Half-Life | '91 DS 318iS Slicktop | Track & Weekend Warrior

[mitchlikesbikes]

Excited to see your mounting of the spoiler. I currently have mine mounted but still need to get ahold of some support rods. Are you planning on running 4 support rods?

[Digitalwave]

Mind me asking how you cleaned up the vacuum lines that lead to the (brake booster?) I think it is
Looking to do the same clean up with mine before I get it back on the road after some head work and general maintenance

My silicone intake elbow doesn't have the V that splits off to the check valve, but it's not necessary. I just used silicone vacuum tubing to replicate that area with the V split removed. You still need the check valve of course. Make sure it's VACUUM line or it may collapse.

Pusher fan will be more efficient than a puller at cooling.
Hood vent looks like a nice design, will be great to see it integrated.

That Chase Bays radiator design looks terrible.
Cutting out the bottom of the core support, is just poor engineering.

Question on your tuning - how aggressive is your ignition map? As you know, your ignition map/advance will have a pretty big impact on engine temp.

Thanks, I can't wait to get the vent on there too. My timing is fairly conservative/moderate as far as I know. We did not push it much on the dyno as I was happy with the power as is. I don't have much to compare it to though, most of the Megasquirt maps I've seen are for turbo cars.

^I was always under the impression pullers were more efficient?

I've been told the same, as pusher fans block flow to the radiator when the car is moving since they are physically in front of a large portion of the fins.

[wworm]

^I was always under the impression pullers were more efficient?

[UNHCLL]

Pusher fan will be more efficient than a puller at cooling.
Hood vent looks like a nice design, will be great to see it integrated.

That Chase Bays radiator design looks terrible.
Cutting out the bottom of the core support, is just poor engineering.

Question on your tuning - how aggressive is your ignition map? As you know, your ignition map/advance will have a pretty big impact on engine temp.

[mr.]

Mind me asking how you cleaned up the vacuum lines that lead to the (brake booster?) I think it is
Looking to do the same clean up with mine before I get it back on the road after some head work and general maintenance

[Digitalwave]

Man I'm a little bit surprised at all of the cooling issues. My car runs very cool on track and I've never had any cooling issues at idle with a 16" SPAL fan. We ran in Savannah this weekend and had to keep taping up the grill because the car was running so cool. Interested to see the results with what you're working on, but a little puzzled that you're having so many problems.

Regarding the aero, I'm with you on that. There is a whole lot of driver development that should happen without aero and it really needs to be integrated as a system. I see so many track builds where people forego the whole learning how to drive part and move straight to trunk mounted wings, cut-off panels, and useless diffusers.

What are you planning on for defrost? I was thinking of doing a grid on our car, but haven't pulled the trigger on one yet

I hear you man. It really is/was a strange issue (issues?). My fluid temps were never an issue. I have a 16" SPAL puller fan and never go above one needle past 1/4 at idle. But the engine bay definitely gets quite hot. Who knows. It's been a baffling thing to sort out, but it's definitely improved a lot (especially with the colder plugs).

I know I have a long, long way to go as a driver, which is why I want to stick to small tinkering mods that I can do in between track days, and don't take the car out of commission for a while. Hell, I'm still running H&R Race springs and Bilsteins. I don't need a chassis mount wing yet, lol.

I haven't looked at all at defroster options. I truthfully didn't think I'd ever need one (although I left the rear one in, until I do lexan windows, at least). Let me know if you find any good solutions.

[Jb325is]

Man I'm a little bit surprised at all of the cooling issues. My car runs very cool on track and I've never had any cooling issues at idle with a 16" SPAL fan. We ran in Savannah this weekend and had to keep taping up the grill because the car was running so cool. Interested to see the results with what you're working on, but a little puzzled that you're having so many problems.

Regarding the aero, I'm with you on that. There is a whole lot of driver development that should happen without aero and it really needs to be integrated as a system. I see so many track builds where people forego the whole learning how to drive part and move straight to trunk mounted wings, cut-off panels, and useless diffusers.

What are you planning on for defrost? I was thinking of doing a grid on our car, but haven't pulled the trigger on one yet

[rzerob]

Finally. I have been waiting forever for chasebays to release this radiator setup. I am definitely planning to use it for my next swap.

It is a little disappointing to hear the itb's are on the back burner but understandable. You put a lot of time and effort into the car. Enjoy it. And when winter runs around you can consider the itb's at that time. Great job, I look forward to your updates.

[Digitalwave]

The fact is that the air passing through the radiator has no business in the engine bay, so your vent is the perfect first step, but you will want to try and do two things

#1 Air coming from in front of the radiator should be directed and sealed off to get good flow INTO the radiator.
#2 The air that has passed through the radiator should be directed into the vent, and not the engine bay.

One thing Ive wondered is why people dont try to move the radiator further up, under the core support & away from the motor. With no A/C and plenty of space up front, you might want to look into this

I would still look at putting the vent on the driverside too, because the engine itself will generate heat and the vents on the side will help to get as much hot air out as possible.
Since you've sealed off the air going into and over the car, what are you doing about the air going under the car?

