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

[wworm]

Yeah. Hood vents tend to make cars look kinda trashy. These look super crisp and I think blend with the car surprisingly well. Especially with the additional aero bits. Blacking them out will make it even better for sure.

[Digitalwave]

I don't like vents either, but hey, function over form for this car. I wouldn't be offended if someone didn't like them haha.

[paynemw]

[/img]

Do you have the OEM air duct plastic still? Just curious how you're running that aero on the bottom side that integrate into the wheel wells. I have the one piece version and was thinking about doing an aluminum version plus your dope splitter type gig. Also, so dope on the hood vents man!

[MR 325]

I'm loving the vents!

[Eric]

Wow, awesome stuff TJ!

[pondhopper]

Did you notice better temps with the new vents¿

[Digitalwave]

Time for some updates! I'm signed up for my first track weekend at Sebring later this month, so I've been trashing a bit to make sure the car is ready to go. My main priorities were 1) finish installing my new surge tank setup 2) reinstall all the powdercoated aero parts 3) set my rear sway bar to the "soft" setting 4) safety checks.

First up we'll cover the surge tank installation. I chose a Radium universal single pump surge tank, with an in-take Walbro 255lph (GSS342) fuel pump. Upon receiving it, I swapped out the pump for an identically-shaped Walbro 190lph pump (GSS250). I did this because the 190lph is still plenty overkill for my setup (the stock pump was fine, and that's only like 120lph), and the reduced flow will limit the chances of the pump overpowering the stock 3.0 bar FPR. That seems to be a somewhat common issue with 255 or even the Bosch 044 motorsport pump (320lph).








Surge tanks seem daunting at first, but they are very simple to setup and wire. Here is the fuel flow:

1) Stock fuel pump in tank feeds the surge tank (it becomes a 0psi lift pump)
2) Surge tank fuel pump feeds the fuel rail
3) FPR returns to the surge tank
4) Surge tank returns to the stock tank

I debated for a long time on how to route the fuel lines. My first thought was to go straight up from the stock pump, to the rear firewall. However, it dawned on me that I don't want fuel lines inside the cabin (and the NASA and SCCA rule books would never allow that either!). There is not room to route the lines straight out the between the stock tank and the body of the car, so I figured I'd pick them up in the stock location near the fuel filter.

After looking around that area, I figured I was going to use bulkhead fittings to enter the trunk on the driver's side, so the fuel lines would be relatively short. I ended up changing my mind about this as well, as it would have placed the fittings directly above the exhaust/muffler. They would have been far enough away that I wasn't concerned about the heat emitted, but I knew that if the lines or bulkhead fittings ever sprung a leak, the fuel would drip directly onto the exhaust.

After a lot of fiddling around and testing other ideas, I ended up routing the soft lines over the diff, to the passenger's side of the car. The lines are very tight up against the body, don't interfere with anything on the rear suspension or the diff, and a leak is unlikely to cause any catastrophic issues.

I forgot to take a photo of the stock fuel filter area, which now houses 4 lines per the list above. I added a small in-line fuel filter between the stock tank and the surge tank. The Walbro 190lph also has a sock filter, and then I am still using an OEM Bosch fuel filter in the stock location after the surge tank.

Here is how the lines are routed.

Crossing over the rear subframe in between the arms of the driver's side trailing arm. They are tight against the body here, and I disconnected everything in the rear to force the trailing arm to bottom out completely. There is still 2-3" clearance when the arm is maxed out. That brake hard line is SOLIDLY mounted, so I zipped tied the lines to it at that point.





Using some holes in the body structure to run another zip tie to help begin the curve towards the diff.






Used a Radium hose holder to keep the lines separated and to mount them to the trunk floor. This piece is secured to the trunk with a bolt and lock nut. This keeps them routed perfectly crossing the diff.






And here is where they terminate. I used Vibrant -6AN 90* bulkhead fittings paired with -6AN to 5/16" barb fittings, and OEM fuel hose clamps. Nylon washers with clear RTV silicone to seal them off. I also painted the holes in the body to prevent rust.






You can see here during mock up where the fittings are and where I intended to place the tank. However, this was too close to the rear firewall, and would have made servicing the tank and installing the lines very difficult. Especially with my rear strut bar in place. I ended up moving it forward of the bar, which is less than ideal from a trunk space stand point, but it was the best option I think.








