RallyCross%20Project/Susquehanna%20RX%20Nov%202012/

Some highlights:



needs more blue painter's tape to protect wimpy subaru paint (as you know, I have a subaru, so I know....)


this guy had some tiny sprint-car-looking tires with an odd tread pattern. Almost looked like ATV tires.


yeah...


I liked this old celica supra, though it didn't look very fast.






hopefully someone else got some pictures of me driving poorly :)

[irish44j]

some good photos of my ride from the last event...

[irish44j]

Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving!

I for one am thankful that we amazingly got a 65-degree day here in late November. Because I was really dreading doing the post-season cleanup on a cold day.

Here's what an e30 looks like after a season of rallycross (I didn't really clean it off much all year, in truth...)









after an hour with the powerwasher...nice und clean..









Also touched base with Carlos at Condor Speed Shop and got some M42 motor mounts on the way. The last of my engine parts should be in tomorrow, so I can throw them on the engine and get it off the stand and get the tranny all hooked up.

Ok, back to Turkey and Football. GO SKINS!!!

[irish44j]

Quick wrap-up on the Susquehanna event, now that the times are posted.

In my class, finished 3rd behind Shawn (RX7) and Chris (V6 MR2), and ahead of a couple others. Even taking out my spin on the last run I still would have lost to Chris, so it is what it is.

Overall I was 16th out of 47 cars. Normally that wouldn't mean much but this event the course didn't change much throughout the day. Actually those of us who ran in the morning first would have been a bit slower since the grass sections were still grassy and wet with morning dew/frost, and they got more dug-in as the day proceeded.

Of the 17 FWD cars there, only 3 beat me (an impreza, a Neon ACR, and a BUICK REGAL (????).

Of the 12 RWD cars there, only 3 beat me (the two in my class and also Steve Nichols eked by me in the ETA e30).

So, all of that is basically meaningless since the event was a bit of a debacle and I think a lot of people there were so frustrated we were not really in a very good groove to drive well. I know some guys were just trying to look good for the people sitting up in the grandstand, lol....

So....no more about this year's events. Time to work on next year's car :)

[irish44j]

after raking up about 30 bags worth of leaves this morning, I had to take a detour on the e30 to try and figure out why the power steering pump on my 2009 WRX is making a ton of noise.

First I checked the belt and it was trashed. This doesn't look like normal wear on a 70k mile car (and the AC belt looks perfect) so I think there is something else up. First try is that there is definitely air in the system (bubbly froth in the reservoir). Checked all hoses and no visible leaks, but there may be air getting in since this started just when it got cold (and hoses inside diameters contract in cold, so a leak may have formed). First, though, try the 'easy fix' that is notorious on subies - the o-ring on the entry hose on top of the PS pump. I put a new o-ring on, and it made less noise, and no bubbles in the reservior at the moment. So maybe fixed. I need to bleed the system this weekend to make sure. Otherwise time to replace hoses, or the pump :P

Here's what the belt looked like.....scary



so, back to the e30 because the subie is a PITA to work on......

First, examining the mess of hoses for the heater. This apparently was a BMW dealer retrofit/recall item since I guess people were cooking their heater cores or having them blow up or something. Looks to be some kind of thermostatically-controlled relief/bypass valve. A look around the e30 forums and it seems that some people just get rid of all this mess, and others don't. It has been suggested that since this car is run hard I should probably keep it. IDK....the hoses are all in pretty good shape though so might keep it for the time being. If they were bad, I'd think about deleting it.



Then a box came in from blunttech with the last few parts I need to finish up the engine.

First, the new oil pressure relief valve. The original valve is made of metal and as you can see it definitley chafes against the cylinder it sits in (under the oil pump). Here's a pic of the valves from both my M42 engines...



And here's the redesigned plastic valve (next to the old one), as well as the old 200k+ mile spring (next to a new one).



With some help from the wife got that back in with the c-clip in the groove. Now can finally button up the oil pan...

For anyone interested, I'm using permatex copper gasket spray on the OEM-style gasket, I've had good success with this stuff in the past on other cars, so I use it on pretty much all gaskets.



I also replaced the timing chain tensioner with a new one, just to be on the safe side. Old one seems fine though.

Once all this was done, could finally take the engine off the stand and put it on the wheeled dolly I had rigged up to hold it, so I can mess with the transmission end of things..



works pretty well :)



So, now to the transmission end of the engine.

