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    Bump from the dead, more than a year since I last touched this thing.

    Last month, my E36 parts car was finally cut up and scrapped. I still have some parts to get rid of, but nothing really worth mentioning.

    The wife was super happy to have the slab in the backyard again (until I showed up the next day with a motorcycle...)

    I got my AC Tig up and running and patched the E34 oil pan for the 4dr car, then promptly left the Argon on and wasted practically a full tank.

    On Monday, I had a friend help me switch Rusty and the 4dr around so I could drive it for a safety inspection sometime soon. After we moved it (primed the oil pump for a few seconds and then it fired right up), we drove to fill the gas tank (It's registered and insured for the first time since 2017).

    Initial Observations:
    1. Holy shit the brakes are awful. - Ordered Pagid OEs, and new rotors today. I'll bleed the brakes this weekend also to see what it do.
    2. I hate this ebay shifter. - I have parts for this, just need to do something about it.
    3. I forgot how fast the turbo spools. - really need to redo the tune as detailed in prev. post. Sticking with MS41 for at least the next 2 years while I'm in school.
    4. Taillights leak even with new gaskets. They are cracked now, not sure if that's from freeze/thaw of the water or if it's from shitty drivers. I'm at a loss for this one.


    Also ordered a blower resistor, new oil filter housing gasket, and some odd bits of trim.

    The car really needs a good wash, lots of green crud growing on the front and from the rear spoiler drains.
    Originally posted by priapism
    My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
    Originally posted by shameson
    Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

    Comment


      Originally posted by Northern View Post
      I got my AC Tig up and running and patched the E34 oil pan for the 4dr car, then promptly left the Argon on and wasted practically a full tank.

      crap...i've done that once with the argon....price of argon made sure it never happened again.


      btw what kind of bike did you pick up?
      89 325i 4dr s52
      02 BMW 525iT m54b30/manual swapped (daily) *sold*
      21' Toyota Tacoma TRD OR 4x4 6 speed Manual

      Comment


        I bought a 2009 Ninja 250R. I took the course over the most miserable weekend of April and was looking ever since.

        I really wanted a 2015ish 300 since they're fuel injected and some have ABS, but I replied to like 8 ads and heard nothing back. Then this 250 popped up on Kijiji for $1500 and was 10 mins away so I sent a message. He replied almost instantly and I went out to check it out the next morning.

        It ran fine but was a little neglected: Front brake was on the backing plate, and obviously for some time. Rear tire was bald and the chain had a lot of slack. It had been dropped lightly on the left side at some point, and had 3/4 aftermarket turn signal lenses - the 4th had the stock lens and was hotglued together haha.

        He agreed to deliver it for the asking price, and after ~$100 and a few evenings, it had a new tire, tensioned/cleaned/lubed chain, and new front brakes. I'm realizing that it's stupidly easy to do any maintenance to this thing, and I've been driving it to work ~4 days a week since I got it.

        I don't really have any pics of it handy, but it's 99% stock and black (thankfully not green IMO). I haven't seen any of them listed for less than $2250 since I picked it up, so I should be able to flip it whenever I'm ready for something else.
        Originally posted by priapism
        My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
        Originally posted by shameson
        Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

        Comment


          You may find that after a few months a 250 is no longer enough.

          Also +1 on leaving argon on and draining a tank I emptied a tank into my shop over a weekend, we all wondered why we were lightheaded on the Monday
          sigpic

          (clicky on piccy to get to thread)

          Comment


            For now, it's fun to have to work to get any kind of speed going. My riding skills are probably benefiting a bit from having to shift so much too.

            The 250/300 range seems like a good starting bike for price, insurance, and to not kill myself by being hamfisted with the throttle. I'm ~260lbs so I definitely will upgrade to something else in a year or so when I can
            Originally posted by priapism
            My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
            Originally posted by shameson
            Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

            Comment


              Originally posted by econti View Post
              You may find that after a few months a 250 is no longer enough.
              And then you'll find that a 600 is not enough, far too quickly.

              Especially at 260 lb. A 600 wasn't enough for me at 195 lb.
              My previous build (currently E30-less)
              http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=170390

              A 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4x4 Offroad in Inferno is my newest obsession

              Comment


                A 600 supersport is never not enough, unless you're using it for the wrong thing like 2 up touring or standing mile racing. The capabilities of these modern factory supersports are far beyond a vast majority of riders.

