95maxrider's Rally-x '88 E28 build- caged, head swap and more

[phenryiv1]

In other news, my I30 made the front page of NICO!

Nice writeup.

[95maxrider]

Spring 2015 update time!

In addition to the previously shown E30 325i clutch/flywheel and E34 front brakes, I got a bunch of things to go with them:



Throttle cable, e-brake cables, E34 rear strut mounts, flywheel bolts, fuel filter, etc.

Here are the new E34 mounts compared to the Moosehead Engineering mounts:


Beefy! E34 rear strut mounts are notoriously weak, and I needed some parts from them to get the E34 struts to bolt up the the E28.

The E34 rear Konis arrived like this:


But that was quickly resolved with a swift thwack from a hammer. Hooray for welded on spring perches!!



One of the bleeders on the E34 front calipers was seized, and the other broke sometime while it was on my concrete floor, so they had to be drilled out and we just used the ones that came out of the puny E28 calipers. That sucked.



Mmmmm, bigger brakes.



Here are the E34 Konis (with stock E34 rear springs) next to the E28 Bilsteins/springs. Not only are they some 1.5" taller, the body of the shock is significantly thicker. I'm hoping these things can take some abuse.



Boosh!



So I had sanded down the pressure plate, flywheel and clutch disk with some Scotchbrite pads to remove some of the surface rust that had built up from sitting around for so long. However, there were still raised sections of rust all over the place, so my mechanic buddy recommended we sand everything down properly, because he said that rust would tear the clutch material apart. Here's the end result:



I would just like to reiterate that I got this used clutch/flywheel combo for $80 shipped (thank you car-part.com!!). It's freaking unbelievable what some people on these forums want for a 25 year old flywheel.

Although it was going to add work to the project, I wanted to replace the rear main seal and input shaft seal while we had the trans out, and I'm glad I had ordered the parts. We found the rear main seal weeping a little oil onto the clutch disk. It looked like this had caused the clutch to slip and wear out prematurely, as one side was pretty much worn down all the way. I thought I had felt the clutch slip sometimes on hard shifts, but I could never be sure it wasn't something else fucking up in this old rust bucket. So although I replaced the flywheel with the sole intention of removing 10 pounds of rotating mass from the engine, it seemed like it was a necessary and needed repair. While we were in there we also got a new brass clutch pin (instead of the plastic ones that wear out), new throw out bearing, clutch fork/arm thing, springs, etc.



I had bought this red poly steering coupling bushing from IE 2 years ago, but never got around to installing it. I finally took a closer look at the steering column and realized I no longer needed the part:



It seems the previous owner of this car (6' 5" tall and built the car for Lemons racing) had spaced up the steering column inside the car with 1" square tubing so he could reach the wheel comfortably. I assume to relieve the stress from the angle, he replaced the stock rubber bushing with that u-joint. I'm going to assume that this thing flexes even less than the poly bushing, so we left it in the car. So my nice new IE steering bushing is no longer needed....shoot me a PM if you want it!

[95maxrider]

The following day I took the car to a local Solo test and tune event to make sure everything works as planned. You might remember that last spring we did the same thing, only to have the clutch line blow out after three runs. With the rally-x venue 2.5 hours away in the middle of nowhere, I learned it's important to shake things down close to home before the season gets going.

With the stiffer and taller E34 rear shocks/springs, the rear of the car sits even higher than before!



Mad tyte suspension travel.



The muffler of champions:



This year there is a new class for auto-x, Classic American Muscle. It's pretty awesome, as evidenced by some of the cars I was able to shoot:





And to think, the guys at tech were questioning whether the E28 would flip over since it's so high off the ground Thankfully they stopped caring when they saw the roll cage.

I took it very easy on the launches on account of the "new" clutch, but the car felt great! The lighter flywheel is immediately evident, and makes the engine very peppy. I'm so happy we got this in the car, it finally feels like it's got all of its whopping 180 HP ;D The bigger brakes and OEM pads were also immediately evident, and greatly increased braking performance, long a E28 weak point. Even the E34 rear suspension made the car feel better! With the higher spring rates, the tail of the car wants to rotate a lot more, and understeer has been reduced. I'll probably set the adjustable FSB to its stiffest setting sometime soon to further reduce body roll.

When it was all said and done, the E28 had beaten many cars it had no business beating, and did it without a single hiccup. Hell, one of the auto-x veterans even commented that it was the most unique BMW he had ever seen. Between the vertical muffler and the milk crate glove box, he might not be far off. It was getting close to being ready for the first race, but I still needed to put more miles on the clutch. Well, a week later, the clutch is ready, the car is packed, and I'm ready to rock and roll tomorrow. Wish me and the car luck!

[irish44j]

well, at least you won't have the rear tire rubbing issues when loaded up :)

[95maxrider]

well, at least you won't have the rear tire rubbing issues when loaded up :)

Eh, that issue was resolved when we chiseled the spacers off last fall.

[irish44j]

Here's a thought concerning the issue of using the e28 springs with the e34 perches (and the lack of length to keep them seated):

Before you look into tender/helper springs, do a quick check of this: Put the e28 springs on, install them in the car. They'll hang loose initially. Now hook up the swaybar. See if that reduces the droop in the rear suspension sufficiently to keep the spring seated.

On the e30, my rears will practically fall out at full droop with the sway detached, but the sway limits the downward travel enough to keep them seated when attached. May be the same case on the e28.

