Yay! Combustion!
Yay! Combustion!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE everyone!
While the wife and kids were hanging with a visiting friend, took a bit of time to get a few little projects done in the garage, since wrapping presents and being ready for Christmas is all done.
First: airbox mount. After looking at things, figured I could just make my own brackets rather than bother with the one that I got that needed to be welded on. I used the M10 relay box bracket by simply making a few bends in it, and a hole lined up perfectly with the M42 airbox. Then just used a twisted L-bracket riveted to the wheel well for the front mount. This is actually very secure, even if it looks a bit ghetto.
For the M42 bottom mount where it sits on the frame, I assume there was some kind of rubber pad that goes there, but I just used another hacked-up urethane bushing from some past project long-forgotten. Seems to work fine...
showing routing of the charcoal canister lines
since the car is on solid mounts and gets bashed around a good bit, anyplace that hoses or wires could rub against something I've made "bumpers" for them using old cut-up hoses. Better safe than sorry.
Also managed to get the washer fluid reservoir back in. Kind of useful for rallycross...
Hey, that looks like a complete engine bay! Well, aside from having no cover for the wiring loom at the firewall. I need to track one of those down at a junkyard or on the forums...
Also up on stands again - last night I managed to get the shift linkage in and hook up the driveshaft. Looks like the M10 DS is going to work just fine, since the M42 shaft overall length is only about 1/2" less, and there is about 2-3" left on the splined section and 1" left on the oblong grooves in the CSB. So, pretty pleased that this mates up.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Late Christmas Eve....was sitting around with a glass of cognac watching Top Gear repeats after hours of watching classic Christmas movies with the family. They're long off to sleep now, and was digging around wiring diagrams....figured there was late-night time tonight to go tackle some wiring (my nemesis).
This evening's quest was to locate and set up the tach wire. The M10 K-Jet DME (IIRC) had the tach running through the idel control system (not the DME), and through the main harness somewhere to the gauge cluster. The M42 Motronic DME of course has the wiring from the DME to the cluster via the main harness/C101 plug.
I have the C101 (and the double-splice harness to attach it to the old C101) all wrapped up and don't want to mess with it again. So will do this the hard way, I suppose. Luckily I know a few things:
Still trying to get used to black being real wires and BROWN being the grounds.
Anyhow.....So I cut into the wrapping of the DME harness back near the firewall and located two black wires. One is a big thick one (DME power, or perhaps the ground, who cares) and one is thin. On a hope, I cut the thin one and then tested resistance from the known speed signal pin. Success!
At the other end, cut the black wire coming out of the cluster blue plug. Long story short , soldered a (black) wire between the two, running through the dash, and that was that.
Might be a few days before I start the car again, so will have to wait to see if it works. Tach wasn't working for a while before the swap, but I think that was because I had the IACV and idle control stuff all unhooked, which (now that I think about it) is where it gets its signal. doh.
Also for my own Christmas present, did some online searching and ordered up a few used/cheap stuff:
One other question: For a non-OEM VDO water temp gauge, anyone know if the OEM water temp sender (currently running to the temp gauge in the OEM cluster) will be accurate?
Because rallykar.
And because after having the tachs on all 3 of my OEM gauge clusters die, I'm tired of dealing with the OEM garbage cluster. So I'll deal with the cheesy look. I was going to put it on the steering column right in front of the OEM tach, but mounting it there would make for a hassle to access and remove the cluster to do wiring and other crap in the future, so up on the side is just easier (plus easier to see it, honestly).
Will look even cheesier once I put the triple pod in the middle of the dash tomorrow though, haha...
But, function > form on this car. The eventual plan is to take out the entire OEM cluster and replace it with a good set of VDO gauges in a custom panel, but that's something I'll work on this summer. Right now I just want everything working!
It was a clearance item (probably due to the chrome rim, lol), so it was cheap but hopefully will work fine. Painted the outside rim black....but then rubbed some of it off when installing. oops.....may or may not redo, depending on whether I remember/care....
More projects today:
FIrst, got in the 02 sensor and rear shifter mount from Spencer finally. So got the shifter installed totally and the heat shields back on the car. So now I'm done under there except the catback exhaust, which I still need to find.