                How fast does that turbo spool Northern?
                Last edited by varg; 07-25-2019, 02:22 PM.

                IG @turbovarg
                '91 318is, M20 turbo
                [CoTM: 4-18]
                '94 525iT slicktop, M50B30 + S362SX-E, 600WHP DD or bust
                - updated 1-26

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Northern View Post
                  The 250/300 range seems like a good starting bike for price, insurance, and to not kill myself by being hamfisted with the throttle. I'm ~260lbs so I definitely will upgrade to something else in a year or so when I can

                  I've had a 600 & a 1000 in the past. For street riding I'm going to have to agree with everyone else you want to be able to get away/out of situations once in a while and having the extra power is nice. However, I do love a 250/300 on tight technical tracks. So I think you made the right choice learning on a 250 - especially since you almost always break even on them (when buying used). I was even considering getting an r3 at one point and this is coming from my s1000rr. I'd rather be able to use closer to that 100% of the bike while i'm out on the track vs having more power than skill (personally). The liter bikes do have fancy ass technology in them though, which can kind of mess with you if you star to depend on it.
                  I can't wait to get another bike, but it'll be a track bike only, street riding in vegas is basically suicide with the distracted drivers or just the damn heat alone. The only bikes I have now are little kids' bikes setup for kart tracks now LOL
                  89 325i 4dr s52
                  02 BMW 525iT m54b30/manual swapped (daily) *sold*
                  21' Toyota Tacoma TRD OR 4x4 6 speed Manual

                  Comment


                    Originally posted by varg View Post
                    How fast does that turbo spool Northern?
                    I don't have an honest answer to that. I need to swap out the wastegate spring from like a 12lb to an ~8lb and need to re-tune the ecu before I really drive it much.
                    I'm looking to try to make this last through my last 2 years of school, and while I've seen stock CR M52's run ~12psi, I'm tuning it (yikes) + our gas is terrible.

                    Once I have that sorted, I can actually drive the car and get a better idea


                    I bled the brakes yesterday, so I'm one step closer. I need to fix a lowbeam (bad ballast or bulb probably) and I should be ready for safety inspection, however my rear tires have some weather cracking so I don't know how that will play out. I was hoping to not have to buy anything that significant...


                    Edit: I ordered new stainless brake lines from BMA yesterday. Seemed to have some decent reviews here on r3v, and they're supposedly DOT approved which is harder to find.
                    Something that bugged me was Garagistic's set which (on ebay) claimed to be DOT approved in the title, yet in the description (and on their website) only claimed DOT "compliance"
                    Also the hundreds of listings of Chinese lines that are <half the price and obviously lying about DOT approval...
                    Last edited by Northern; 07-26-2019, 06:01 AM.
                    Originally posted by priapism
                    My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
                    Originally posted by shameson
                    Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

                    Comment


                      Rear Falken FK452's are super cracked, date of manufacture says 2008 so I guess they were sitting in a warehouse for 5 years before I got them. sweet.

                      Today I washed the hell out of the outside of the car, there was green shit and moss growing all over the seals and lower parts of the car. Lots of stuff has rusted, so I need to start going through things again.

                      I also cleaned the interior a bit, windows, centre console/dash/wheel/seats.

                      I put some 225/45R16 Toyo T1R's on the front right before I stopped driving the car, so I found some 245/45R16 T1R's to replace the rears with. I noticed the T1R's run pretty narrow, so I think I can get away with the 245. It was either these or some Nankang NS2-R's, and for the extra $50 I'm hoping I get at least 2 summers out of these.

                      In addition to the tires, I also just ordered some heat shielding for the inside of the hood, and some black PETG filament to make stuff for the bike.