[95maxrider]

Well, I ended up getting new E34 rear Konis and used E34 springs, and put them together using the beefy Moosehead Engineering upgraded rear strut mounts (thanks Paul!!). The Koni's shock body is quite a bit thicker than the E28 Bilsteins, so I hope they can withstand some rally abuse. Thankfully, they have a welded on lower spring perch.







You can see how freaking high this thing sits.


Sure enough, they raised the rear end of the car about 2", which I thought would be a good thing. Boy was I wrong. At the first rally-x of the year this Sunday, the car was miserable to drive. It just would not go straight. I was fighting with it every turn to make sure it didn't spin out. Going through the slalom was a series of me reacting to the rear end stepping out. Before, one of the best aspects of the car was how recklessly you could drive it without really thinking about what it would do, because it was just so planted. That is now gone, and I need it back. I ended up in 2nd place for the day, some 6 seconds (out of about 600 total) from my main rival Josh in his M42 E30, who I had beaten the prior 5 races in a row.

I'm thinking the culprit is the raised ride height, and not the increased spring rate. Josh said that when he lowered the rear of his E30, it was much more planted and put power down much better. I'm thinking the same applies to me. Since coilovers are out of the question ($$$), and lowering springs are too (would require buying two sets- one E34 and one E28, also didn't work well when we had them on the car before), I'm pretty sure cutting coils on the stock springs is my best option. Due to weight reduction on the front (battery moved to trunk, no AC or heat, dash, etc) the car sits higher than stock in the front. The same is true for the rear, but it's due to the E34 rear suspension. It's for those reasons that I think I can lower the car about 1" without any of the negative effects of cut springs. I think I can cut two coils from the rear and one in the front, but I may start with half that and see how it works.

One problem that I'm already aware of is that putting lower/shorter springs on the rear E34 setup would require tender springs, as you don't need a spring compressor to assemble the rear suspension, as there is no real tension on the spring when the assembly is out of the car. If I cut rear coils, the spring could become unloaded at full drop, which is a bad thing if I want to go fast and make these struts last. I'm honestly not sure how E34s run lowering springs without the same problem, because it's not a result of E34 parts in an E28. I've read about plenty of E34 and E28 guys who cut front coils, but I don't recall if the front springs are heavily compressed at rest (out of the car but assembled), so I don't know if I'll need tender springs in the front as well. Can anyone advise or point out other things I need to be aware of? I found a great site with info about properly cutting springs, which I will be following:

http://www.eatondetroitspring.com/cutting-coil-springs/

Any advice would be appreciated!

[95maxrider]

Here's a thought concerning the issue of using the e28 springs with the e34 perches (and the lack of length to keep them seated):

Before you look into tender/helper springs, do a quick check of this: Put the e28 springs on, install them in the car. They'll hang loose initially. Now hook up the swaybar. See if that reduces the droop in the rear suspension sufficiently to keep the spring seated.

On the e30, my rears will practically fall out at full droop with the sway detached, but the sway limits the downward travel enough to keep them seated when attached. May be the same case on the e28.

E28 and E34 springs are different diameters, so I can't use E28 springs on E34 shocks, thus I'm using E34 springs. Good idea though.

[phenryiv1]

Maybe just start scouring the e34 boards fo used lowering springs. Some people may be looking to get rid of a too - tall lowering set for a reasonable price.

[bluej]

Any idea what the actual spring specs are?

[95maxrider]

Any idea what the actual spring specs are?

No, but I did find this.

[95maxrider]

I'm putting these threads from MyE28 here for future reference....

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=130420&p=1313628#p1313628

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=116113&p=1313294#p1313294

[irish44j]

I posted in your mye28 thread some additional thoughts.

[95maxrider]

I figured I would do a quick recap of the first event to add to my earlier post.

Ignoring the poor handling that resulted from the new/higher rear suspension, the car felt great at the first event! Well, aside from the battery terminals coming off again, and staying off for four runs until I thought to check them, since the car was stumbling a bit. I don't know how the car ran so long off just the alternator, but it's a trooper!

The M20B25 18 pound single mass flywheel is a godsend compared to the old dual mass 28 pound unit! The pedal is lighter, the non-oily clutch grabs better, and my god does the lighter flywheel help get the engine rev quicker! Waiting for the revs to climb coming out of a slow corner is gone; the motor is much more responsive, and I never feel like it's sleeping on the job. I have also yet to feel like the motor is more likely to stall coming away from a stop, so considering the $200 in costs, the flywheel conversion was a huge success!

The E34 brakes were also very nice to have. Initial bite is better than before, and the car seems to stop quicker as well. I have a feeling I was braking too early in one section, so I need to remember to try to brake a little later.

Here it is in action. Thanks for the awesome pic Ed!


We haven't gotten around to painting the roof yet....ugh.

Anyways, back at the first race, I was hitting cones left and right due to the sloppy suspension. I ended up with 5 for the day, equal to Josh, who was 6 seconds ahead of me (out of ~700 seconds/13 runs). Little Eric, who is 18 and in his second year of rally-x, was 14 seconds behind me in his E30 ETA car on brand new tires. M52Josh was co-driving the E30 since his M52 swapped E30 wasn't quite ready, and was 8 seconds behind Big Eric, hitting about 20 cones in the process. Things will be very different next race when M52Josh has his car together. Hopefully our car will be sorted out and driving the way I want it to by then!

[silence]

Would you be interested in e28 front Control Arm bushings? PM me for details.