Also got a cheap ricey gauge pod in the mail. Actually better quality than I expected
Good fit with a bit of trimming
and of course I flocked it :)
also made pigtails for the gauges that will go there
fixed the tab on the OEM cluster
modified the old tach :)
oh....and picked up a working $150 Snap-on mig welder :) Now I need to learn to weld.
Thanks Yoshi
bit of a non-sequitur. Went to a buddy's 80s-themed birthday party tonight, and someone actually showed up both dressed the part AND in a Fiero. And it was a V6, manual transmission Formula which is pretty much the only truly cool fiero. Epic 80s win. SO of course everyone had to take pictures by it, lol...
doing other things today, but did get a bit of mail - my VDO oil pres gauge. So, can finally put it all together and get all the wiring set. Still waiting on the oil pressure and temp senders though.
I managed to find both of them with M12 thread, which is apparently pretty rare and which will allow me not not have to use adaptors or t-fittings. The downside is that they take a while to get for some reason.
Anyhow, here's the gauge pod, with wiring, etc in case anyone cares. I still need to figure out a good way to attach it to the dash and a place for a hole for the wiring, but that shouldn't be too hard.
gauges installed, and everything works (except for the oil temp and pres gauges, since they're not yet hooked to senders). The pod is secured, but I need to think of a bit cleaner way of doing it :)
So this is what I do when i'm bored.....
Some issues today. Ran the car in the driveway for about half an hour so I could bleed the cooling system/radiator.
Then mounted the muffler and ran a flex pipe in place of the catback I still don't have (though someone is sending me a used on in a week or so)
Then I went for a spin up the street. WHen under load it was apparent that I had a misfire.....
checked for spark: good checked compression: actually very good across all four cylinders. so that left fuel.
pulled the plugs and cylinder #3 plug was new-looking, while the other three had some soot. It seemed to have some gasoline on it, but hard to tell.
Long story short, ended up pulling the intake manifold and the injectors. Tested resistance and all were within spec, wtf.....The injectors, as you recall, are rebuilt Mustang 19# units. But after the hassle of pulling it all out, figured worth checking a different one, so I threw in one of my nasty old OEM ones and put everything back together (and my garage smells like a gas station now......)
Anyhow, fired it up and now hitting on all 4. Ran up the street real quick and the car pulled nicely (much harder than the M10, for sure :) ). The tranny is a bit whiney it seems, but could just be because its cold and I was in 1st/2nd on and off the gas the whole time. Once I get the full exhaust in I'll run out on some faster roads.
Anyhow, Maksim (who I got the injectors from) is sending me a new one so that should take car of that.
So....getting close:
Also decided I probably won't get new rally tires for this year. I just can't justify $800+ shipped for them at the moment. Also want to see how much faster I am compared to the competition using the old ones but with the new engine, just for comparison's sake.
I am looking for a groover (or someone who can groove tires) to clean up the outside edge, though. Good basic ones run $350+ so not ready to buy one, but we'll see.....
SCORE!
Scouring craigslist I came upon a pair of Sparco Torino 2 seats for cheap (<$300 for the pair). Only problem they were in Va. Beach 3+ hours away and the guy had already gotten some calls. After getting him to hold them for me for a day, decided to bail from work at lunch today, get in the car (the WRX!) and roll down there, pick up the seats, and roll back up to DC. 8 total hours in the car today (including my morning commute to work)....fun. But traffic was surprisingly excellent and the two seats actually fit easily into the WRX.
Closer inspection shows that they are actually in GREAT shape aside from serious color fade (which I don't care about at all). One seat has a small hole in the seat bottom, but otherwise they show almost no wear at all, all the adjustments work perfectly, all the knobs and parts are there, and they have Honda Civic mounts on them. The civic mounts look like they will be fairly easy to adapt to use on the e30 - may just have to weld on a couple pairs of new "feet" on each.
All in all, quite a score in my book. I know they're more "street tuner" seats than race seats, but I have to drive this car to events and like to drive it on weekends. Plus sometimes I have co-drivers. So I wanted seats that were comfortable and adjustable. They still feel very stout and fit me quite well. The bolstering is better than the Porsche seats by far, and also better than the nice stock seats in my WRX.
and yes, they're real. Multiple tags and product numbers confirm.