                      Brakes are supposed to show up monday, so I can do that and replace the ebrake hardware in the rear. One of the things that rusted badly were the THR eyeballs, so I might rip them off and clean them up a bit at the same time.
                      Last edited by Northern; 07-27-2019, 03:54 PM.
                      Originally posted by priapism
                      My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
                      Originally posted by shameson
                      Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by Northern View Post
                        It was either these or some Nankang NS2-R's, and for the extra $50 I'm hoping I get at least 2 summers out of these.
                        I have the NS2-R. They did not like the cold weather and 22psi when I took mine out for a spin a couple of weeks ago. Even with the 2.93 LSD I was kicking out quite aggressively at around 4k rpm
                        RHD OBD2 M50b25 turbo build thread:
                        http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=384800

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by ba114 View Post
                          I have the NS2-R. They did not like the cold weather and 22psi when I took mine out for a spin a couple of weeks ago. Even with the 2.93 LSD I was kicking out quite aggressively at around 4k rpm
                          I feel like the T1-R's aren't any better since they're way more of a pedestrian tire, but the 280 TW rating should get me through school until I can afford anything else.
                          Originally posted by priapism
                          My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
                          Originally posted by shameson
                          Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

                          Comment


                            General Update, not really chronological:

                            Haven't really done much, but I changed the brakes, ebrake hardware, and repainted the THR eyeballs because the paint all flaked off.



                            One side is Lemforder, other is some random rockauto brand because they only had one...


                            Hardware installed


                            Lots of dishsoap, pressure, and wiggling and it went on pretty nicely. New vs old - I think these have been cracked since I bought the car in 2010



                            New Pagid pads and cheapo rotors with some on-hand "high temp engine enamel"



                            The front got Brembo rotors that I bought on clearance like 5 years ago, with matching Pagid pads.




                            Endlinks removed and wirewheeled. Bushings were still tight as hell, I had to grab a hammer to beat them off


                            Rust converter > Primer > random green paint from the depths of my basement that kind of matches the original colour. I think courtesy of Roysneon.


                            Installed:


                            I also bought some DOT approved stainless lines from BMA, but I don't know how the hell I'm replacing the rear inners so I deferred that for now




                            I ordered 2 224/45R16 Toyo T1R for the rear off ebay because I have them in 225 up front. Here's why I needed them:


                            This crack runs almost all the way around, and there are plenty more. I think date of manufacture was 2009 on these Falkens. They probably sat in a warehouse forever before I found them.

                            I came home after work and found these in my back yard. Pretty happy to see them come in so quick.


                            Mounted/Balanced, ready to go back on:


                            A little tight lol. This isn't a stance build...




                            I raised the GE coils up to ~1/4" from max height and I still get some rub. The rake looks weird too, so I'll be on the lookout for some phonebooks to sacrifice to the fender gods.

                            At the same time, I bought some new bosch evolution wipers. I loved the last set but after 9 years (!) they now look like this:



                            How it currently sits:


                            Other stuff lacking pictures:

                            I threw some heat shielding inside the hood over the turbo, and it seems to be making a big difference on hood temperatures. I might throw a second layer on at some point once I drive the car a bit more.
                            Roy had some clean late tails he wanted gone, so I snagged them. Mine are cracked, either from leaking/freezing or because people keep hitting my car, or both.
                            I greased the thrust bearings in the GC race plates. One of the bearings seems a little tight but I could've put more effort into cleaning them.
                            Right inner control arm balljoint was loose. No idea, found out when I was reinstalling the CAB and thought the balljoint was worn out or something. I did all that I could to tighten it with a stubby wrench, since that's all I could fit up there. There sure-as-shit isn't access from above right now.
                            I started reading the romraider MS41 forums again recently, redownloaded everything on my new laptop, and started making a list of things I need to change in my current tune before I do any significant driving. There's a pretty large list unfortunately.
                            Currently trying to find somewhere local that can get me fenders for a reasonable price, and also looking for a quart or more of 244 paint to do sunroof/fenders/bumper so it doesn't look like such a heap.



                            Misc:

                            Had a nice camping weekend, which was a good excuse to burn through a few cigars I was hoarding. Not super into it... I have maybe 2 dozen singles in ziplock bags with boveda packs/hygrometers and the friends who I used to smoke with moved out west so it's been a while since I had one.


                            I also finally patched the E34 oil pan from Roy's snowstorm incident. It's hideous because it leaked like crazy and had to be rewelded like a million times.
                            This will end up on the 4-door, which so far has received zero love/attention unfortunately




                            Motorcycle saga:

                            I signed up for the motorcycle licensing course last fall and neglected to tell my wife... so a week before it happened, she wanted to make plans to do something and I had to finally inform her. You can probably guess the reaction lol.
                            Anyway, the course was great. I'd never been on a bike in my life and it was honestly way easier than I thought. The worst part was that it was April in NS... That means 5 degrees (C), on and off pouring rain, and windy as hell for the first day. I was not prepared for that in the slightest and spent the day soaked and shivering. The guys running the course set up a propane heater in the sheltered corner of a building, which helped a lot, but my wife was ultimately the MVP when she showed up at lunch break with a hot coffee, dry clothes, and some walmart slush pants.