Everything is just loosely fitted for testing in those pictures. I had to pop both seats out of the cabin in order to get in the back for the wiring. While I was there, I took the opportunity to re-wire the connector on the stock fuel pump. Mine was falling apart, and I was afraid that it would cause connection problems at some point. I got the part number for the plastic connector here on R3v, but the connector was much longer than the stock one. I am glad I bought the wiring pigtails as well, because the stock ones wouldn't have worked in the longer connector.






The connector and even the bullet plugs all shattered when I tried disassembling. The stock wire was corroded back to about an inch. I kept cutting until I got to clear wire before making the splice.








New connector and pig tail spliced, installed, and tested with a multimeter.






Next up was wiring. I unfortunately forgot to take pics during this process. It is pretty simple and straight forward. You use a relay to power the secondary fuel pump, and get the signal from the stock fuel pump power wire (green/purple). The stock fuel pump wire travels down the driver's side of the car, in the back seat area by the ground post. It then travels across the car at the base of the rear firewall in the large shrink wrapped bundle, then goes through the seat bottom area where it passes between the body and the stock tank. I picked up the lead by the ground post on the driver's side, since I didn't want to cut open all that shrink tubing. I spliced the green/purple wire here and ran one back into the trunk along the factory 0 gauge battery cable on the passenger's side.






I wrapped the whole setup back up with TESA cloth tape once I was done. You wouldn't know it's there. All the rest of the wiring was done with Radium's universal wiring kit, which was very high quality! Great wire, waterproof fuse and relay, etc. I used marine heat-shrink butt end connectors.







Here is how the wiring goes:

- Tap into the stock fuel pump signal wire wherever you please (the green/purple wire)
- Use that signal as the trigger for the relay (pin 86)
- Use a fused 12v line directly from the battery as power input (pin 30)
- Ground
- Pin 87 is the output of the relay and goes to the power of the secondary fuel pump
- Ground the secondary fuel pump to the same spot as the relay (or wherever is convenient)

I didn't get a pic of this either, but I mounted the relay and fuse right above the battery. There's a nice rib in the body there that is good for mounting.

Here's the end result. Pressure tested and good to go! I'll put a list of all the parts I used for the surge tank install below. Hopefully it will be helpful for someone.






Next up was softening the rear sway bar. Along the way I also realized I installed the links wrong, and they were not equal length on each side. I fixed both issues. The links had come directly off a parts car I had, and I never measured them when installing. Before:






After:





I got all the parts back from powdercoating. Blast Coatings in Lake Worth did an awesome job as usual. Satin black on all the parts. I mounted the splitter and rear spoiler again, but forgot pics of the spoiler.








On the rear spoiler, I used clear RTV on the nuts and also ran a bead of it around the holes on the top side of the trunk to help seal the trunk.






I had received the center vent a couple weeks ago. It came out great! It has a gurney in the front, and the curvature follows the natural curve of the hood. It's a very nice piece. Unfortunately I was a bit rushed when mounting it, and I spent more time positioning it fore-aft to make sure it was in the right place in relation to the radiator and motor. I failed to perfectly center it on the hood. It's off about 1/4" to the left. I also didn't get any good pics of it on the hood. It's not mounted fully yet, I just popped a couple of screws in to see what it looked like. It will be riveted on this week, as well as the freshly PC'd side vents.








I was bummed I messed it up, but live and learn. Should have measured about 5 more times before cutting!

That's about it for now. I washed the car before pulling it back in. I'll get some more pics of everything this week. I'll leave this post with a list of all the surge tank parts:

• Radium Fuel Surge Tank (single, in-tank) with bottom mount bracket
• Walbro 190lph GSS250 fuel pump
• Radium -6AN PTFE fuel lines (fittings: 90* swivel and straight) 4x
• Radium 100psi fuel pressure gauge and 1/8 NPT -6AN adapter
• Radium DIY universal wiring kit
• Radium hose separator clamp
• Vibrant -6AN 90* bulkhead fittings + nuts 4x
• Vibrant -6AN to 5/16" barb adapters 4x
• Gates high pressure 5/16 fuel tubing (I'd say I used a good 18')
• Bosch 71-936 inline fuel filter (between stock tank and surge tank)
• Bosch OEM fuel filter (after surge tank, stock location)
• Assorted hardware for mounting

[Digitalwave]

Did you notice better temps with the new vents¿

Finally having driven the car wit all three vents, I can say the following about the coolant temps. I haven't driven the car on the track with all 3, but I will report back again after this weekend.

