Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[Sh3rpak!ng]

So I've been looking at my power steering system again. I always felt that the steering was a bit lighter than it should be (both before and after the AN conversion), especially compared to the e46 330 which has the same steering rack (my dad used to have that car, I drove it a lot and always loved the steering feel). At first I thought maybe I just mis remembered the steering feel of that car, but after KI4UJO posted in his thread the same thing, it got me thinking again.

My logic is that as long as the system on my car is functionally equivalent to what was on the e46, the feel should be reproduced. So I found a couple of things...

First I double checked that my PS pump and the e46 pump are rated for the same pressure.

E36 ZF pump - standard OEM - (what I have) 110 bar


E46 pump - also OEM - 110 bar




So now I can confirm both pumps are making the same pressure, on to the next pieces of the puzzle. Hoses.

After reading KI4UJO's post, it got me thinking and I started looking for more info on e36 forums. Apparently on some of the e36s (not really sure when it started) there is a restrictor inside the return hose. My thought is that this is to help slow the fluid entering the reservoir and prevent aeration/spillover. I had a conversation with chase bays about their PS kit and he alluded to some restrictor inside the return line on their kit as well for the same reason, so this makes sense. I couldn't definitively say whether or not this is part of the e46 return hose because I didn't have one on hand to take apart and couldn't tell from photos. It might be integrated into par of the hardline. Either way, aeration/spillover was one of the issues I had previously so to me this seems like a good detail to include.

I found some pictures of said restrictor someone else took since I didn't have one of these hoses on hand to take apart. It also seems like only the oem hose included it, so if you want one go to a junkyard and cut one out of an e36, or find/make some sort of restriction to the same dimensions.

The critical dimension is the ~4mm orifice.







And here is the OEM hose, you can see the hose clamp in the return rubber portion holding the restrictor in place.





Here is another part that I didn't know about that KI4UJO posted. It's a banjo bolt with some sort of check valve/restrictor in it. The e46 system has this banjo bolt connecting the output end of the high pressure hose to the steering rack. Unfortunately I can't currently use it since I converted to AN. Well, technically I could, but I'd have to change that end of the high pressure hose I made to a banjo fitting. I'll do this as "last resort" if the other changes don't totally work.

PN for this is 32416781261






So now is probably the most critical part. The high pressure hose. Both the e36 and e46 have some restrictor in the hose. Interestingly, the e30 doesn't appear to have one (after I pulled the hose off my car, I stuck a stiff wire through it to see if it would get stuck, it didn't, though I still want to cut one up at a yard next time I go because it LOOKS like there is one)

Anyway. Here is the e36 hose


And e46 hose




Since I happen to have an e36 project sitting in my garage, and I intended to replace the high pressure hose, I pulled it off to dissect it. The restrictor was quite a bit more involved than I initially anticipated.

I tried to lay it out so you can see how it went together.



















I will either try to put the restrictor + inner hose into my line, or will make the same sort of assembly from aluminum and stick it in there. I think that metal barb restrictor may be too big to fit inside the AN high pressure hose.

I will be testing all this tonight/tomorrow ahead of the autox I am attending sunday. Also replacing a leaky fitting.

[sam_]

Your attention to detail is next level - props to you senõr. Do you still daily this?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Your attention to detail is next level - props to you senõr. Do you still daily this?

Thanks man! Nooo way in hell haha. Learned my lesson on doing that. I drive it on weekends, to events, autox, track etc.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Friday night I was prepping for the autox. I had an ambitious list of stuff to do and wound up doing about half of it which was to disassemble the power steering to fix some small leaks and try out the restrictors.





Since I only got around to disassembling, I thought why not hit a junkyard and pull some more PS hoses from e36s/e46s to dissect. So my buddy and I tried a different lkq yard in long beach. Much better selection of cars. Only one e30 but there were a bunch of e36s, e46s etc. and for him there were also a bunch of VWs and Audis.

Made sure I got the bottle cap powered cart





I pulled an e39 and another e36 high pressure hose and dissected both. The e39 high pressure line had a very similar restrictor in it compared to the e36, but the ID was a bit wider. I opted to used the e36 restrictors. Luck would have it that the plastic tube was a perfect snug fit into the fittings so I literally recreated the e36 high pressure innards inside the hose I made.

This felt much better, especially on the highway. Steering feel tightened up quite nicely.





Sorry I don't have any other pictures of the mods. I was running out of time so I just worked as quickly as I could. Wound up sleeping at 1:30am and getting up at 6 to head to the autox

There were LOTS of corvettes :p





I also adjusted the height again. I think it's spot on now. Lowered the rear to match the front and get rid of the rake which doesn't help oversteer. Probably needs an alignment again but I couldn't get that done in time unfortunately.






The car performed very very well as usual. Took all the beating I could give it! No problems whatsoever with temps. Only four small areas and one big area to improve.

1) Lifter tick didn't improve at all after all that effort I spent cleaning the lifters. My guess is that I'm just getting a bit of starvation when doing hard cornering like in autox and the lifters (being at the top of the motor) lose a little pressure. Not sure how I go about addressing that aside from an s54 dual pickup pan. Or taking away oil from some other part of the engine in order to keep pressure up elsewhere (IIRC some people have blocked off the oil squirters under the pistons for this reason).

