phenryiv1's Rally Cross 87 325- Caged, B25 Swapped, Rear suspension refresh Last Page

[phenryiv1]

More new parts...

Injectors (17# M50s, rebuilt and flow tested)





Water pump and t-stat (though with the purchase of another motor, I may not need that. I might be returning the motor from a few posts up...long story.



Nothing more for now.

[phenryiv1]

Placed my order for Condor Speed Shop M20 motor mounts, transmission mounts, and offset M3 control arm bushings!

[irish44j]

nice....

[phenryiv1]

This weekend was a fairly productive one on several fronts.

First off, some parts arrived...

173 DME with a chip. Can't remember now which is cloned. This is in prep for the motor that I am getting this Friday, which also includes a stock DME.



Next up, I installed my Momo Montecarlo steering wheel. I still need a horn button. (Horns are needed in RallyX to indicate that a cone was down or to warn spectators/courseworkers of a hazard.)



Also, I pulled the ratty headliner. I will be working on the sunroof panel at a later date, and I still need to remove trim near the visor to ge tthe last of the headliner. And I need to remove the foam-like crap on the rear windshield pillars. It is not coming off easily and I had other things to do.



In other news, I ordered more parts...Febi/Bilstein weighted euro shift knob and a generic short shifter. I'd have never ordered the generic shifter but one of our competetors has one and I tried it out a few months ago and actually liked it.

I also went through some random shifter refersh parts that I had accumulated over time and I found that I have almost everything that I need to do the refresh. I am only missing about $20-30 of the over $100 in parts (counting the rear bracket, which is almost $58 on its own).

I also found 3 of the throttle cable parts that I was about to buy. Not a bad find.

So just some general info on my local RallyX class, as well as some potential future upgrades/purchases (Some of this is from Irish44J's thread, but I will re-post here...):

I am scrambling to get the e36 swap rack before I do the motor swap. Money is getting tighter and tighter as I buy all of the "while-I-am-in-there" parts...short throw shifter, shifter busing/refresh parts, weighted shift knob, motor trans mounts, strut mounts, injectors, etc. With the motor and trans swapping out, I am trying to do anything that will be easier with the motor out of the car.

I still need to get an electric fan (might as well delete the mechanical fan while the motor is still out of the car) and I am considering a header (again, might as well install while the motor is out).

All in all, my RallyX class- Morified Rear Wheel Drive (MR)- will be a LOT more competetive this season. Several people have mad esignificant mods to existing MR cars that shouldmake them faster and/or more reliable, and a coupl eother guys have modded their cars out of "Prepared" and into Modified- and they were already fast in Prepared.

Last season, I managed to be right in the middle of MR once I started running in the middle of the season. That positioning made me the leader of the "new" guys. Next season it looks like I will have to step up my driving, as I won't be able to blame the car for shortcomings.

With my B25 going in in place of a tired B27, I think that I may have to look into rally tires. Even on fresh winter tires, we had several times in every run where we went from oversteer to understeer (or vice versa) in a second. Summit Point clay is just plain slippery! We really were traction limited at times, and I have been considering looking for a wider wheel and a 205 winter tire once we see how the car puts down the "new" HP. Either that or rally tires.

That is it for now...hopefully more updates later in the week.

[phenryiv1]

Today was a great day for the rallycar...MUCH was accomplished.

First, loaded up the M20 that I got a few weeks ago to return it. It turns out that the mileage was not what I was told AND several accessories were removed or not included (about $125 worth) and the seller would not refund the cost accordingly, so I returned the whole motor. Normally I'd say I lost on "buyer beware" but I had the car co-owner (who really just writes checks, drives the car, and shuttles parts) pick up the motor and the seller was supposed to have everything ready to go. My co-owner trusted that what he picked up was what he was supposed to get. When I inspected it, it was all wrong. On the positive, the seller (a R3v member in name but not spirit) did refund the motor.





Now for the GOOD part...

