the Aluminum Monster. a 318 with a special 24v

[kronus]

Time to get some Mormon college girls.

i hear they're into some pretty wild lingerie

[2mAn]

OK, heres a bunch of pics of what I'm dealing with and what I got done today. Its a former rollcage made by Autopower. Oceanside Motorsports chopped it out and CMG sat on it for a little while. I picked it up from him last week.

SO, heres what I got. A complete roll bar with some chopped ends on it. The plan is to totally remove the chopped ends and have the roll bar welded in. Later the plan would be to add back the front half to make it a full cage, but while its still technically a street car, the car will get just the roll bar.
rollbar01 by 2mAn

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And here we go!... Started with the cutoff wheel to get it as close to the original hoop.

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and heres the scrap pieces that were cut off

rollbar09 by 2mAn

and now its time to grind it all off and make it as smooth as possible with the grinder. I can make it smoother and, as you can see, the whole thing will get a fresh coat of white paint once its all prepped and ready.

rollbar07 by 2mAn

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Overall Im pretty happy with how things came out. None of the welds that are important were touched and the scrap is all gone.

Round 2 is going to be getting the bases ready for welding, and I plan on building plinth boxes and finally finding someone to weld it in. I can weld but I also want to make sure it gets welded in properly

Edit: tomorrow I will be installing the Motorsport Hardware studs. Another update coming soon

[IronJoe]

Looks good Simon!

[2mAn]

Looks good Simon!

Thanks Aaron, cant wait until yours is done. Im watching!!

So today was a quick one, but I managed to pull the old spark plugs out to see exactly what Im dealing with and what they look like. I planned on checking the gap, but as you'll see that wasnt possible. I will be replacing these very soon. I also tightened down the valvecover bolts as they were fairly loose on several of them. Hopefully this will kill the burnt oil smell from the gasket leaking on the exhaust manifolds. Anyways, heres the spark plugs

They were torqued down SUPER hard...

old_spark_plugs1 by 2mAn

ughh... platinum +4... really???

old_spark_plugs2 by 2mAn

Couldnt get a good picture with the part # on it, but they are NGK BKR6EQUP

old_spark_plugs3 by 2mAn

So here we are, Motorsport Hardware 78mm studs, said to used for anything up to 20mm spacers. I have 15mm on the back and 10mm in the front, or was it 20 in the back and 15 in the front?.. haha I dont remember now! Regardless, here we are

wheel_studs_ready by 2mAn

Very easy to install, here we are all done and ready to put the wheel back on

wheel_studs_installed by 2mAn

And here it is all done. Easy and totally worth it
wheels_studs_done1 by 2mAn

[Northern]

Studs are probably one of my favorite easy E30 mods.

I was really happy with the BKR6E coppers I had. Not a fan of any of the long life sparkplug crap. I'm going to give the one-step-colder version of those a shot with the turbo.

[2mAn]

Studs are probably one of my favorite easy E30 mods.

I was really happy with the BKR6E coppers I had. Not a fan of any of the long life sparkplug crap. I'm going to give the one-step-colder version of those a shot with the turbo.

Are those coppers the original ones? Did you run those on your M52 or something else. I really want to get the OEM ones

[thestein1016]

Depending on how close the main bar is to the roof, you're going to have a hard time getting a torch in there for 360 penetration if you weld in the plinths and do this in two stages. Why not fab everything at once?

[phreshkid]

i hear they're into some pretty wild lingerie

When I inevitably have my first daughter, we'll name her Chastity.

[Northern]

Are those coppers the original ones? Did you run those on your M52 or something else. I really want to get the OEM ones

No, I thought the original ones were either BKR6EK (Extended Projected Tip, Dual Ground Electrodes) or BKR6EQUP (Projected Tip, 4 Ground Electrodes, Platinum Tipped Fine Wire Center Electrode)

I ran the BKR6E's (Projected Tip, V-Power (V-Grooved Center Electrode))

I don't understand the point of multi-ground spark plugs. NGK says "the spark continually jumps over to a different earth electrode. In doing so, the wear is distributed to up to four earth electrodes and the service life is extended" But from my understanding, its not the ground that typically wears, so why bother? The spark isn't going to continually jump to a different electrode either, it's going to jump the path of least resistance, which seems like it would be the same ground anyway.

The other argument is if you snap a ground off, the plug is still good. Screw that, I want a misfire if a tip comes off, so I can hopefully have the brains to notice and fish it out before it does too much damage.

The V-Power center electrode sounds just as gimmicky. I doubt you can go wrong either way though, and realistically the probability of a ground snapping off isn't really worth worrying about.

The only significant difference is that copper is a better conductor than platinum or iridium, but fouls much faster. I don't mind changing plugs fairly frequently so I chose the coppers for this car.

[2mAn]

Depending on how close the main bar is to the roof, you're going to have a hard time getting a torch in there for 360 penetration if you weld in the plinths and do this in two stages. Why not fab everything at once?

I was looking at it again yesterday and Im not sure there is enough space to get a legit plinth box under the hoop, especially with the sunroof and headliner still in the car. Its still technically a street car so I dont want to put a full cage in it until its no longer a street car, so thats why the two step process

[/SIZE]

No, I thought the original ones were[SIZE=2] either BKR6EK (Extended Projected Tip, Dual Ground Electrodes) or BKR6EQUP (Projected Tip, 4 Ground Electrodes, Platinum Tipped Fine Wire Center Electrode)

I ran the BKR6E's (Projected Tip, V-Power (V-Grooved Center Electrode))

So I guess the plugs in the car are OEM ones. I never thought I would see a +4 plug be OEM. Im going to replace these plugs with something else though, Im like you, where I dont mind replacing a plug more often. I will probably buy the Coppers you mentioned.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

I was looking at it again yesterday and Im not sure there is enough space to get a legit plinth box under the hoop, especially with the sunroof and headliner still in the car. Its still technically a street car so I dont want to put a full cage in it until its no longer a street car, so thats why the two step process







So I guess the plugs in the car are OEM ones. I never thought I would see a +4 plug be OEM. Im going to replace these plugs with something else though, Im like you, where I dont mind replacing a plug more often. I will probably buy the Coppers you mentioned.

You'll have to cut holes in your roof all over to weld though and then have to have someone weld the rood back together and paint while not making it look like a wet noodle from cutting material out and then welding it back in. I would seriously consider just doing it all at once.

[kronus]

pro cage builder did a class at our shop and says that it's not uncommon for him to do the inaccessible side of the weld through the gap in the accessible side.

you can also trim the main hoop legs to fit boxes under it.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

pro cage builder did a class at our shop and says that it's not uncommon for him to do the inaccessible side of the weld through the gap in the accessible side.

you can also trim the main hoop legs to fit boxes under it.

Thats brilliant.

[Jaker]

Or you can cut small-ish holes in the floor for the bottom of the hoop legs to slide through making the top of the hoop accessible, and then slide slightly thicker base plates under the bottom of the legs and weld them to the floor as well as the bottom of the hoop legs.

[thestein1016]

Simon, I would def take some time and measurements before welding in the cage, especially if u are planning on keeping the headliner and sunroof. The last thing you want is the main hoop to low, and your halo the same height. Nothing worse than your head/helmet hitting tubes.