I'm loving this stuff, as this was what I was beginning to do with the Aluminum Monster towards the end. I'm not a fan of the duckbill style spoilers, but its a BIG improvement over the "spoiler" that the E30s came with stock.

In the words of Singer, "everything is important"

I find it fascinating as well, especially the aerodynamic aspect of the hood vents. I never even considered that until reading Gustave's articles. I just wanted to get the hot air from the radiator out of the bay!

I would say that aero is something I am not ready to fully dive into. What I am doing in the near term is kind of an introductory stop-gap. Long term, I would be interested in doing a FULL front under-tray, a full rear diffuser (including removing the spare tire well and cutting into the stock valance), and a chass-mounted wing. I don't think I will ever take it as extreme as Rocco did.

I will say I was shocked to know that the stock iS rear lip spoiler was functional, and I think the larger duckbill will help. But as Forrest Koogle mentioned, ANYTHING trunk mounted is hampered in downforce creation because of the squishy trunk seal and the play in the trunk latch.

One concern of mine is the effect of a full undertray in the front on air flow to the oil pan, since it is a primary method of cooling an M20. I do have a nice 19 row oil cooler, but even that has compromises. I mounted it low because I wanted as much air flow through the kidneys to the radiator. BUT, mounting it low means less clean air flow through the oil cooler. I have recently done more work to seal off and duct air flow into the oil cooler, which has noticeably helped. I still need to make a shroud for the top portion of it.

The spare tire well, trunk area, and rear valance looks like they're terrible for aerodynamics. I don't know how important the tranny tunnel/driveshaft area are.

Obviously balance is important with the car, so I hope I am not doing too many changes at once.

Onto the subject of the ducting behind the radiator, like the ATS-V, Corvette, and even the ///M car you posted above have: YES. I love that, and loved looking at all the GTLM cars at the Sebring 12 hour last month that all route their radiators like that. With only a max of about 6" between the radiator and an M20 (and a min of about 1/2" from my fan to the water pump!), I don't know if anything like that will ever be possible, but I want to explore it once the vents are in there.

One cool thing: Chase Bays just came out with a "tucked" radiator for E30s. The radiator itself is smaller in exterior dimension, but it is a dual-pass design with more fluid capacity. It would actually be an upgrade over my single pass Mishimoto I believe. I think it would open up a crucial 2-4" of space that could potentially be a game changer when it comes to building a shroud behind the radiator, ducting the air directly to the hood vent.

https://www.chasebays.com/collections/bmw-e30/products/chase-bays-tucked-aluminum-radiator-bmw-e30-e36-e46

[2mAn]

Love this stuff. As far as trying to reduce heat soak as much as possible, I would look no further than ///M themselves.

bmw-m8-103 by 2mAn

bmw-m8-102 by 2mAn

bmw-m8-9 by 2mAn

The fact is that the air passing through the radiator has no business in the engine bay, so your vent is the perfect first step, but you will want to try and do two things

#1 Air coming from in front of the radiator should be directed and sealed off to get good flow INTO the radiator.
#2 The air that has passed through the radiator should be directed into the vent, and not the engine bay.

One thing Ive wondered is why people dont try to move the radiator further up, under the core support & away from the motor. With no A/C and plenty of space up front, you might want to look into this

I would still look at putting the vent on the driverside too, because the engine itself will generate heat and the vents on the side will help to get as much hot air out as possible.
Since you've sealed off the air going into and over the car, what are you doing about the air going under the car?

I'm loving this stuff, as this was what I was beginning to do with the Aluminum Monster towards the end. I'm not a fan of the duckbill style spoilers, but its a BIG improvement over the "spoiler" that the E30s came with stock.

In the words of Singer, "everything is important"

[Digitalwave]

this has become one of my favorite cars on this forum. Stoked for more progress

Me too! Looking forward to pictures of the hood vent

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

I still can't get over how much power this thing makes for only having pistons and a cam. I can't wait for you to get the ITBs on!

Great work as always-

Thanks all, I truly appreciate that! The car is a ton of fun. I wish I got to drive it more. Every project I take on seems to take a lot longer than planned, which has prevented me from doing a lot of track and autocross events I hoped to do. For that reason, I am pushing off the ITB's for a bit. I would like to think it's going to be a weekend project, but with the way things have been going for me on the car, it's likely to take 3 months to install and tune them! LOL

[wworm]

SO looking forward to seeing ITB installation/tuning

[AWDBOB]

I still can't get over how much power this thing makes for only having pistons and a cam. I can't wait for you to get the ITBs on!

Great work as always-

[Sh3rpak!ng]

this has become one of my favorite cars on this forum. Stoked for more progress

Me too! Looking forward to pictures of the hood vent

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[wworm]

this has become one of my favorite cars on this forum. Stoked for more progress