I know Pat Henry is looking for seats for their e30 rallycrosser as well, and we had discussed splitting a pair. But I think I'll keep both of these, and if he doesn't find one by the season, possibly letting him and Jason borrow one for their car. I like the idea of having a matching set :)
Always love crossing the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel for the view of NAVSTA Norfolk. Today there were 5 carriers, 3 or 4 big-deck amphibs (LHA/LHD), and a couple of the crappy new LPDs there. May be the last time this many carriers are ever in port at Norfolk, since Enterprise was just decommissioned (in the pic) and one other of the carriers there will probably go to the Pacific soon.
Some nice weather today, so it's project day again (isn't every day?)
the main tasks today were to get the seat brackets all set, and to start the sunroof delete. Also pulled out the rollbar to give more room to work (not out yet in this photo)
For the seats, as noted above they came with sliders and mounts for a Honda Accord, with some curved "legs" in various places. For the e30, the mounting surface is flat and squared up, so I cut all the legs off with a grinder after seeing that they held the seat up too high in the e30. So the frame can sit flat on the chassis (and I can shim it with washers to adjust the tilt/height if needed).
After configuring it how I want it, I wanted to get some seatbelt tabs put on so I can use the stock (female) belt receptacles. Took the frames to a local r3v member (knucklehead92) along with the "foot" tabs I had previously cut off, and he welded them back on in the best position for mounting the seatbelt. Nice.
So with that all set, I did a test-fit with the seats. Everything fits fine....just a small gap between the upper shoulder of the seat and the b-pillar, but it's enough. The driver's seat sits about 1" to the left due to the bracket setup, but that's ok for me.
Then on to sunroof. After removing all the sunroof, crank, etc I got the cutting wheel out and basically cut the front part of the frame off. I wanted to leave a lip there to give me some options for how I'm going to "fill the hole" when I'm done.
For the rear half, I'll drill the rivets out and then heat the sealant and it should drop right out. Figured it would be easier if I just got rid of the front half separately.
So, that's all for the moment. Time to watch some (more) football GO SKINS~!
I think everyone's getting bored with mine. The BRAID guys are getting action photos from winter rallycross and I'm posting seat brackets, haha....well, 2 more months and back in action!
whatever....
Finished sunroof delete tonight. Was actually pretty easy - cutting wheel to the three side tabs, and some heat to the sealant, and it drops right out (most people use a heat gun, I just used a propane torch :) ).
ok, well almost drops out. Looks like my aim was slightly off on a couple of the spot welds on the forward section, so when trying to drop it down I just slightly kinked the roof sheetmetal. Don't really care since that section will be covered by the replacement panel anyhow.
Without the sunroof frame, the roof is really flimsy. I plan to cut a few "slats" out of the original frame cassette and re-use them as stiffeners, since they already have the right curveature to them anyhow.
Once I do that, I can basically but the bar back in and install the seats and put the rest of the interior back together :)
Sill scrounging around to find a 2x3' piece of 16ga sheet metal to make a cover panel for the sunroof. I plan to just seal and rivet it on at this point, since I'm not looking to strip the roof for welding.
oh, also last night I think I located the source of my occasional fuel smell. Looks like one of the tank hoses was leaking a bit. the hole doesn't go all the way through, but maybe it was allowing the lip of the hose to leak or something.
irish44j wrote: Sill scrounging around to find a 2x3' piece of 16ga sheet metal to make a cover panel for the sunroof. I plan to just seal and rivet it on at this point, since I'm not looking to strip the roof for welding.
Can you just use the outer skin from the sunroof to patch the hole back up?
unfortunately it has a pretty thick gap. So I could make some brackets and just seal with silicone.
But I also want to move where the roof vent is, so don't want to re-use the sunroof panel.
Minor project tonight: installed some eyebolts (with backing plates) for a 6-point harness. the positions aren't exactly where i'd put them on a real track car, but they should do the job for rallycross. Luckily, I had 3 of these mounted in the WRX already for my autocross harness, so I just took them out since I don't plan to use a harness in that car anymore.
now I'm on the prowl for an expired 6-point camlock I think. Don't need a current cert on it, so hopefully I can find one secondhand off some racer that requires current SFI/FIA certs. then I'll put my 5-point or 4-point on the passenger side, since it will rarely get used anyhow.
