"Our" LeMons e30

[rwh11385]

When I was a broke college student with a non-working AC, I used the factory AC fan as a cooling fan.
You could rig up the AC fan with some zip-ties, then just use the AC button as an On/Off when the car isn't moving.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, Skafrog did that on his track car. But we'd more likely fab euro mount-style bracket from stock for more security.





Plus the temp switch should be a safety too, not just relying on remembering to watch temps and hit the button (see quote from Irish below). So could go with the E36 M42 80/88 temp switch as an accommodating mod. We should find the A/C button too to be able to use it just in case though - you know how much the old HVAC panel is just a mess of wires...

You shouldn't need a fan for anything but sitting still, and that shouldn't take much.

Running this past weekend in 90F+ weather and no mechanical fan, we needed to be very quick to get back out on track to draw air through the radiator at speed since the temp crept up while still. As mentioned earlier, not preparing for cooling while still can end badly:

The 1:47 I think was the team next to us in the red one (blew head gasket during the race because forgot to turn on their fan during a penalty stop, IIRC). That's an "i" car and is quick.

[e30_302]

You shouldn't need a fan for anything but sitting still, and that shouldn't take much.

[Beej '86 325es]

When I was a broke college student with a non-working AC, I used the factory AC fan as a cooling fan.
You could rig up the AC fan with some zip-ties, then just use the AC button as an On/Off when the car isn't moving.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwh11385]

Now that we're trying to get ours to handle better: How much and where did you cut your rear springs?

spoth - we're at the same spot now as what you described three years ago: wanting to run it at SCCA racecar track days to test it out (not just during race weekends) and trying to get the car not to starve after 5 gallons spent (in-tank pump is shot so that would be a starting point, but considering converting to a high pressure in-tank since our external is on the way out). We're still doing hour stints and will keep that until it is reliable and we have lap times that are good enough so that driver changes are meaningful for overall competitiveness.

So you or irish44j have any advice looking back now? We need to put back on the aux fan to replace the mechanical fan with a dead clutch and looking to make it Chump legal (window net, move kill switch, etc.) to give it a go.

[skitz]

Other than that, a lot of back and forth though mostly me just tailing your guy, since without the LSD I couldn't get enough of a jump coming into the bridge straight to get by him, and he kept shutting the door near the carousel :)

I second the LSD frustration coming into the bridge straight. Especially with the m42 powered #30! I had a couple stints where we couldn't shake each other through there. After racing Josh and I talked about how we didn't want to shift because they'd pull about a half car ahead.

[irish44j]

Funny, I drive an eta and race the m42. As far as e30 motors go they couldn't be further apart in characteristics and I agree the m42 does feel faster (but revving up to 7k would do that). Hopefully we were well behaved. The 2 fastest of our 4 Saturday drivers were to go on to the 2 slots on Sunday so it may have gotten a little heated as we really were racing the clock vs other cars on Saturday.

it was tight but nothing bad-behaved. Though they did make a sneaky move when I gave a point-by to that v8 volvo who got stuck behind me in the tight areas, and your guy ducked in behind him and took the pass too, lol. THat's what I get for being nice to the front-runners.

Other than that, a lot of back and forth though mostly me just tailing your guy, since without the LSD I couldn't get enough of a jump coming into the bridge straight to get by him, and he kept shutting the door near the carousel :)

[n0m4d]

Funny, I drive an eta and race the m42. As far as e30 motors go they couldn't be further apart in characteristics and I agree the m42 does feel faster (but revving up to 7k would do that). Hopefully we were well behaved. The 2 fastest of our 4 Saturday drivers were to go on to the 2 slots on Sunday so it may have gotten a little heated as we really were racing the clock vs other cars on Saturday.

[irish44j]

I'm reserving judgement on the m42. It has its pros and cons. We have raced in 3 events with ours and its holding up ok other than burning a lot of oil. I do find we get less crap from other teams when running a 4cyl. In order to get anywhere with it you need to really ream the crap out of it up to 7000+ rpm and use the highest diff you can find.

We ran 7 races in our m20 car and did nothing to the engine at all other than replacing some hoses. I'd lean towards the m20 as being the best LeMons engine of all time.

We are getting ready to prep a M30 e12 for NH Fall. It will be interesting jumping between the m42 and m30.

