26 PRO3 cars at Portland Int'l Raceway May 5-6

[James Crivellone]

No, I was talking about an aftermarket sandwich plate that some of the advertisers sell..

At this point, I would almost say for you to just go find a decent junkyard bottom end, and throw that in your car for now..

Running an M50 for now. I'll be acquiring an M20 in the coming months.

Never even heard of that aftermarket plate, glad I didn't have that too :)

[djjerme]

Jeremy- Was that my old engine? It was no whipper-snapper but I wish that it woulda treated you a little better than that. I'm happy to see that it saw some glory near the end of its life.
Really enjoyed the video. Good luck in your next race!

-Steven

No Steven, I pulled the motor I got off you apart and found MASSIVE scoring in the cylinder walls, and some extreme detonation on the pistons. Looks like it had ran a bit low on oil at some point in it's life. We ended up setting the block aside for a 50 over motor at some point since the rest of it was good (crank, rods..etc.) The head I am probably going to either scavenge some parts off of to replace the bent valve(s) on the head in the car currently.

One thing PRO3 does tend to do is go through motors, so most other drivers have at least enough spare parts for one complete motor lying around. My friend Ryan @ Dynasport and I are creating kind of a "bank" at his shop. The thought is to always have a good spare "in the bank" in case one of us loses a motor during the season. As time goes on, we will probably rebuild some of the core ones we find. I think other shops are doing similar things (anyone seen Joe from Munich's ad in Craigslist lately?) for their customers and their own cars..

Either way Steven, your motor will live on eventually!

[djjerme]

Are you talking about the factory oil cooler plate?

No, I was talking about an aftermarket sandwich plate that some of the advertisers sell..

At this point, I would almost say for you to just go find a decent junkyard bottom end, and throw that in your car for now..

[SHunter]

Jeremy- Was that my old engine? It was no whipper-snapper but I wish that it woulda treated you a little better than that. I'm happy to see that it saw some glory near the end of its life.
Really enjoyed the video. Good luck in your next race!

-Steven

[James Crivellone]

James, going back to what we were discussing in the pits, were you running an oil filter sandwich plate between the filter and block?

My motor performed a similar self destruction at PIR last month during test'n'tune. It always had oil pressure issues while I was driving the car, but the entire time I was running an aftermarket sandwich plate with the eta filter adapter. After the new motor went Kablamo, I rebuilt the bottom end, and reinstalled the sandwich plate. On initial break-in I was seeing the same issue with low oil pressure once the motor came up to temp; and yes, the new motor does have a oil ban baffle!

After seeing being frustrated seeing the same issue, I tried installing a mechanical gauge in parallel with my electric gauge in the plate. Same issue, was seeing 6-7 PSI when idling and the motor at temp. And yet the warning light was not triggering.. So I figured there may be something related to the oil filter sandwich plate, and removed it from the equation. I ran all weekend with out an oil gauge (don't really recommend it) but even after all the runs last weekend (and a bent/burnt exhaust valve) the motor never once showed any signs of low oil pressure.

I am beginning to think that there may be something related to the sandwich plate, and the passages to and from the filter.

Hope that gives you some ideas for next time..

Are you talking about the factory oil cooler plate? IE the plate that bolts to the side of the motor, contains the oil filter, and has the oil cooler lines?
IE #3?



Other than the crank scraper and baffle (both TC Motorsports one) the rest of the oiling system is completely stock for a 325i (and I am running the oil cooler)

[djjerme]

Race report:

Starting the day, I was nervous as hell about my first Novice race. During the Practice session, I had an unfortunate incident (my dumb fault) where the end nut that the ignition rotor attaches to came loose, and it proceeded to destroy it self and take the cap along with it. Of course, I was thinking the worse, and was super relieved when we pulled it apart and found out that was all that was wrong..

After getting it all buttoned up, Mark Estes helped me adjust the valves because the motor was making more clacking sounds than a usual M20. Upon inspection, we found that one of the valves did not want to adjust properly (the eccentric just spun around like it was a pinwheel.) After talking with a couple other drivers and, we determined that I probably had a bent exhaust valve. Not a huge deal, it would just mean the engine would be down on power the rest of the day.

Qualifying was uneventful from my perspective, and I ended up about midpack when compared to the rest of the Novice class.. On pregrid, I was put into the 16th slot.

The parade lap was uneventful, though I think I got out of order on the backside near turn 9, and a Miata squeezed up into the position I was supposed to occupy. Really it didn't matter, I just wanted to complete the race..

Coming down the straight stretch towards the Green flag was pretty uneventful, I got the jump on a couple Miata's but my car was a bit down on power, and I got passed by a few other E30's in the grid. I was pretty happy with most of my lines, and managed to pass a few slower cars on the backside of the track, but the thorn in my side was the E36 that was also sponsored by Dynasport. That car had more speed on the straights, and I just couldn't keep up when wide open. Luckily, I was a lot better on the corners than he was (I think he was still getting used to the car) and was able to stick to his tail most of the race.

