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

[jeenyus]

Thanks man! Nothing like another 100 on the E30!

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[AWDBOB]

Thanks for that x2! I've been looking for that exact elbow for my MAF setup and was about to give up.

[Digitalwave]

Well, a lot has happened since the last update! Let's dive in.

First off, I finally bit the bullet and got a vehicle capable of towing and bought a trailer. I have accumulated so much stuff that I bring to the track, and with a car that may or may not have an issue when being flogged at the track, plus the lack of a/c or any basic comfort in driving the car on the street, it has sure made track weekends more enjoyable. I ended up putting on a Stealth Hitch on the X5 and I hard wired an electric brake controller and hid it on the driver's side glove box. Really happy with how it all came out. It was a bit nerve racking taking about the interior of a new car, but it was all pretty easy.












So back over to the E30. From the last update, I didn't have much left to do before starting it back up. Just had to put the intake manifold and intake tract on, and then the cooling system and the rest of the exhaust.

I had the mid-pipe ceramic coated this time as well, hoping to lower the cabin temps a little bit.






Got the manifold on there.






Then I bolted the intake up and put the cooling system in. It was time to start the car!

It fired right up but died immediately. I tried a few more times and then it was apparent the car was flooded. Using flood clear (a Megasquirt feature) and it still wouldn't start. I pulled a plug out and realized I made an incredibly stupid mistake.

Back in December, I cleaned up the intake manifold, and wrapped my injectors and the fuel rail in DEI heat wrap and heat tape. This was in an effort to reduce heat soak on my injectors. When that project was all wrapped up, I plugged up the manifold with paper towels and then it sat for over 3 months.

Fast forward to putting it back on. It was sitting on my bench with the ports facing away from me. I picked up up and swung it over to the engine bay without ever looking at it, and I totally forgot about the small wads of paper towel that were in the ports. They got sucked into the engine.

After pulling the manifold, most of the towels came out easily by turning over the engine to release the valves. The rest of the small bits I couldn't get blew out once it fired up, and sure enough it fired RIGHT up and ran great as soon as it was put back together.





I bled the coolant for a few minutes, drove it around the parking lot, and called it a night. It had gotten pretty late.






A week or so later, I had some more time to drive the car and took it out on the street for a bit. It was running a bit warmer, which I thought was odd. Took it on the highway and the temps shot up instead of going down like they usually do. I was able to limp it home without it getting TOO hot, but something was definitely wrong. I tried several times to bleed the coolant more, with the front end up in the air, etc. The coolant kept boiling over. I made a huge mess in the shop.








At this point, I was distraught. I was thinking the worse... that I had done something majorly wrong with the head gasket, that the head was cracked and pressurizing the coolant... all sorts of bad thoughts. I started pulling out the cooling system thinking the head is coming back out again, and called it a night.

The next day after thinking about it for a bit, I was wondering what the chances it could be that the new thermostat I put in there was defective. On a whim I threw the old thermostat back in, put the radiator back in, and gave it a drive the next day. Good as new. The thermostat I had put in wasn't opening, or at least not at the right temperature! That was such a huge relief.

The car was driving great, and I just had a few more things to wrap up.








With the car running great, I had to button up a few things. Had to put the hood and under tray back on, and I wanted to finish up the oil catch can setup I had been working on.

I had bought an inexpensive catch can on Amazon that I thought would work perfectly. It had 3/4" ports and some basic baffling on the cap. I planned to put it in line with the valve cover breather, and to retain the connection at the throttle body instead of capping it. It's safe and many people do this, but I wanted a vacuum to be pulled on the valve cover, so I kept it all hooked up.

As you know, the factory tube that connect the VC to the TB tapers, like, a lot. It goes from about 22mm down to about 13mm. My plan was to use a 3/4" hose from the VC to the catch can, then step down a 3/4" to a 1/2" to connect to the throttle body. After messing with it for a bit, I could not get the 3/4" hose through the intake manifold without it kinking the hose. I gave up on that idea and decided to utilize part of the factory tube, and then just use 1/2" tube for the rest. I had my local machine shop cut off the 3/4" ports and tap the cap for 3/8NPT, and then put 1/2" brass barbs on it.








I cut the TB curve out of the factory tube and used a 1/2" hose barb to join it to some 1/2" silicone vacuum line. Then I filled the rest of the can with some stainless steel scouring pads (won't rust).








My original idea for mounting the can didn't pan out. I ended up making an angled bracket to bolt it to the power steering pump mount. This ended up working well. The can is solidly mounted, and it can be dropped out easily to be emptied without having to remove anything else.










I brought the car to PBIR to do a shakedown at a time trial event. The car drove admirably. The biggest difference was the brake balance after moving to the E32 master cylinder. I can brake so much harder. I turned a personal best by over 1 second; a good bit on a 1:31 lap time.

For the first time, my tranmission vent tube overflowed, and I got trans fluid all over the brake booster area. It even came through the grommet by the fuse box and I got some in the foot well area. I ended up having to extend that hose by another 5 feet. I put 2 coils in the tube between the brake booster and intake manifold.






