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

[irish44j]

So.....watching Nick's thread, he's definitely doing some upgrades (I see some talk of lightweight flywheels and even M30s), and today I found out that Josh S. just picked up an M52 to replace his turbo ETA setup. So I guess an arms race is on.

Since I plan to keep the M42 until it blows up, not much I can do in terms of linear power (not interested in turbo, and a DASC is unobtanium these days at a reasonable price). So will have to continue to focus on everything else.

Suspension will be ordered this week
Rear subframe and diff will get Condor Speed Shop bushings.

In the interim, time to lose some more weight. Today I cut out the inner skin of the back doors, as well as the door bars. Only about 6-7lbs per side, but it's something.

Also on-tap cheap project will be removing the heavy hood hinge bar (probably 10lbs total, right in the front of the car). Will replace this with hood pins. I'll carry a broomsick as a hood prop, lol.

So, that's maybe 25lbs right there. yippee.

Also planning a gauge cluster re-do this winter. The stock cluster is only there because it has a working fuel gauge and a semi-working water temp gauge. For fuel I found an Autometer Cobalt digital programmable gauge (similar to what we use on the Chumpcar) that will replace the stock one. Still need to get a water temp gauge and figure out if I can just wire it to the stock sender, or if I'll need to do it another way (anyone know offhand?).

So the plan will be to mount all these on an aluminum plate where the stock cluster is. More on that once I get everything figured out. Should also allow me to get the tach off the dash and center-mount it in the gauge cluster.

[stonea]

Have you thought about trying to make some fiberglass panels? My roommate made a hood for his jeep and said it wasn't to bad. The trunk probably wouldn't be to bad to do. Idk, just a thought about loosing some more weight.

[95maxrider]

So.....watching Nick's thread, he's definitely doing some upgrades (I see some talk of lightweight flywheels and even M30s), and today I found out that Josh S. just picked up an M52 to replace his turbo ETA setup. So I guess an arms race is on.

I'll be lucky if I can get the roof painted before next season, ain't no way I'm doing a motor swap.

[irish44j]

Have you thought about trying to make some fiberglass panels? My roommate made a hood for his jeep and said it wasn't to bad. The trunk probably wouldn't be to bad to do. Idk, just a thought about loosing some more weight.

yeah, though I really hate dealing with fiberglass, honestly. Plus I'm not sure that FG panels are legal for stage rally - and everything I do to this car from here on out will be oriented toward RA/USRA rules compliance (and toward rallycross at the same time, if possible).

I will likely gut the hood and trunk support stuff, but I've been kind of holding off on that for the moment for various reasons.

[irish44j]

I'll be lucky if I can get the roof painted before next season, ain't no way I'm doing a motor swap.

lol IDK, when I heard Josh was over at your place, I figured he was just gonna do a whole M30 swap for you that day, haha.

btw, did you get any response from Pat re: the Legacy? I'm not sure if I have any real advice regarding those options, to be honest.

[shiboujin]

Factory temp senders won't work for anything aftermarket. Your best bet is to remove that, find some adapters, and plug up an aftermarket one. Shouldn't be too hard.

[bluej]

lol IDK, when I heard Josh was over at your place, I figured he was just gonna do a whole M30 swap for you that day, haha.

btw, did you get any response from Pat re: the Legacy? I'm not sure if I have any real advice regarding those options, to be honest.

[irish44j]

little night project.

For a while now the only fully-functional gauge in my stock cluster is the fuel gauge (the water temp works, but you have to tap it occasionally because it sticks in random positions). The tach and speedo have long been broken.

I also don't like the standalone tach up on the dash since it's kind of distracting and just generally annoying. So the plan has always been to get all aftermarket gauges, and remove the stock cluster altogether.

The plan is to center-mount a large tach where the gauge cluster used to be, as well as a holder for my phone (which has a GPS speedo for when I'm driving to/from events). So I don't have to bother making a full cluster panel where the old one used to be, I decided to just mount all of my auxiliary gauges in the center stack. I already have oil pres, oil temp, and volts up on the dashtop pod. To that I'll add the VDO water temp gauge that I've had sitting around for a while (once I get the correct sender to plug into the head port where the stock temp gauge sender currently is).

Also going to add a fuel gauge since the stock one will be gone with the cluster gone. Didn't find a matching VDO one I like for a price that I want to pay, so just picked up an Autometer Cobalt programmable/digital one (I think we use the same one on our Chumpcar). Doesn't even come close to matching, but this isn't some saturday-morning parking-lot-meet car so who cares...



I also plan to keep my heater in the car (it gets cold in frosty Frostburg at winter events) and wanted to keep one vent in the dash (the side ones are already disconnected) to warm my hands on. So I took out the center vent, cut out the right side (except the front few inches, so the whole assembly will still stay in place.