While I was in the area, I picked up this recently rebuilt/refreshed beauty (for less, I might add, and with all accessories):



119K, recent refresh, new hoses and seals, all painted up. Needs a few gaskets and a new oil pan (plug is crossthreaded), but VERY solid. Also got a spare G260, oil cooler, "i" exhaust, DME, and many other parts.

I got home and found these in the mailbox:

Generic eBay short shifter



Bilstein/Febi weighted Euro shift knob



Last but not least, Condor Speed Shop offset M3 CABs, M20 motor mounts, and G260 trans mounts:



I also snagged some tools from HF while I was in the area, but I'll post those later.

[phenryiv1]

Ouch...that stung a bit.

I just ordered a LOT of new parts to the tune of ~$250.

Exhaust:
11761711717 3-hole gasket at manifold (need 2)
18301737774 M10 copper nut at manifold (need 6)
07119912524 M8x55 bolt joins 2 sections (need 4)
11621711954 M8 nut joins 2 sections; attaches manifold to head (need 4 + 12)
18111723541 45mm gasket (need 1)
18111245960 42mm gasket (need 1)
11621728489 Manifold gasket (need 2)

Shifter parts:
25111220912 Rubber boot
23411466110 Ball cup bushing
25111434194 Rubber Buffer
25111203682 Tension Bushing
25117519669 Bushing (support lever arm at transmission)
25117571899 Shift rod circlip at shift rod joint (need 2)
23411466134 Dowel pin

Tie Rods:
32111124540 Locking plates (need 2)
32111125186 Complete (need 2)

________________________________

Diff parts:
33111206076 Bracket
62161365817 Securing Plate
33111206166 O-ring
33111210405 Gasket

[irish44j]

Happy Birthday, bro!

[phenryiv1]

Happy Birthday, bro!

Thanks. I just bought myself another present: rear strut tower brace with integrated reinforcement plates.

[phenryiv1]

DC Region RallyCross tentative schedule:

Drivers School / Testing March 23
Event # 1 March 24
Event # 2 April 21
Event # 3 May 26
Event #4 "Conquer the Summit" June 22 & 23
Drivers School / Testing September 7
Event #5 September 8
Event #6 October 13
Event #7 November 10

[phenryiv1]

Some lame updates:



Went to take her for a spin in the snow but no-start. More on that here:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=277123

Dead battery due to an interior light that never worked but now does and works all of the time. I disconnnected the light and we are good to go. Except that then she would crank but not start. Oh well- I am pulling the motor this weekend anyway so I'll sort it then. I had been meaning to find the time to hook up my solar charger to serve as a battery tender and I finally got that done. Now I have a solar-powered e30.



Also, got in a lot of parts:



Sure does not look like $250...

I also picked up this little gem:



It is a printed Bentley manual to go with the hardcover one that I bought by accident. The spiral-bound one is nice because it lays flat on the workbench.

In other news:

I removed the last of th eA/C lines from th eengine compartment and from behid the glove box:



I also took some inspiration from the "offroad e30" build and removed my lower fender liners:





Lastly, I got the manifold-to-y-pipe connection undone and the driveshaft disconnected at the back of the trans, all in prep fo rthe B25 swap this weekend.

[irish44j]

nice. two things:

1. I ran an event with the fender liners out and all that changes was that my whole engine bay was covered in baked-on mud/clay. I now have it set up with them back on, PLUS some turn-ups from my skidplate that keeps almost ALL dirt/mud out of there.

no clay in engine bay is preferable to having a dirty baked-on mess in there, IMO.

2. Make sure you seal up that grommet where the AC lines go into the passenger compartment good. I had to do it like 3 times to stop it from leaking into the car whenever it rained. I think I put like half a tube of silicone in there, lol.

[phenryiv1]

nice. two things:

1. I ran an event with the fender liners out and all that changes was that my whole engine bay was covered in baked-on mud/clay. I now have it set up with them back on, PLUS some turn-ups from my skidplate that keeps almost ALL dirt/mud out of there.

no clay in engine bay is preferable to having a dirty baked-on mess in there, IMO..

I need to get new liners of some sort. I only removed the detatchable lower portion of the OEM liners.