2) My practice runs were quite fast, and we moved slowly through the run groups so tires had time to cool in between runs. When we did the timed runs, the groups moved very quickly and I didn't spray down the tires so they easily got over worked, greasy and my last three timed runs were garbage, I was sliding everywhere.

3) This was a short, but very fast course and I was bouncing off the limiter in 2nd in a few places. When I got comfortable, I was shifting into 3rd, but banging those shifts I grabbed 5th a couple of times. When I deliberately shifted into 3rd it was ok, but that wasn't a fast shift and nearly lost the advantage of shifting at all. I will continue investigating ways to improve the shifter mechanism to avoid this, as well as work on my technique.

4) Seat position is still not ideal. It's not low enough and not reclined enough. I have a sheet of 1/4" aluminum to make some mounts similar to the massive brackets, but with more adjustment in the directions that I need.


Lastly, by far the biggest limiting factor is the driver :D I think the car's limits are pretty damn high, but my skills don't quite match. So I am looking forward to doing a lot more driving this season and learning how to drive this fabulous machine fast!

To give some perspective, my fastest lap was a 40.5 (and it was far from a clean lap) and I am still on street tires (albeit sticky street tires). There were two new corvette z06s that ran a high 37 and a mid 38 and an arial atom that ran a low 37; all of them were on slicks. So that said, I think with some work on my skills I could've been pretty close. Really makes me curious what could happen on slicks, but I'm not ready for that.

All in all, it was a good day and I look forward to much more this season.

[Balleristic31]

My dad (white e36M) was there at the autox and said your car looks great! Hope to see you out there next time!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

My dad (white e36M) was there at the autox and said your car looks great! Hope to see you out there next time!

Yea! Nice guy and a nice car. We chatted a bit. He was quick even with really worn tires haha. I'll PM you next event. Why didn't you come to this one?

[Balleristic31]

Yea! Nice guy and a nice car. We chatted a bit. He was quick even with really worn tires haha. I'll PM you next event. Why didn't you come to this one?

He's always one of the top drivers out there (he's been autoxing since the 80s).

I missed it because this weekend was finals :( I should be able to make the next one!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

He's always one of the top drivers out there (he's been autoxing since the 80s).

I missed it because this weekend was finals :( I should be able to make the next one!

Whatttt that's awesome!! I'll make sure to catch a ride with him next time, and/or get him to ride with me. I could definitely use some instruction :D

Hit me up or ill hit you up for the next one, it'd be awesome to drive with another e30

[Jaker]

1) Lifter tick didn't improve at all after all that effort I spent cleaning the lifters. My guess is that I'm just getting a bit of starvation when doing hard cornering like in autox and the lifters (being at the top of the motor) lose a little pressure. Not sure how I go about addressing that aside from an s54 dual pickup pan. Or taking away oil from some other part of the engine in order to keep pressure up elsewhere (IIRC some people have blocked off the oil squirters under the pistons for this reason).

How full do you run your oil? I have had no lifter tick since I started running the oil level at about 1/2 quart above the full mark on the dipstick. And I spin it up to 7,800 sometimes.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

How full do you run your oil? I have had no lifter tick since I started running the oil level at about 1/2 quart above the full mark on the dipstick. And I spin it up to 7,800 sometimes.

Haha funny everyone asks me that one.. I keep it about a half quart over full on the e34 pan dipstick. I've also overfilled it more than that, but it made no difference. I've also changed the oil pump which also made no difference. Biggest impact was using 10-60 lubro moly oil. It ticked a lot less than usual.

I must be losing a bit of oil pressure somewhere (or multiple places). Not enough to cause any problem on canyons or cruising around, but enough to cause ticking after hard driving at the autox.

[2mAn]

Just take it to the real track, I didn't have an issue after a 30 minute session on Big Willow.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Just take it to the real track, I didn't have an issue after a 30 minute session on Big Willow.

Lol I didn't have any issues after streets of willow either. Doesn't really concern me as much as it annoys me. More track days will come.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Shifter v5 arrives tomorrow I have problems

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Did some work on seat brackets over the weekend. Got a sheet of 1/4" aluminum and used the massive brackets as starting templates. Since I know the general dimensions of what I need for the seat positioning I like, these will be a bit different in shape.

I used a combination of hole saws and grinder with cutoff wheel. Hole saws to cut the contoured shapes and grinder to cut the straight sections. Flap disc to round the edges and smooth it out. The first prototype came out very well so I just need to make 3 more :D





Shifter v5 arrived from coolerworx. It's beautiful. I already installed it and tested it out. WOW!! It's really an incredible transformation. I can wack the 1-2-3-4 shifts like never before with total confidence. Shifts are short and crisp. Yes this is a very similar shifter design to the CAE with a few differences, though I don't feel like any of them really take away from the performance of the piece. I'll post more pictures of the install and product and do a proper review after it's totally in place and everything is back together.

[dasmanschaft012]

nice shifter, and the price is certainly more attractive than the CAE shifter... might have to get one of these once i have my swap and cage done. My car is down for the swap right now, hoping to have it done by end of 2017. Let me know when you start going to more track events!