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

[irish44j]

seems like those brackets worked out. Sorry about the one closest to the firewall. Those spot welds were a total bitch to get off without destroying the whole bracket. :(

My old car lives through yours :up:

lol, no worries. I has able to bend it back to shape and the holes left by the spot welds were just re-used for the rivets (with washers) to go through :) I think I may have put it a bit out of place though, since it's a bit too snug to securely put the washer tank back in. Good excuse to get a better washer tank anyhow :)

The one for the airbox I'll almost certainly have to weld. Thanks again for sending.

[phenryiv1]

Started it up this morning. No leaks (except from the oil filter cap that I forgot to tighten down), runs ok, though I still have no O2 sensor attached so once it comes off cold idle it's a bit variable. Anyhow, good news :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxht...ature=youtu.be

Very nice!

[irish44j]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE everyone!

While the wife and kids were hanging with a visiting friend, took a bit of time to get a few little projects done in the garage, since wrapping presents and being ready for Christmas is all done.

First: airbox mount. After looking at things, figured I could just make my own brackets rather than bother with the one that I got that needed to be welded on. I used the M10 relay box bracket by simply making a few bends in it, and a hole lined up perfectly with the M42 airbox. Then just used a twisted L-bracket riveted to the wheel well for the front mount. This is actually very secure, even if it looks a bit ghetto.

For the M42 bottom mount where it sits on the frame, I assume there was some kind of rubber pad that goes there, but I just used another hacked-up urethane bushing from some past project long-forgotten. Seems to work fine...



showing routing of the charcoal canister lines



since the car is on solid mounts and gets bashed around a good bit, anyplace that hoses or wires could rub against something I've made "bumpers" for them using old cut-up hoses. Better safe than sorry.



Also managed to get the washer fluid reservoir back in. Kind of useful for rallycross...



Hey, that looks like a complete engine bay! Well, aside from having no cover for the wiring loom at the firewall. I need to track one of those down at a junkyard or on the forums...



Also up on stands again - last night I managed to get the shift linkage in and hook up the driveshaft. Looks like the M10 DS is going to work just fine, since the M42 shaft overall length is only about 1/2" less, and there is about 2-3" left on the splined section and 1" left on the oblong grooves in the CSB. So, pretty pleased that this mates up.

[Simon S]

:up:

[mr.vang]

how can i miss this thread. you sir are doing great work :up:

[irish44j]

:up:

^^ This guy has made my life easier in many respects, with his awesome photo documentation of his own car, which he's used to show me a number of things I needed to see how they went, etc.

how can i miss this thread. you sir are doing great work :up:

Thanks, this is what comes with having a limited social life these days, lol.

[irish44j]

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!



and some work, Late Christmas Eve....was sitting around with a glass of cognac watching Top Gear repeats after hours of watching classic Christmas movies with the family. They're long off to sleep now, and was digging around wiring diagrams....figured there was late-night time tonight to go tackle some wiring (my nemesis).

This evening's quest was to locate and set up the tach wire. The M10 K-Jet DME (IIRC) had the tach running through the idel control system (not the DME), and through the main harness somewhere to the gauge cluster. The M42 Motronic DME of course has the wiring from the DME to the cluster via the main harness/C101 plug.

I have the C101 (and the double-splice harness to attach it to the old C101) all wrapped up and don't want to mess with it again. So will do this the hard way, I suppose. Luckily I know a few things:

1. The tach signal wire from the DME is black.
2. The tach signal wire from the DME uses pin (uh...74, I think...already forgot)
3. The tach signal wire going into the cluster (blue plug) is also black.

Still trying to get used to black being real wires and BROWN being the grounds.

Anyhow.....So I cut into the wrapping of the DME harness back near the firewall and located two black wires. One is a big thick one (DME power, or perhaps the ground, who cares) and one is thin. On a hope, I cut the thin one and then tested resistance from the known speed signal pin. Success!

At the other end, cut the black wire coming out of the cluster blue plug. Long story short , soldered a (black) wire between the two, running through the dash, and that was that.

Might be a few days before I start the car again, so will have to wait to see if it works. Tach wasn't working for a while before the swap, but I think that was because I had the IACV and idle control stuff all unhooked, which (now that I think about it) is where it gets its signal. doh.

Also for my own Christmas present, did some online searching and ordered up a few used/cheap stuff:

1. used VDO oil pressure gauge that goes to 80psi. I have one here that I got earlier that goes to 10bar (150psi), but on investigation, the needle is gonna be down at the bottom all the time on that since this car is N/A.....I want one that will give me better increments for readings.
2. oil pressure sender (with second pin for dummy light). I found one in the factory M12x1.50 size, so no adaptor needed to replace the OEM warning sender. Did cost me a bit more though.
3. oil temp sender (also 12x1.50). The M42 oil filter housing actually has TWO plugs, with one dummied off from the factory. So I don't need a T-fitting or anything, I'll just run temp off the other one.
4. some cheesy 3-gauge dash cluster off ebay for $15. I'm going to do some experimenting with this....more on it later.

One other question: For a non-OEM VDO water temp gauge, anyone know if the OEM water temp sender (currently running to the temp gauge in the OEM cluster) will be accurate?

[MikeDE]

Very nice....you'll enjoy the m42, partly b/c you won't be able to hear it so much while blasting along offroad.

I may have missed it but what diff are you running??

[irish44j]

Original 3.91 LSD that the early 318's occasionally came with. I think it will be a good compromise for highway cruising and on-course.

But I'll hear/feel the engine with the solid mounts and magnaflow muffler, for sure :)

[irish44j]

Because rallykar.

And because after having the tachs on all 3 of my OEM gauge clusters die, I'm tired of dealing with the OEM garbage cluster. So I'll deal with the cheesy look. I was going to put it on the steering column right in front of the OEM tach, but mounting it there would make for a hassle to access and remove the cluster to do wiring and other crap in the future, so up on the side is just easier (plus easier to see it, honestly).

Will look even cheesier once I put the triple pod in the middle of the dash tomorrow though, haha...

But, function > form on this car. The eventual plan is to take out the entire OEM cluster and replace it with a good set of VDO gauges in a custom panel, but that's something I'll work on this summer. Right now I just want everything working!

It was a clearance item (probably due to the chrome rim, lol), so it was cheap but hopefully will work fine. Painted the outside rim black....but then rubbed some of it off when installing. oops.....may or may not redo, depending on whether I remember/care....

[FunfGan]

We match! You ricer...

[irish44j]

lol.....so we are both cheap bastards. I assume yours works fine? I have it all hooked up but can't start the car in the garage with no exhaust while the house is asleep. I know the lighting works at least :)

[irish44j]

More projects today:

FIrst, got in the 02 sensor and rear shifter mount from Spencer finally. So got the shifter installed totally and the heat shields back on the car. So now I'm done under there except the catback exhaust, which I still need to find.



Also got a cheap ricey gauge pod in the mail. Actually better quality than I expected



Good fit with a bit of trimming



and of course I flocked it :)



also made pigtails for the gauges that will go there



fixed the tab on the OEM cluster



modified the old tach :)



oh....and picked up a working $150 Snap-on mig welder :) Now I need to learn to weld.

Thanks Yoshi

[FunfGan]

lol.....so we are both cheap bastards. I assume yours works fine? I have it all hooked up but can't start the car in the garage with no exhaust while the house is asleep. I know the lighting works at least :)

It's been on the car since before I bought it, so yeah it does.

[kts]

Nice score on the welder! Welcome to the world of fabrication.

Pick up some bits of metal to weld together and practice a ton.