I'll chime in since I spent a lot of time in front of/behind/next to your car during my driving stints. The haterade car was holding me off in the corners and I was generally able to eke ahead in the long straights - hurt by the fact that I had an extra shift in those straights, but they seemed a fairly even match. That said, I wasn't our fastest driver and no idea which of your drivers were in the car when I was on track (late afternoon Saturday and first Sunday)

My rally-x e30 is an M42-swapped car with 3.91 and it definitely feels quicker than the ETA. I do have a Conforti chip in it (otherwise, totally stock). There is a rally series in Germany (the 318is cup) which is a spec series for M42-powered e30/e36's and they have a "spec" chip with an 8k redline. I talk to them often (via google translate) and though they wreck plenty of cars, they say that the engines haven't had any unusual issues being pushed hard even with that high limiter. My research suggests that the M42 gets valve float above about 7300, and they say the 8k just lets them over-rev to avoid short-term extra shifts..

I don't think the M42 in stock-ish form has much chance against the M20B25, but against the ETA the M42 cars are probably a bit quicker all things else being equal. The better balance should really help in the corners....

Just MO as an M42 owner and one driving an ETA in Lemons though :)


--


side note: I also just picked up a $200 e21 320i and in my garage is a $150 M42 engine/tranny (currently taken apart). I'm leaning toward a "full" build of this car, but there's an off chance I may make it for Lemons/Chump. M42 e21 would be very quick I think.....

[JGood]

Some folks get very cheaty after they have gone through tech/BS inspection. I didn't hear about it at Summit this year (yet) but friends on a team told me at some other events they have been to they have seen a lot of folks swap in all kinds of go fast parts (cams, heads, coilovers, etc) once they have been inspected.

Pretty lame if you ask me but I guess that's racing, even at a Lemons event.

Some folks are doing it legit though through the use of the residual value and then using the extra $ between the residual and the $500 cap and putting that towards adding in some go fast bits between races. The 469 E30, those guys are insanely fast to begin with (not sure who was driving this time but they've had folks like Mike Skeen on the team before) and they have been doing multiple events a year for a few years now so they've been able to really dial in that car and also probably add in some go fast bits here and there.

Yeah, that makes sense. Our car got a $100 value, so we're resealing the engine and throwing in a cheap upgraded cam. I guess if you have a durable e30 and keep getting $300-$400 to use after each race, you can really get a fast car set up.

I saw something about Skeen driving that e30 at Summit, I was unsure if I should actually believe it, haha! That's pretty awesome, and it explains why that car was so fast.

[kts]

I saw some of the e30's were in the 1:47's. Pretty crazy, I was running 1:47's when I was doing time trials a few years back with a well prepped spec e30 on r-comps. I don't know how these $500 cars are doing it...

Some folks get very cheaty after they have gone through tech/BS inspection. I didn't hear about it at Summit this year (yet) but friends on a team told me at some other events they have been to they have seen a lot of folks swap in all kinds of go fast parts (cams, heads, coilovers, etc) once they have been inspected.

Pretty lame if you ask me but I guess that's racing, even at a Lemons event.

Some folks are doing it legit though through the use of the residual value and then using the extra $ between the residual and the $500 cap and putting that towards adding in some go fast bits between races. The 469 E30, those guys are insanely fast to begin with (not sure who was driving this time but they've had folks like Mike Skeen on the team before) and they have been doing multiple events a year for a few years now so they've been able to really dial in that car and also probably add in some go fast bits here and there.

[n0m4d]

The m42 seems like a great Lemons e30 engine. Pretty reliable I assume?

I'm reserving judgement on the m42. It has its pros and cons. We have raced in 3 events with ours and its holding up ok other than burning a lot of oil. I do find we get less crap from other teams when running a 4cyl. In order to get anywhere with it you need to really ream the crap out of it up to 7000+ rpm and use the highest diff you can find.

We ran 7 races in our m20 car and did nothing to the engine at all other than replacing some hoses. I'd lean towards the m20 as being the best LeMons engine of all time.

We are getting ready to prep a M30 e12 for NH Fall. It will be interesting jumping between the m42 and m30.

[JGood]

I was in the m42 powered #30 and was behind this 244 car Saturday night. Every time you dropped into the Karasel a trail of sparks flew out from under your car. Made me chuckle every time.

Lol, that doesn't surprise me. We sheared both engine and trans mounts, so we had to ratchet strap the engine/trans in place. This caused the exhaust to do some pretty interesting things below the car.