Mine were destroyed and looked all hacked up. I plan to look for an old lower engine cover (think like what came on our old Maximas) and cut it to fit in the right places. I just hated the torn up lower portion of the OEM liners flapping in the wind.

2. Make sure you seal up that grommet where the AC lines go into the passenger compartment good. I had to do it like 3 times to stop it from leaking into the car whenever it rained. I think I put like half a tube of silicone in there, lol.

I will be sealing off the 2 holes for the lines with silicone and replacing the plug. For now I flipped it to have the openings aim downward.

[phenryiv1]

So I was home yesterday with a cold (I did not feel horrible but I did not want ot spread it to my co-workers) and I got a chance to upload some pictures and spent some time outside to get some fresh air, as it was in the 50s-60s yesterday.

First, I found 3 of these while at the store this weekend:



Next, I got in some more parts. Volvo fan:



Rear strut reinforcement plates (though they won't be used...more on that below):



I happened to be outside when this little gem arrived (thanks White325is!):





Since I was outside and had tools close by, I actually installed something. I am really good at buying parts, but really bad at installing them. Since this was a 5-minute thing, I went ahead and did it.







So as you cna see, unless I get extended studs to press into the rear upper strut mounts, there is not enough thread on the mounts to add in the reinforcement plates as well as the rear strut bar. The bar does cover more than half of the mounting surface, so in effect it is a reinforcement plate in and of itself. Some of the other e30 rallyX guys might need the reinforcement plates, so I will offer them up to the other teams.

In other news...Damn the BMW engineer(s) who designed the mounting pattern for the OEM exhaust manifolds.

I knew that most of the gaskets on the motor were replaced during the refresh, btu the exhaust manifold gaskets were still the originals. THe heat shields looked like @$$ and I was not sure how they were as far as providing a seal, so before I installed th emotor I wanted to swap them out for new gaskets. I ordered the gaskets (VR) and 15 copper 12mm nuts (a few spares, of couse) and figured I'd be good to go.

So the removal did not go so well. As most of you are well-aware, four nuts on each half of the M20 manifolds are easily accessable, but the other two are a real b!+ch to remove. Here is what all I had laid out to do the removal:



It took a combination of a #6 and #7 nut remover, 12mm pass-thru sockets from HW, adjustable wrenches, vice grips, and traditional sockets, but I finally got all 12 of the nuts and/or studs removed.



Unfortunately, I had about 3/4 of the nuts seized to the studs, which pulled the studs out of the head. Of course, I had not planned to replace th estuds and with the engine slated to go in on Saturday, getting the exhaust manifold studs in time was going to be a challenge.

I made a quick call to Turk and Levent at Guten parts (http://www.gutenparts.com/) and wa sdismayed to find that they were all out of them but they got on the horn and 10 minutes later they had 15 of them (again, spares!) drop-shipped to me with arrival in time for the install. I also got to shoot the breeze with them on some possible future actions for the car, so that was awesome.

Ironically, while the heat shields looked terrible, it seems that the actual seals were still fully functional.



So with the manifold removel out of the way, I went about cleaning up what I had in front of me...

Some wire wheels and some Purple Power degreaser were applied to the manifolds in prep for a coat of high-temp paint:



I cleaned all of the mating surfaces and used the wire wheel to remove some deposits on the insides of the manifold.



Next I applied the wire wheel to the head, again using a small wire wheel to clean off both the mating surfaces and then the insides of the exhaust ports:





My only issue right now is that the manifolds that I just removed from the motor are missing one of the 3 studs that go down to the "Y" section of the stock exhaust. I need to either remove one of those from the existing manifolds (the ones in the car now) and double-nut it into the manifolds that I just cleaned or I will have to remove a manifold from the 2.7 and paint it quickly, then install that complete manifold onto the B25 that is going in the car.

[AZRRC]

That looks like a blast! I wish we has events like that in az

[phenryiv1]

That looks like a blast! I wish we has events like that in az

It would be really interesting to actually run in DRY conditions!