Coolant temps:

Idle - unchanged (as expected)
City Driving - about a 5*F reduction when moving
Highway Driving - about a 10*F reduction above 50mph

Hoping that they help the motor stay a little cooler overall and lower my oil temps a bit on the track. It's going to be hotter than hell this weekend at Sebring, so it will be a good test.

If you didn't want to commit to all 3 vents, I would skip the two side vents and only do the center one. N15 now has the E30 hood vent for sale: http://n15design.com/product/n15-des...v=7516fd43adaa

[jeenyus]

Looks like a cool piece. for 95$ and some cutting, it seems like a good mod if you can deal with the vent in your hood.

Waiting anxiously for pictures of it finished.

[Digitalwave]

Time for the monthly check in. Kind of a lot, but not really, since the last update. I had to finalize prep for Sebring, just the normal bolt check, brake bleed, that kind of stuff. The car was packed up and ready to go! I'm about 1.5 hours south east of the track. It was a fairly easy and uneventful drive, but HOT. This car is a heat trap, black exterior, black interior, no carpet, no a/c, south Florida summer.

Brake fluid was surprisingly dirty considering it hadn't been long since I bled it. I flushed 2 bottles through it (AP PRF 660). Before:




After:





Here's a better shot of the surge tank and fuse/relay setup:









Just before the track, I whipped up some terminal covers for the battery. I also taped off the area just in front of the battery heavily with duct tape, in case of being rear ended and the battery pushing forward into the sheet metal. I am going to replace with the stock plastic cover that goes in that area. Forgot to take a pic.






Hood vents and front splitter in all their glory:





I designed and got number stickers cut for the car, since NASA requires them, even for HPDE. These are close to the font used by the DTM "Dekra" number panels.








The only way to pack everything I needed was to put some of it over the roll bar. Pain in the ass, but it worked out fine.






We went up early on Friday to tech our cars the night before, and get our pit space set up. Saturday morning was beautiful.














Since it was my first time driving at Sebring, I had an instructor, a good friend of mine that has instructed for me before. Saturday went well. I have to say, Sebring is even more challenging than I anticipated. I feel like you barely have any time to breathe, you are "driving the car" the entire course. PBIR is a cake walk compared to Sebring. That said, the track is FUN! It's quite bumpy, has everything from tight technical corners to high speed sweepers, and it's just overall an enjoyable experience. With club racing going on the same weekend, there's plenty to do and see. Having attending the 12 Hours earlier this year, I was extra-stoked to be on the track.

Saturday, we got in 3 sessions, before the last one was rained out. No issues with the car, besides the same issue I've been dealing with for months now, which is the car running, especially idling, very rich once it's heat soaked (it's not really an issue at WOT, and it's not bad at cruise).

Overnight, it poured for hours, but it was nice and clear again on Sunday morning. Oddly, there was a big puddle under my car. It didn't look like our pit space was wet otherwise, and it was coming from my engine bay area, so I had a sinking feeling.

Although I hadn't lost any major amount of coolant the day before and I had not noticed any leak, sure enough, my radiator was leaking.






The overflow tank was still pretty full, but it was dripping fairly steadily from the radiator. I turned the car on to see, and sure enough, it was squirting out under pressure. My weekend was done. :(

We hung around for a bit, did my class room sessions, and watched the racing. Spec E30 is always a blast to watch. They always have a great turn out in Florida!














When I got home, I took the fan off to try and find the hole. It was obvious what had happened when I got the fan off. I had got this fan and radiator setup from a parts car I had a few years ago. I never checked to see, foolish of me in hindsight, but the fan was mounted too close to the radiator, and had been rubbing against it occasionally (not constantly). It had done just enough to put a pin hole on one of the fins.





After removing it, I could see it was pretty tired anyways. Time for a fresh replacement. I went with a CSF from Bimmerworld. Got a few other parts I needed, as well. I am impressed by the CSF so far. The craftsmanship and design I would say are a step higher than the Mishimoto. However, the fitment is slightly different, so I am going to need to modify my fan mounts and my top radiator support a little bit once I get the CSF mounted (I've only test fit it so far).








I went ahead and hacked off the threads to my water pump to get a little more clearance. I could have gone a little deeper, but didn't really need to. I did it with a hack saw on the car, so I was still able to get pretty good saw strokes where I did it.






I had my injectors tested. The flowed great and didn't leak a drop up to 100psi. I did this, because I was in the area, doing a valve adjustment. I am having another valve cover powdercoated to replaced this one. The hack job shop that did this red one powdered (twice) over the oil cap area, and even with a new cap, it doesn't seal well anymore. The new valve cover is going to be a hoot. I'll post a pic when I pick it up this week.








