'87 e30 - the American Conquest

[eurotrash]

Also here is the link for the drivers high mount serp setup

http://www.breezeautomotive.com/details.php?prod_id=158

[jalopi]

Thanks for the links guys. I don't think I'm gonna go for the breeze alternator bracket though - not only is it more expensive than the march version, but I do plan on putting p/s on the car in the future. I already have a bracket, just no e36 or whatever pump is needed to make it work.

As far as the carb goes... goddammit. I don't really have too much experience with domestic stuff so I've been taking the advice from the older guys at work for all my parts purchases. One dude told me I shouldn't have an issue with the edelbrock since it's got two bowls or something like that, and that fuel slosh shouldn't be a huge issue. Also, to absolutely not get a holley.

Then again, I have z-e-r-o experience with carbs and I think that's the reason why he made me stay away from the holleys. Apparently you've gotta mess with them all the time or something.

But yes, I do plan on drifting it. All the time? No. Competitively? Definitely not. Well, probably not. In any case, this car is only gonna be the recipient of my wrath maybe once or twice a weekend each month. Maybe I'll take it to the drag strip too, who knows? All I know is that I'm probably not gonna be driving this thing too often; it's gonna be a recipe for trouble.

[eurotrash]

I was thinking it wouldnt be to bad my first time out but it wound up just being a waste of my $70 entry fee. Edelbrocks (and stock holley for that matter) are designed to deal with forward aft fuel slosh. Basicly what happens when u start whipping the car side to side is the fuel all goes to one side of the bowl and causes the float in either the primary or the 2ndary to raise and shut off fuel flow via the needle valve and seat. (not unlike your toilet actually). Obviously no fuel to keep the engine running so its studders and dies. If it has enough force on it the fuel is actually forced out the bowl vents which is what happens when you transition. Edelbrock hasnt done much to combat this since u just dont see this very much during normal driving or drag racing. Holley has been used on road race and nascar forever and thats why this technology is there. The nascar floats are only wedged on 1 side (they only turn 1 way) but the road race floats are wedged on both sides. This allows the fuel that would normally build up on 1 side during the turn to sit inside the area created by the wedge rather then raise the float.

Its kind of long winded but when u understand whats happening with the floats it make more sense as to why it wont work as well with the edelbrock.

As far as messing with the holley they are a bit more tempermental but its not hard to adjust. Your really only adjusting your idle air mixture and your idle. Idle air is just basicly adjusting for max vacume at idle and idle adj is obviously just setting where you want it to idle. All the other adjustments are the same types of adj as edelbrock (jets,powervalve, ect..) uve got some other stuff like pump cams and stuff but honestly you shouldnt need to mess with that stuff too much.

[jalopi]

Yeah I actually read something that you posted about the wedged floats, which is why I asked him if I should get a holley or not. Oh well :neutral:.

I guess I can always just get it running and going with the edelbrock and work out all the bugs of the swap until the next drift season comes along. At the very least it'll be fun on the street for a while and I don't imagine a used edelbrock on craigslist for a reasonable price would be there for long.

[eurotrash]

Ya there great street carbs. Set it and forget it. Itll give good enough performance to have fun with but its just not great for drifting.
Do me a favor and check to see if both sets of butterflys open all the way when you give it full throttle (car off obviously) i thought mine was a mech. Secondary also but turns out they just have a wierd vacume secondary setup(u cant see the vacume canister like on a holley). Just curious if its the same for yours. If its a vac like mine the. Primary butterflys will open but the secondarys wont open all the way. Actually beter for a street car as it doesnt waste as much gas as a mechanical.

[jalopi]

Hey guys - so it's been almost a year since there were any updates... because there were none. However, now that winter is over and my previous job is no longer sapping my time I've been making good headway.