Lastly, mounted up some Hoosiers on a set of 15x8" Kosei K1's.






Then it was finally time to head over to Sebring for a 2 day NASA event! Got the car loaded up on the trailer, got all packed up, and had a great weekend there. We had a lot of rain the first day, but the second day was beautiful. I dropped over 6 seconds between day 1 and day 2. The car was just driving great. I did end up with a VERRRYYY cracked front rotor, but it lasted the rest of the weekend. The catch can setup is working well. There isn't any fluid accumulation in there yet (which I am kind of surprised by), but it's definitely catching vapors and stuff, so it will eventually fill up.

I didn't take a single picture at the track, so we'll see if I purchased the photos from the photographer that was there.

Other than that, I just need to put new rotors on the front, and I should be ready to go for the next event.

Until next time...

[jeenyus]

Solid update. Love this car.

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[wworm]

Love seeing updates on this car. So you ever think you'll build a stroker motor?
I'm diggin the purple in the engine bay too. Bummer about the koseis, those would be a perfect wheel for this car.

[Digitalwave]

I'm honestly not sure what I would do if/when something happens to this motor. I'd love to see what a really crazy M20 build could do, but I think based on time, money, and effort, I'd be really tempted by a basic 24v the next time around.

At Sebring I was keeping up with 2 different E46 M3's both on slicks (I was on street tires). They pulled me a little bit on the straights, but not dramatically.

[econti]

Good bit of luck with the towels not ruining anything

[dmanb2b]

Great build...Sorry if I missed it and I know this is a long shot, but you don't have those tan sport seats still, do ya?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Haha man that's kinda funny about the towels and the thermostat... I had exactly the same mistakes/issues. Glad you worked it all out! Car is looking good.

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[rzerob]

Haha man that's kinda funny about the towels and the thermostat... I had exactly the same mistakes/issues. Glad you worked it all out! Car is looking good.

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Ditto.

[Joeyz31]

Awesome update! I am so jealous of how clean your bay/under the car is. It looks great. Also, with the towels, I’m glad I am not the only one who has done something like that. Part of the fun of this hobby, I suppose.

[Digitalwave]

Great build...Sorry if I missed it and I know this is a long shot, but you don't have those tan sport seats still, do ya?

Those sold quite quickly to a local concourse type of car actually. Glad they went to a good home!

Good bit of luck with the towels not ruining anything

Haha man that's kinda funny about the towels and the thermostat... I had exactly the same mistakes/issues. Glad you worked it all out! Car is looking good.

Ditto.

Awesome update! I am so jealous of how clean your bay/under the car is. It looks great. Also, with the towels, I’m glad I am not the only one who has done something like that. Part of the fun of this hobby, I suppose.

For real, I felt like a royal idiot with the towels. I ended up having a good laugh about it. The thermostat wasn't my fault of course, but I almost lost it at that one.

Crappy picture, but here's the biggest crack on the front right rotor. There's 4-5 other smaller cracks too. I need to get some ducting and backing plates on the front.

[paynemw]

i love your car.

[wworm]

If these are still available you should snag em

[Digitalwave]

Time for a little update. Not a lot has happened since the last. From the last track event all I really needed to do was to change out the front rotors, install some brake ducting, and do a nut & bolt safety check.

I got some backing plates, and I 3D printed some adapters to go from the stock valance brake duct inlets to a 3" neoprene hose. Taking a cue from "Get Black Flagged" on Youtube, I routed the hose through the stock undertray. This holds the hose out of the way nicely and retains the stock aero/cooling of the undertray.

I also installed Turner rack limiters, as my wheels rubbed at full lock and I didn't want to put undo stress on the brake cooling hose.














View from inside the bay. The hoses are tucked in nicely underneath the frame rails.






16mm rack limiters






My tires are about 60% used up so I had them flipped on the rims so I can use them on the other side of the car for their remaining life.







The E30 is ready to go for another weekend at Sebring in 2 weeks. With it all squared away I've been working on my E36 a bit. It's running OBDII in an OBDI chassis, so I had to do some wiring for the swap.

2 pins in the X20 had to be swapped, and one pin from the X6001 had to be moved into the X20. I also ran the diagnostic wires into the cabin so I can have an OBDII port inside the car. Past that I then shrunk wrapped and bundled up all the other pins that weren't being used, so I could remove the other 2 connectors that don't exist on an OBDI chassis.








Condor Speed Shop always comes through with the best bushings in the biz.





Removing the M52 manifold from the engine was a pain, but then installing the M50 manifold with the roll cage in the way proved to be impossible. I just couldn't get the manifold over the studs no matter what I tried. The only way would have been to drop the front subframe, which I didn't feel like doing. So I removed the studs and just used bolts instead.




Pretty much everything is in the bay at this point, I just need to install the catch can.




Last thing I had to do was fill up the tank and test the fuel pumps. It has a Bimmerworld dual pump setup, and as it turns out one of the pumps was dead. After temporarily bypassing it, I was ready to crank the car up.




I was a little shocked that my EWS bypass and wiring worked as the car fired up almost right away after sitting for years. More updates to come soon!