I had never adjusted the valves on this motor myself. I HATE doing valves. I had my local race shop do it when I swapped this motor in last year. He said he did them fairly tight, but I didn't ask the spec. I was surprised that they were all on the loose side -- 0.011" to 0.012" on average.

I wanted to learn how to do the valves right, so I could do it regularly, so after reading up on r3v, I bought the special spring loaded tool for adjusting the valves. I have to say, it made it soooooo much easier and faster. I still had to do a few of the valves 2-3 times to make them perfect, but a lot of them I nailed on the first try. I did them all, then did a full rotation, and checked them all again. I had to redo two of them.

Schrick lists the valve clearance for my 284/272 cam at the OEM 0.25mm, so I did them to 0.010" accordingly.





That's where I'm at for now. I also went back to stock NGK 5077 plugs, gapped at 0.8mm. My one step colder plugs were quite carbon fouled. This week the new valve cover and the radiator are going to go back in. I just need to bleed the system, and I'll be ready for the next track weekend, which is at the end of July at PBIR (with NASA again).

I bought a Setrab oil cooler to replace my Mishimoto, and I want to revisit the way I mounted it (rigidly). I'm going to add some rubber isolators for vibration, and more ducting around the oil cooler. That won't happen until August, after this next track weekend.

I'm going post up the professional photos from Sebring later this week. They are sick! The Florida regional track photographer is damn talented. www.photosbyjuha.com

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Fantastic update man, I'm really loving this build through and through. Thanks for the detailed write up on the surge tank. It's on my list of to-dos.

I'm poised to purchase a CF hood and iirc yours is VIS? How's fitment and quality? Any recommendations?

[Digitalwave]

Fantastic update man, I'm really loving this build through and through. Thanks for the detailed write up on the surge tank. It's on my list of to-dos.

I'm poised to purchase a CF hood and iirc yours is VIS? How's fitment and quality? Any recommendations?

Thanks! Glad to see someone reads it, haha.

The fitment on the VIS hood is just so-so. It may be better now, those hood is at least 10 years old. I've been thinking about buying a new DTM Fiberwerkz hood when they have a sale, I'm guessing the fitment is better on that.

The main issue with the VIS is that is bows up in the center and is too low by the cowl. It's not as noticeable with the EVO hood seals. Otherwise, it's good. All stock brackets and functions work perfectly with it (it doesn't require being pinned).

[jeenyus]

Thanks! Glad to see someone reads it, haha.

The fitment on the VIS hood is just so-so. It may be better now, those hood is at least 10 years old. I've been thinking about buying a new DTM Fiberwerkz hood when they have a sale, I'm guessing the fitment is better on that.

The main issue with the VIS is that is bows up in the center and is too low by the cowl. It's not as noticeable with the EVO hood seals. Otherwise, it's good. All stock brackets and functions work perfectly with it (it doesn't require being pinned).

I like that it works with the stock brackets and functions without hood pins. That is almost worth the slight misfitment. Let me know when DTM has a sale.

Love what you're doing with the car. Valve adjustments aren't that bad I think. There is something nice with knowing you did all the valves yourself and it's driving well. I did mine a little tighter this time around and it's been purring.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Thanks! Glad to see someone reads it, haha.

The fitment on the VIS hood is just so-so. It may be better now, those hood is at least 10 years old. I've been thinking about buying a new DTM Fiberwerkz hood when they have a sale, I'm guessing the fitment is better on that.

The main issue with the VIS is that is bows up in the center and is too low by the cowl. It's not as noticeable with the EVO hood seals. Otherwise, it's good. All stock brackets and functions work perfectly with it (it doesn't require being pinned).

I like that it works with the stock brackets and functions without hood pins. That is almost worth the slight misfitment. Let me know when DTM has a sale.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'm going to go with the fiberglass ireland hood. 14lbs and 1/3 the price. I don't mind pinning it. The hood just gets in the way trying to work on it anyway. FWIW mashaw still makes their carbon hoods. I spoke to the guy a few days ago. Same price as the VIS hood except the quality appears to be far superior, it weighs 12lbs and also bolts onto factory points.

[Digitalwave]

I think the DTM hood works with stock stuff too. MA Shaw -- I had reached out to him earlier this year by email and a few phone calls, and never heard anything back. I assumed they were out of business.