                            Day 2's weather was much better. Still cold, but dry and next to no wind. I even felt good enough that I snapped a pic.



                            After I realized this car would never see the road again, it just sat for a year in my yard. I finally got up the motivation to cut it up this spring (it doesn't roll, so can't move the gate, and the other two cars were also immobilized)


                            My wife was happy for like a day after I got rid of the E36, and then I showed up with an '09 Ninja 250R. $1500, which was the cheapest one on the 'jij by $500 and was conveniently close by:


                            It needed a new rear tire, and desperately needed new front pads, so a few days later my Fortnine order showed up and I found out how hilariously easy these are to wrench on:


                            PO was something else, riding around on those brakes...


                            Finished:


                            Of course I go to the cottage for the day and a massive rain storm comes out of nowhere. Literal lakes on the highway, I don't think anyone around was doing even half the speed limit because you couldn't see more than 20' in front of you.
                            Turns out I forgot to tarp the bike, so it got a serious bath:



                            I got bored one Saturday, and figured I'd see if I could do a tail tidy/fairing delete on the bike, maybe I could 3d print the plastic brake light surround I thought.

                            Once I pulled it off, I saw it was a little more involved.


                            It looked really easy to cut the tail light surround off the rest of it, almost like it was made to be done even, so I took a loose hacksaw blade and snipped it. Then I made a bracket from some spare stainless sheet to mount the plate and some new LED turn signals.

                            Finished product (still needs a license plate light ) ignore my shitshow of a back yard...


                            I think it looks better than 90% of tail tidy kits, but I'm a little biased.

                            Right after that was finished, I went for a ride with a buddy from school/FSAE who just bought/fixed his $700 GPz750. Took back roads for ~1:15 to get to his family cottage on the south shore





                            My car is getting a little sidetracked at the moment with some computer stuff, but I'll probably confine that to one post in the computer thread.
                            Last edited by Northern; 08-25-2019, 10:48 AM.
                            Originally posted by priapism
                            My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
                            Originally posted by shameson
                            Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

                            Comment


                              Nice update. I had never ridden before taking the MSF class. Truly a great course. I picked up a Suzuki gs500 for my first bike, put 15k miles on it and then bought an sv650s. Eventually I sold the sv650s after a couple years of riding it. Boy do I miss riding.

                              Comment


                                I'm going to throw some FSAE stuff in here as well, because why not.

                                I bought a 3d printer in the fall, and it ended up being dead reliable and has a 300x300 bed, so I ended up printing a lot of stuff for the FSAE car. I'd do PLA for test fitting stuff, or PETG for production parts (almost as strong as ABS, but way easier to print because it doesn't warp)

                                Most elaborate part that I printed was a full diff mount assembly. Essentially a lighter version of last year's design, but rotor on the back instead of the bottom (frame rules issue and bleeding was difficult before). I think 2-3 people had a hand in this, including GPz750 guy (Lead Eng for the past two years, now graduated).

                                20190425_153609 by Max Timhortons, on Flickr


                                We run a single rear disc for unsprung weight savings and high lockup on our Drexler diff to distribute braking L/R (To pass tech you need to demonstrate you can lock all four tires on slicks). Biggest downside is packaging, since there's a ton of other stuff crammed into the center of the car.
                                Drexler diffs have like 4 sets of ramps machined in, but during testing, we snapped two off, effectively ruining 3 of the 4 sets, so we ran a much less aggressive lockup and it still worked reasonably well. It's upside down in the picture, but you get the idea.

                                Finished car ft. my pupper:
                                IMG_20190509_202657_903 by Max Timhortons, on Flickr

                                Bodywork looks good in this pic and is by far the nicest we've done, but there's room for improvement. I spent almost a full day filling/blending the nosecone, and that was after probably a full day's worth of work by a few others. I think the side panels received a quick sand and that's it. Having a CNC router to cut foam molds helped a lot, but doing the nose as one piece had us doing a male mold and draping carbon overtop, so the nice surface was on the inside. Last year we did a small nosecone and separate hood, and I'd like to see us go back to this for required effort alone.


