NOR-CAL General Chat.

[Cabriolet]

Eric do you have comprehensive on your car?

on my M3, yes.

[Pantless Spency]

Vivek where the hell do you get moneys.

[canakami]

I just ordered a bunch of shit from Ireland Engineering...

Goodbye, Tax Reutrn. Wish we'd actually had some time together.

[Ian Bowers]

I honestly don't get why no one gives it a chance.

Because you're still going to have a low-torque engine that has a weak tranny, and expensive timing components. Doing it right requires a standalone ECU, and you're going to make the car illegal. I love my M42, but it's expensive to make it fast and reliable, and in the end, it's illegal in CA.

Get an S50. Danny told me that when I was 18 and I didn't listen.

BTW, my M42 has ARP studs, .140 MLS, all new timing crap, and a ported head. I even bought MS3 for it; I've done what you want to do, don't do it dude.

[cyberkaa]

Because he's a terrorist.

well he does have over 120k posts. im thinking that a few of those have terrorized someone.

Pshaw, my posts have brought joy to hundreds.

[Wh33lhop]

Because you're still going to have a low-torque engine that has a weak tranny, and expensive timing components. Doing it right requires a standalone ECU, and you're going to make the car illegal. I love my M42, but it's expensive to make it fast and reliable, and in the end, it's illegal in CA.

Get an S50. Danny told me that when I was 18 and I didn't listen.

BTW, my M42 has ARP studs, .140 MLS, all new timing crap, and a ported head. I even bought MS3 for it; I've done what you want to do, don't do it dude.

The M42 is a fun little motor, but yeah, the more you mod, the more headaches you deal with, just like with anything else. A bigger motor is the simple solution.

Honestly, I also just hate the sound most 4 cylinders put out. I daily'd that SR20 S13 awhile back... awesome little car on paper, super quick and handled well, but I didn't like how it sounded and therefore I never really felt like I wanted to keep it. I've talked with the owner about it at length, he agrees and now is talking of selling it in favor of an E46 M3.

[YosemiteSam]

there is a C-clip u need to remove and it will fall off in hand. no puller needed.


#10

Already knew about the clip. It's been off for a while and it still wont come off.

[JinormusJ]

Thinking of reverting my car back to DBs and justing waiting for an opportunity to snatch me a set of euro bumpers.

I wuld be REAAAALLY excited right now if Danny hadn't already sold me the bumper

I was thinking about that earlier. Finally someone in here doesn't think that the m20 is a gift from god.

I've posted earlier ITT why the m42 is amazing. I've never hated them, but I've always prefered the m20 because of the more raw power it can put out.

318s were a pretty great idea. Small light, revvable, tossable engine in a small light car: one of the primary reasons I'd rather m54 over s54 an e30; the weight difference is phenomenal (slightly heavier than the m20 by 25lbs) and your still putting out more power/torque than an s52. Makes sense to me

Sure the s54 will be faster in a straight line, but nothing is going to out corner you. The only thing it doesn't have going for it is that it's not an M-motor, but with how good it looks on paper, who cares?

Already knew about the clip. It's been off for a while and it still wont come off.

Are you replacing the CSB? If so, just take a big screwdriver and hammer and hammer it off; since you're replacing it, you don't have to worry about damaging it right? Afterward, get a pipe or some PVC Piper and hammer the other new CSB back on. Done it 3 or 4 times already and it always works out. Use WD40 or Pb Blaster if needed (which is unlikely)

The things you do when you don't have the right tools

[Albuquerque30]

Just spent a few hours at catuned having them fix the driver's window on the touring. I hit my wall with fixing it myself for awhile, and they did a pretty darn good job. Definitely glad to be back home though. :)

Woohoo for a properly functioning window!!

[JinormusJ]

I keep seeing Igor's crew at all the local Sac Pick and Pulls
Met James and some other guy I can't remember his name; chill guys

Thinking of just dropping by sometime hah

[Vivek]

Vivek where the hell do you get moneys.

Wash a lot of cars (I actually want to expand to the e30 community if anyone's open to it. I'll make a thread soon). I'm polishing the headlights on an e60 tomorrow, that's one of my favorite jobs to do. People love the huge difference, and it takes 10 minutes if you know what you're doing. Plus I recently got a job tutoring a 7th grader which isn't bad money.

Because you're still going to have a low-torque engine that has a weak tranny, and expensive timing components. Doing it right requires a standalone ECU, and you're going to make the car illegal. I love my M42, but it's expensive to make it fast and reliable, and in the end, it's illegal in CA.