Then I blocked off that side of the inner air tubing so all the air will go through the remaining vent. Hard to see but I mad a little block panel and then just attached it with some aluminum tape - the stickiest stuff on earth, lol

Then made a little template. This shows two gauges there, but I think I'm only going to put one there, and then put the other one below it where the OEM clock (or computer on nicer e30s) currently sits, since it doesn't work anyhow.

[shiboujin]

I have a gauge where the OEM clock/trip meter was. Can't read shit! I have to bend down to see what it's saying.

[irish44j]

I have a gauge where the OEM clock/trip meter was. Can't read shit! I have to bend down to see what it's saying.

the one that's going there is the digital LED fuel gauge, so it's not something I'll need to be looking at often, plus I don't think it will be affected as much by glare, etc. Guess I'll find out. Finishing up both new locations right now :)

[irish44j]

Finished all the dash gauge mounting stuff for the center stack today. Still have to do the wiring, but here's the completed locations.

Materials: some scrap Lexan, some flat black BBQ spraypaint, a dremel, and a bit of plastic epoxy.

In place of the passenger side center vent I now have a VDO water temp gauge, and a new override switch for the Spal electric fan on the radiator (I had been using the stock A/C button, which doesn't work that well).

In place of the OEM clock (325s have the "computer" there), I used the original backing bracket, dremeled out the clock assembly, and made a new faceplate with gauge. So it turned out pretty good, just screws into the dash backside just like the clock did.

Cutting lexan



gutted clock



fuel gauge mounting in old clock assembly



mostly finished product



and another pic (crappy)

[irish44j]

A few more things on this little project.

After thinking about it, decided to keep the stock cluster for the moment, since I don't have a diode handy to bridge the charging wire, and don't mind having the warning lights and such (which still all work), as well as signal flashers, high beams, etc.

Also, since this is a street-driven car as well, I like to have the appearance of having a speedo (even if it doesn't work), on the event that I get pulled over or something. Not sure how I would say "yes, officer.....I'm not sure if I was speeding because I have no speedo"....would probably get a second ticket for not having one, lol.

So will leave the speedo. As to the other gauges, I ditched the needles and had a bit of fun with them, since I had them opened up anyhow. why not...



The second order of business once that stuff was back in was to separate the wires for the fuel sender to use for the new gauge. My wiring diagram has two wires coming from the sender and three going into the stock fuel gauge, so will have to look up which is which.

In the meantime, also relocated my cheesy tach to a location where it's more in my line of sight when driving - and to a place that doesn't block my vision near the A-pillar.





Once I get the water temp sender in, I'll do all the power and signal wiring for the new gauges.

[irish44j]

So I sat in gridlock for 3 hours this morning in our little snowstorm before finally calling out of work. Then went to the woodland roads to help out all the people I know were getting stuck on a few big hills there. Kind of my "good samaritan" acts for the year when it snows.

And when you have a subaru on fresh Wintersport 4Ds....you can get anywhere that other people can't in the snow and ice. Even helped get a local sheriff in his Explorer up the hill. Then vamped with him, lol



Then helped an old German lady in a vert Benz up....



Also helped hook up this Polaris with tracked wheels to a 2WD pickup that was stuck. The Polaris then dragged it backwards all the way up the hill. Pretty amazing.



I actually had a lot of fun today. Surprisingly nobody was angry or upset, everyone just had a bemused semi-bewildered attitude toward it (especially the lady in the Benz vert). Most of the people who were stuck actually helped push all the cars stuck "above" them out and all the way up the hill before trying themselves. Nobody tried to "cut the line" or anything. Besides the Polaris guy, two old pickups pulled a couple cars up the hill as well.

The guys who really deserve credit was these trashmen. Their truck was at the bottom and had about 10 cars blocking it when I got there. Those four dudes pushed on every single one of those cars up the hill (and then about a half dozen more that were behind them and stuck) and literally cleared out every stuck car in the vicinity before they (easily) cruised their trashtruck up the hill. And the one lady whose car was about 9th in line who also helped push all the cars, wearing a business suit (with some hiking boots on), chatty and friendly the whole time even though I'm sure she was freezing her ass off (it was about 20-25 degrees).

Also an interesting mix of locals (Clifton is a very $$$$ area), black trashmen, hispanic guys, a couple burly rednecks decked out in camo Carhartt gear driving a big diesel truck, a Sheriff, a county policeman, and a Filipino guy all chuckling together knowingly, telling stories, and acting like they were all friends (in between pushing cars). The kind of interaction that you never, ever see from all those groups of people together in everyday life. So that put a smile on my face as well.

Anyhoo....

When I got home, did some more dash wiring, went to Radioshack to get some connectors, and a few other small things. And while I was doing that the UPS guy showed up through the snowy roads with a delivery for me. I think I can find some use for this thing, yeah?

[irish44j]

I'll just leave this here, in anticipation of the real things arriving. Thanks to Jeremy at IE for setting me up with a good package deal and for plenty of good advice and suggestions!

[95maxrider]

Wow, so you went with higher spring rates in the rear? Interesting....