                                I scored us a Formula Michigan registration slot for a second year running (usually we have a dozen people trying, and spread people over as many different internet connections as possible) but we ended up on the waiting list for Formula North in Ontario, and that waiting list never moved.

                                We actually finished the car with 2 weeks to spare (last year, we installed the engine and a lot of other parts at competition and I wired it in the paddock) so we had time to test. The amount of stuff we broke and fixed while testing was probably the sole reason we actually made it through competition this year (besides having an engine that started and ran, but that is a story in itself)

                                Anyway, come Michigan, we had a few snags at tech, but nothing serious. Some driver gear was torn and needed to be stitched up, our main hoop was like 1/16" from the minimum helmet clearance for our tallest driver and earned us a "Never make it this close again" warning. Template and Percy were as tight as they could be at pretty much every point without failing. Biggest issue was that we needed to modify the top tubes of our headrest.

                                Tilt test (they fuel the car, then put it sideways on a ramp and incline it to 60 degrees to simulate 2g of cornering force) went off without a hitch, and unlike last year there was no questionable fuel leak.

                                Brakes was the hardest "event" for us because somehow in the rush to assemble the car, someone disconnected the front brakes and they needed to be re-bled. When whoever it was bled them, they soaked the whole hub and upright in brake fluid which soaked the front left pad. Nobody outside of that group knew this happened, so we went to brakes with lubed up front pads. We couldn't lock up that wheel at all. I think we did 15 runs at brakes trying to lock the front left, which eventually led to an oops:

                                20190510_085431 by Max Timhortons, on Flickr

                                Because the rest of the wheels would lock up and slide, but the left front was just shy of lock, the car would rotate to the left when the front right locked. Eventually this put us into the barriers and wrecked our nosecone. Luckily everything else was fine, including the honeycomb impact attenuator under the nosecone. We spent a few hours messing around with cleaning that pad/rotor and eventually passed brakes without further incident.

                                On to Autox:

                                I snagged this picture while waiting for our third Autox run to start... (2 drivers, 2 runs each)
                                20190510_113623 by Max Timhortons, on Flickr

                                Unfortunately we had some issues with our Kliktronic electric shifter (first year we've used it) mostly blowing fuses, which we had exposed off the side of the car since we were blowing them on upshift so much, but on this autox run, the wiring to the upshift switch gave up the ghost, so our driver made do with only second gear for the entire run. That night we found some trick "self resetting" 25A breakers that we threw in the next morning and hoped for the best.

                                Dynamic events for us as a whole were pretty rough due to a lack of seat time and no prep for tire pressures, suspension setup, alignment, and mechanical issues. Acceleration, AutoX, and Skidpad were all a little less than midpack iirc.

                                If you've done FSAE, you know that it pretty much all comes down to Endurance, since it's the most heavily weighted event. 22km with a driver change and multiple cars on track. probably >50% of cars don't make it because of mechanical failures (like rear wings deciding they want to be active aero, or engines dying), but the driver change in the middle where the car needs to restart while hot is tough for a lot of teams. If you finish endurance, there's another pile of points for fuel efficiency, so teams with smaller engines, leaner tunes, and lighter right foot get a nice boost.

                                We had issues at the beginning. Our battery powered transponder was dead so we had to send someone to grab a handful of zipties and our older wire-in transponder. Then the car didn't want to start or stay running. We still have no idea what is was, but it took us a lot to get the car warmed up. Once we started endurance, everything was groovy. Car ran great, our first driver had zero issues and the car held together. Drive change went off without a hitch and the second driver did well. I think our endurance score was around halfway up the teams that finished, and our efficiency score was good since we run a little CRF450 and are quite light.

                                Overall, we improved massively on our last year's 108 of 120 and came 48th overall. Pretty easy to see where we can improve also. Seat time and business/design presentations are the heavy hitters for sure. Top 40 should be easily attainable for next year, top 30 should be a possibility if we really get our shit together.

                                Pic of the drivers:
                                20190511_125212 by Max Timhortons, on Flickr
                                Originally posted by priapism
                                My girl don't know shit, but she bakes a mean cupcake.
                                Originally posted by shameson
                                Usually it's best not to know how much money you have into your e30

                                Comment

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