As the race wore on, that bent valve began to burn it self up, and I started to really feel down on power (I was getting passed by Miata's for heaven's sake..) So I just worked on keep my lines good, and making the entry and exits of the corners pay off. Being that this was a Novice race, the race steward would throw random yellow flags to see if we were paying attention.

The entire race I paid particular attention to the turn stations since I had been nailed for missing a black flag at my HPDE last month. This is why you see me during the video waving at as many turn stations as I can (probably a bit too much), but I didn't want to make that same mistake again. This was good because, we had some incidents in our practice and race where people were passing under yellow, and we all got our butt's chewed by the License Director..

During the race, we had a couple observer drivers, who had FIA licenses' but had to complete a Novice race so that they could be allowed to race in other conference classes. One of these drivers is piloting the white with red trim PRO3 car that spins in front of me while exiting Turn 7. It was a quick intense moment, but I though I did well staying calm and going around the incident.

By the end of the race, I was feeling a lot more confident in my abilities, and really trying to push my braking zones deeper. I was trying to relax somewhat so that my movements/inputs were smoother around the track. This became easier the more I was able to look ahead..

When the checkered dropped, I had the biggest grin on my face..

(see for yourself!)





Can't wait for ORP at the end of the month!

[djjerme]

James, going back to what we were discussing in the pits, were you running an oil filter sandwich plate between the filter and block?

My motor performed a similar self destruction at PIR last month during test'n'tune. It always had oil pressure issues while I was driving the car, but the entire time I was running an aftermarket sandwich plate with the eta filter adapter. After the new motor went Kablamo, I rebuilt the bottom end, and reinstalled the sandwich plate. On initial break-in I was seeing the same issue with low oil pressure once the motor came up to temp; and yes, the new motor does have a oil ban baffle!

After seeing being frustrated seeing the same issue, I tried installing a mechanical gauge in parallel with my electric gauge in the plate. Same issue, was seeing 6-7 PSI when idling and the motor at temp. And yet the warning light was not triggering.. So I figured there may be something related to the oil filter sandwich plate, and removed it from the equation. I ran all weekend with out an oil gauge (don't really recommend it) but even after all the runs last weekend (and a bent/burnt exhaust valve) the motor never once showed any signs of low oil pressure.

I am beginning to think that there may be something related to the sandwich plate, and the passages to and from the filter.

Hope that gives you some ideas for next time..

[James Crivellone]

Any race reports? Jeremy, John, James...?

I'll remind John to post up his notes.

As a Preface as some of you have heard I've been having Oil pressure issues with my car in the entire preseason. Have gone through 3 bottom ends, and 2 heads. The issue remains a mystery, as I've replaced just about every part there is to replace. Blew up the first one at Pacific after 15 minutes, blew up the second at Ridge after 15 minutes, and you can see somewhat where I'm going with how my race at Portland went.

Practice: Car seemed to do fairly well, however as I was still getting used to the thing the lap times were not very consistent or fast (will come with time) Started to dial it in, went four off at 4 when the backend snapped on me. Put down a 1:31 for the first ever Pro3 car on Portland time. Noticed an oil pressure issue at idle that was causing a near zero reading at idle. Brought the car into the paddock, looked at the head and saw oil was still flowing normally. Figured it was a instrumentation issue and prepped the car for Qualifying.

Qualifying: Got into some traffic at the start, however managed to find some track and started lowering lap times. Managed to get into the 1:30's and begun to find some pace. About 10 minutes in I noticed oil pressure at 25 PSI @ 6000RPM on the front straight. Went up a gear and brought it into the hotpits. Just like every other motor, metal in oil, bottom end trashed. Retired the car at this point

Race: Didn't enter. John did very well and was running some solid 1:25's out there on old tires. Started Pole as well (NOV they move you around)

Yesterday we placed an M50 into my car to salvage the season. Cannot afford to build a 3rd motor as I'm still paying for the last 2 that blew up) Talking with Mike I'm looking at either SPM for Group 1 (After my area upgrade) or Group 4. I'll build another M20 when funds permit, but at this point in the game its just getting up to speed with the car. I've put 140 miles on it (60 on the street for testing) and only 80 miles of track time across three engines.

On the flip side, John has i'm sure over 500 miles of track time on his and is fairly dialed.

I'll be at Ridge this weekend testing the M50, after that its taking a break from Pacific to attend Bimmerfest. I'll be at the ORP double header running G7 NOV C/W

[djjerme]

Anyone going to the $5 steak house after the race tonite?

Waiter, there is a hair in my steak!

[djjerme]

Working on it, had to pick up a copy of Sony Vegas to edit the video, and review my notes..

[Lance Racing]

Any race reports? Jeremy, John, James...?

[e30austin]

Awesome. See you there.

[!AjHoWzA!]

First races start at 1 today. Getting there at noon

[Keith M]

Great time as always. Kudos to Jeremy for completing his first novice race.

Ready to go


Not good


Fixing a broken rotor mount

I'll be back out today in a little while.

[AbeSonic]

I hate being sick. But I will be there tomorrow coughing and hacking up a lung with a minor fever....need moar Cowbell