Get an S50. Danny told me that when I was 18 and I didn't listen.

BTW, my M42 has ARP studs, .140 MLS, all new timing crap, and a ported head. I even bought MS3 for it; I've done what you want to do, don't do it dude.

Do you know your compression ratio with that HG? My timing gears are perfect, I just haven't replaced my tensioner yet (doesn't make any noise so I haven't bothered). But shit...I hate to hear that from someone who's done it all. Why wouldn't you do it though? Did it just not make enough power? I mean, an m42 with 225 at the wheels is likely faster than an s50 (240hp, 10-15% driveline loss, heavier engine), and g240's can handle about 300wtq (heard that from MF DOOM who has a turbo m42 with a built engine). Will the tranny rob a lot of power? Another reason to love a turbo is that you can just change small parts and up the boost and get huge power gains. There's really nothing much to get more out of a NA engine.

BTW do you still have your MS3 ;)?

[JinormusJ]

Ive never liked the "SURPRISE!... YOU'RE ON BOOST!" factor in the corners...

Another reason why NA is much better than FI. More reliable, more predictable, more manageable. Boosting is fun, but once you have to replace parts because stuff keeps breaking, it get old, fast

Drove my bud's auto A4 and HATED it. Lower RPMs were slow, so I would romp it, then once it hit 2500, witchcraft propelled my vehicle at warp speed. Not fun at all... I'll take NA any day

[Albuquerque30]

I keep seeing Igor's crew at all the local Sac Pick and Pulls
Met James and some other guy I can't remember his name; chill guys

Thinking of just dropping by sometime hah

They were pretty awesome. Ended up staying an hour late making the whole assembly proper again. Ivan did the work on it.

Plus I recently got a job tutoring a 7th grader which isn't bad money.

I didn't know you were allowed to tutor people older than you.

YES!! :D

[Ian Bowers]

Do you know your compression ratio with that HG? My timing gears are perfect, I just haven't replaced my tensioner yet (doesn't make any noise so I haven't bothered). But shit...I hate to hear that from someone who's done it all. Why wouldn't you do it though? Did it just not make enough power? I mean, an m42 with 225 at the wheels is likely faster than an s50 (240hp, 10-15% driveline loss, heavier engine), and g240's can handle about 300wtq (heard that from MF DOOM who has a turbo m42 with a built engine). Will the tranny rob a lot of power? Another reason to love a turbo is that you can just change small parts and up the boost and get huge power gains. There's really nothing much to get more out of a NA engine.

BTW do you still have your MS3 ;)?

8.5:1. One issue with a .140 MLS is that you're always going to be a half-tooth off on timing, and your timing components won't fit very well. It also makes you have to use 2 profile gaskets, or a shit ton of RTV because of how tall it is. BTW, you should drop your lower oil pan and look for plastic, and make sure none of the upper pan bolts have dropped into the lower pan.

The car made power, it just delivers its power like a 4 cylinder. Nothing under 3k. I've blown second gear up on a G240, and I am not making anywhere near 300tq.

It's not about power, it's about power delivery. I have a 325iC, I wouldn't bother with an M42 in it, it's a heavy car. It needs torque. An S50 can always be boosted, and has a lot more parts available to do so, and it will always make more power.

The weight is a non-issue, yes it changes the feel of the car, but not enough for it to spoil the experience enough for you to hate the car.

Oh, and at the end of the day, a cop can't pull you over and give you a ref ticket, and you won't have to illegally smog your car.

And no, sold the MS3.

I'm going Ford 5.0, because I am cheap and want my tires to hate life. Iron block, alum heads and it's just a little heavier than an M50, but it's further back. So meh.

[decay]

The M42 is a fun little motor, but yeah, the more you mod, the more headaches you deal with, just like with anything else. A bigger motor is the simple solution.

put another way: as your expenditure tracks to the right on the chart, handling gets expensive even faster than speed does, especially when you want both. :|

and yeah, SRs sound like cats being strangled. had two KAs, one RB, never that one. the RB was the last; i tried that car after i had my first e30, and no matter what i did it felt like someone took away my k-bar and gave me a butter knife instead.

that's part of why i wanted to try a 4cyl e30, and after building mine, no regrets. car's not fast in the way that most of us use the word, but it does what i mean without running out of grip, and even after not driving it for a year and a half, i have near-total confidence in it.

some of you don't need to be told that grip and confidence are frequently better than horsepower ;)