I remember seeing your e30 as well. Made me wish I was in an e30 :( Although, the Volvo is an absolute blast to drive. Possibly even more fun then an e30 in the corners. Just not enough power.

The m42 seems like a great Lemons e30 engine. Pretty reliable I assume?

[n0m4d]

That's us! That other v8 volvo is nuts, lol. We spent 75% of the weekend in the pits. I'm going to have a hand in rebuilding the car over the winter, so we hopefully stay out all weekend next year.

What was your teams best lap time? I did a 1:57.1, I saw some of the e30's were in the 1:47's. Pretty crazy, I was running 1:47's when I was doing time trials a few years back with a well prepped spec e30 on r-comps. I don't know how these $500 cars are doing it...

I was in the m42 powered #30 and was behind this 244 car Saturday night. Every time you dropped into the Karasel a trail of sparks flew out from under your car. Made me chuckle every time.

The 469 e30 posted the second fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:47.something. It is also m42 powered and I really would love to know more about how they got that car so freggin fast. I think they are running 4.44 gears and maybe a closer ratio trans. I feel we have about 500 rpm of leisurely acceleration when shifting from 2nd to 3rd before we get back in the power.

In any case, I had so much fun and really enjoyed the battles with you guys. We only had an issue with one team who was using one car to block for another that was higher in laps and hit me. We would have placed 7th if it hadn't been for that incident. But its LeMons and we got the same trophy for 10th (or tied for 9th) as we would have got for 7th :-).

[spoth]

Well, I am sure we could be persuaded to sell some of our AIV docs for the right price. Or just troll CL as I do.

I need manual 325e docs at the moment, but seeing as we're not going to be competitive in any events this year anyway, I'll take my laps. I'm down around $400, which does give some breathing room.

That's us! That other v8 volvo is nuts, lol. We spent 75% of the weekend in the pits. I'm going to have a hand in rebuilding the car over the winter, so we hopefully stay out all weekend next year.

What was your teams best lap time? I did a 1:57.1, I saw some of the e30's were in the 1:47's. Pretty crazy, I was running 1:47's when I was doing time trials a few years back with a well prepped spec e30 on r-comps. I don't know how these $500 cars are doing it...

Awesome! Your car is beautiful, but I obviously have a thing for white/black/blue striped european racecars. Putting in the work upfront is how races are finished. We've been very fortunate to have had few mechanical hiccups that have cost track time (sorry Josh).

Our fast time was a 1:55.2 (I ran a 1:55.4). Judging from telemetry taken Friday and Sunday, the car as raced should have another three seconds in it, and I know we were losing a lot of time in some corners due to the open diff.

The configuration LeMons used at Shenandoah was pretty much the fastest way to run the track. I'm not sure if that's typical, since the track map I saw had at least six more turns. The McQueen E30 that ran a 1:47 was on Falkens and has an automatic, and the official Spec E30 lap record is a 1:45.0, so I'd wager they're running a longer track.

Getting Chump to pay attention to their own rules is hit and miss. One day they penalize you, the next they let an E36 328i run with no penalty laps. Go figure.

That's racing, I guess.

Because we're e-famous..! duh.

Indeed. I've read through your build thread a couple of times now. Your car is great. I've been considering a retrospective build thread, but I'm not sure if I have enough good photos to make it actually worthwhile. We shall see.

We will definitely be copying your lighting setup when we run a night race. It is quite rad.

nice lemons e30! it'll never be that clean again...

here's ours from this last Sunday:

Pretty much. Someone hit something with the right front, which completely hosed our alignment (ruining a perfectly good ZII in the process) and made things slightly less pretty. None of the other drivers remember anything happening there, though. :roll:

Your car is beautiful in its own way too.

[irish44j]

That's us! That other v8 volvo is nuts, lol. We spent 75% of the weekend in the pits. I'm going to have a hand in rebuilding the car over the winter, so we hopefully stay out all weekend next year.

What was your teams best lap time? I did a 1:57.1, I saw some of the e30's were in the 1:47's. Pretty crazy, I was running 1:47's when I was doing time trials a few years back with a well prepped spec e30 on r-comps. I don't know how these $500 cars are doing it...

Jim would know better, but I think one of our drivers pulled off 1:53 or 1:54. My best was around 1:58 IIRC. First time driving the car and first time on that track, so I wasn't very fast, lol.

The 1:47 I think was the team next to us in the red one (blew head gasket during the race because forgot to turn on their fan during a penalty stop, IIRC). That's an "i" car and is quick.