I'm very curious to hear you impressions of the car when your season starts. I spend a lot of time thinking about what mods actually make sense when thinking of making a 2wd rallycross car faster.
I'm expecting the engine to be the major one. I found several times every event that the M10 was between gears and really had trouble coming out of slow corners.....1st gear would just spin the wheels and 2nd gear would take FOREVER to get there. I figure the power alone should be good for a couple seconds a run, all other things excepted.
Hopefully the "driver mod" has improved as well 
In reply to irish44j:
Nah, nobody's getting bored. We are all still here basking in the glow of your awesomeness.
Boring would be if I put mine up here.
Dec 1. Still sitting on trailer from last event.
Jan 1. Still sitting on trailer from last event.
No boredom here, just trying not to clutter up a great build thread. Carry on! 
nicksta43 wrote: In reply to irish44j: Nah, nobody's getting bored. We are all still here basking in the glow of your awesomeness.
lol.....Much of this is part of the effort to be as fast as shawn (the post below yours), who won MR last year. Also a result of the fact that I just like to tinker and do projects on the car. Else I'll have to do house projects, which are rarely enjoyable!
moxnix wrote: Boring would be if I put mine up here. Dec 1. Still sitting on trailer from last event. Jan 1. Still sitting on trailer from last event.
Well, you're the champion. There's no reason to change anything until someone beats you 
Plus I'm sure you have 5 other car projects ongoing right now, lol.
Speaking of......Roberto, Spencer and I were jointly wondering whether you're gonna stay in MR or if you're still thinking about putting the interior back in and moving to PR.
We all suggest the former. More competition in the class = more fun for everyone. Or would a PR move be more oriented towards regional/national competition?
so.....
after failing to find anyone local with a scrap piece of sheet metal I could use for the sunroof hole (ok, admittedly I didn't look very hard), went to Lowe's and just bought one for $25. 2x3 foot, so it's already cut to the right size at least. It's 18-gauge, which I think is pretty much the same thickness as the OEM roof sheetmetal (per rallycross regs), though mine has so many coats of paint on it it's hard to measure accurately with a caliper....
trimmed the corners, marked and drilled holes for the rivets, and marked where i'll make the cutout for the roof vent. I also plan on putting a couple longitudinal stiffeners on either side of the vent, just so the panel doesn't deflect when I open/close the vent.
Tomorrow I'm having the roof support bracket welded back on. Sunday is supposed to be an odd 70-degree day here in January, so the plan will be to prep and paint the roof panel and probably get it all installed. Hopefully will have time to put the rollbar back in and get the seats permanently mounted as well.
the parts I stupidly cut off and now need to re-weld on..
Also finally getting around to starting to remove the only remaining soundproofing on the car, above the gas tank. I keep on forgetting about it since I have a "parcel shelf" there usually. This stuff is pretty thin and doesn't seem to weigh much, but it may be about 5lbs all said.....
One other little thing I did the other night. since all my interior lighting is removed I've been annoyed a few times driving at night when I needed some light (and had to pull out a maglite, lol). So i'm going to stick some kind of switchable light up between the visors where the check panel used to be. There are a few screw mounts there, so it should be easy. Even spliced into some switch power with the original seat belt warning light wires that are already there for the check panel, so that will make it easy.
On a side note, just saw some photos on facebook of Roberto's PR-winning (and MR 2nd-place with Gorka driving) RX-7, which is moving up with Roberto to MR this year. The car was already pretty quick, and he has now gutted the interior (though it has a full cage) and also done a sunroof delete. Not sure what else he's done, but I'm sure he has some things in the works
Spencer's 318is (also moving to MR this year) now (or will soon) have fresh suspension and an exhaust that doesn't sound like ass.
Pat&Jason's 325e is about to get an "i" motor swap, has been further stripped, and Pat is basically replacing all the old trashed bushings and mounts throughout the car, many of them with solid pieces from Condor Speed Shop (on the hood of my car). They may also do an e36 rack swap, I can't recall if Pat said so or not.
In short, MR should be quite a shootout this year, which will be fun.
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