First, replaced the input shaft bearing. This was a pain in the arse to get out. Also interesting that there is the bearing, plus a thin metal washer behind it and a tapered washer/grease cap type thing in front of it. Neither of these parts were on my parts M42, and neither are shown in REALOEM or other catalogs. Maybe an aftermarket fix or something. In any case, they seem like a good idea so I just re-used them with the new bearing. I packed it with some synthetic grease (Hopefully that's correct!)



Also replaced the rear main oil seal, though the old one wasn't leaking from what I can tell. But I"m in here, so might as well. I forgot to get the super-thin gasket that goes behind the retainer plate (which was pretty much dissolved anyhow), so I just used a generous amount of red RTV. I was going to use Permatex Gray, but *someone* forgot to put the cap back on the tube and it's no good.



Ok, so that back on here's the spacer fitted on the crank face (not the one bored-out hole to fit the sleeve)



And the flywheel test-fitted. Unfortunately, even with the spacer it rubs the back of the oil pan slightly.....



That's not gonna be satisfactory, even though it would probably wear down and clear pretty quickly. So took out the grinder and shaved the two little "legs" there. This doesn't affect anything in terms of strength, etc....just frees up a little bit of space.



and after:


and zoomed-out shot of the M20 flywheel on


also did a quick mock-up of the M20 starter. Most people swap the M20 pinion gear onto an M42 starter, but I have two old M42 starters and a brand-new M20 starter, so would rather use the latter. Here's the clearance when not engaged. Just like stock....



I'm waiting for some shorter flywheel bolts from blunttech, and once those arrive I'll put the FW/clutch together and bolt the transmission on. I still need to scrounge up a few additional transmision mount bolts, but that should be easy enough.

One question for anyone still reading this thread: does anyone know if the M10 driveshaft will work with the M42? I'll measure once I have them out together, but I only ask since my M10 shaft is in great shape, good U-joints, and new center support bearing. The M42 shaft I have here is pretty nasty looking, and the CSB is trashed.....

I'll also plan on using the clutch slave cylinder from the M10, since I know it's good and it's the same part number as the M42. Plus that will allow me to just unbolt it and leave it on the car when I pull the engine. One less thing to bleed when I'm done :)

[irish44j]

Some more weirdness....

So as I mentioned above with the pilot bearing, the one on the "rebuilt" engine was an old-style open bearing, complete with a felt seal and dust cap. I didn't think much of this until I noticed that the "parts" engine has a sealed bearing there (no felt, no dust cap).



After more investigation, it turns out that they have different inner diameters!

Now had to look at the transmissions. ON the outside they are identical, with identical part numbers and markings. But as it turns out the one on the "parts" engine has a thicker input shaft than the one on the "rebuilt" engine. See below:



soo....that's odd. The thicker one, I'm thinking, must be from a later car where they beefed it up. The thinner one is the same as on my spare M10 G240....so it must have been a carryover or something.

I HAD been planning to use the tranny off the "rebuilt" engine since it looked clean and didn't appear to have any leaks. The "parts" engine tranny was gunky as hell, with oil all over the inside of the bellhousing (rear main leak? tranny rear oil seal leak?).



But now I'm having second thoughts, so investigated the "parts" tranny more and sent an email to the previous owner asking about how it worked before he did his engine swap.

Anyways, I pulled the input shaft collar and seal to check things out....all looks fine there and no sign of a leak - so it must have either been from the clutch slave cylinder or from the engine side.



So basically now the plan is to use the second tranny with the thicker input shaft and the sealed bearing. It must be an updated/newer model and thicker transmission parts are always better in my book, for strength.

[irish44j]

kind of cool, I got an email from the director of the RG 318is Rallye series in Germany, which is kind of a "SpecE30" series but on rally courses. I think it's more like rallysprint (single-stage) than a full stage rally, but it's very cool.

He said:
"The BMW is a full Cup Series, the cars are all Built on Cup Rules.
To keep costs low, we drive all the Bilstein B6 Series shock absorbers [Bilstein HD's in the US] and springs or springs from one E30 325ix.
Preferably, the springs from the 325ix. I am happy to send you a sticker set, it is an honor.
If you come to Germany, you're happy with invited us to ride.
You can find on our home our rules under "Articles" The yes you can with a translator (Googel) Compile.
Since I can not speak English I do that as well.
Please send me your address. Your picture will be put on our home.

Greetings from Germany

Norbert"

[irish44j]

got some swag from Carlos at CondorSpeed :)