Got the car in the garage and prepping it for the engine



The engine is pretty much put together and ready to go



However, I ordered a manual belt tensioner from March Performance - I think they gave me the wrong tensioner 'sleeve' or whatever you want to call it... the metal bit between the two tie rod deals. All the mustang ones I've seen on the internet are much longer and as you can see, maxed out, the second connector on the alternator is pretty much blocked off. Still gotta call them up about that. Hopefully they'll send me another sleeve even though it's been over a year since I ordered the part.



So here's where I figured out why the e30v8 webpage says you have to use a Mustang acc pedal... I thought I might just bend the cable bracket and see if that works. I've mocked up the clutch pedal and it seems to clear it... we'll see I guess. (P.S. yes I plan on drilling a new hole to straighten out the cable)






So one thing I haven't been able to figure out is the manual brake delete... Massives' instructions warn about drilling the hole too high or have possible binding issues... well, I measured like 3 times and then drilled the hole (48mm, trying to get it as close to 6.4 as possible without getting too close to the binding issue) and after I installed the pedal I've got this intermittent grinding on full pedal depression, sounds/looks like it's coming from the master cylinder itself. So I slotted the hole a few more mm down, reinstalled... same noise. What's going on here???

[jalopi]

Made some progress this week. Got the clutch pedal and master in



I found out by accident that if you leave that little bumpy sliver of material on the brake pedal bracket alone, the clutch pedal fits in... barely.



Also, finally got the engine in today! Progress :)



Ground clearance. Seems reasonable.

[noid]

The 302 looks so tiny in the engine bay.

[jalopi]

The 302 looks so tiny in the engine bay.

I know, right? I've seen Funfgan's car in person before, so I knew what to expect - a friend helped me drop it in yesterday and he was pretty surprised at how well it went in there too.



Also - looks like i didn't have to hack up the heater core lines as much as i did... granted, i did set the mounts in the 'forward' position (i was having trouble getting it in on the 'rearward' position)

Still though, definitely no room for a booster in that position.

[iansane]

So one thing I haven't been able to figure out is the manual brake delete... Massives' instructions warn about drilling the hole too high or have possible binding issues... well, I measured like 3 times and then drilled the hole (48mm, trying to get it as close to 6.4 as possible without getting too close to the binding issue) and after I installed the pedal I've got this intermittent grinding on full pedal depression, sounds/looks like it's coming from the master cylinder itself. So I slotted the hole a few more mm down, reinstalled... same noise. What's going on here???

I ran into a binding issue with my massive booster delete kit because the MC had a "tube" that extended inside the car that originally stuck into the booster for whatever reason. The rod/bolt that was threaded into the heim joint was at a different angle than the MC and was getting stuck causing my brakes to stick. I cut off about an inch and I've been fine since. If the bracket was machined to tilt the MC a few degree I think it'd take care of a lot of that binding issue?

[jalopi]

I ran into a binding issue with my massive booster delete kit because the MC had a "tube" that extended inside the car that originally stuck into the booster for whatever reason. The rod/bolt that was threaded into the heim joint was at a different angle than the MC and was getting stuck causing my brakes to stick. I cut off about an inch and I've been fine since. If the bracket was machined to tilt the MC a few degree I think it'd take care of a lot of that binding issue?

Thanks for the tip man! I've got that same tube thing coming out of the master cylinder too... good to know I'm not the only one that ran into this issue.

[silence]

cool project!

[jalopi]

cool project!

Thanks man! Although frankly.... I should've just bought a camaro... this whole custom hotrod nonsense is expensive, time consuming and labor intensive. Hopefully it'll be worth it in the end.

[pr0craztinazn]

It'll handle better than a Camaro when it's done.

I need to get my ass in gear to get mine back online. Once my weekend hits, I'll get in touch; really want to see this in person.

[jalopi]

It'll handle better than a Camaro when it's done.

I need to get my ass in gear to get mine back online. Once my weekend hits, I'll get in touch; really want to see this in person.

Yeah man, we haven't hung out in a good while. So I'm assuming you're back from Japan then?