yeah, figured as much. I was just wondering what the hell the tires he had on there for the rallycross were 
yeah, figured as much. I was just wondering what the hell the tires he had on there for the rallycross were
some good photos of my ride from the last event...
Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving!
I for one am thankful that we amazingly got a 65-degree day here in late November. Because I was really dreading doing the post-season cleanup on a cold day.
Here's what an e30 looks like after a season of rallycross (I didn't really clean it off much all year, in truth...)
after an hour with the powerwasher...nice und clean..
Also touched base with Carlos at Condor Speed Shop and got some M42 motor mounts on the way. The last of my engine parts should be in tomorrow, so I can throw them on the engine and get it off the stand and get the tranny all hooked up.
Ok, back to Turkey and Football. GO SKINS!!!
Quick wrap-up on the Susquehanna event, now that the times are posted.
In my class, finished 3rd behind Shawn (RX7) and Chris (V6 MR2), and ahead of a couple others. Even taking out my spin on the last run I still would have lost to Chris, so it is what it is.
Overall I was 16th out of 47 cars. Normally that wouldn't mean much but this event the course didn't change much throughout the day. Actually those of us who ran in the morning first would have been a bit slower since the grass sections were still grassy and wet with morning dew/frost, and they got more dug-in as the day proceeded.
Of the 17 FWD cars there, only 3 beat me (an impreza, a Neon ACR, and a BUICK REGAL (????).
Of the 12 RWD cars there, only 3 beat me (the two in my class and also Steve Nichols eked by me in the ETA e30).
So, all of that is basically meaningless since the event was a bit of a debacle and I think a lot of people there were so frustrated we were not really in a very good groove to drive well. I know some guys were just trying to look good for the people sitting up in the grandstand, lol....
So....no more about this year's events. Time to work on next year's car :)
irish44j wrote: Of the 17 FWD cars there, only 3 beat me (an impreza, a Neon ACR, and a BUICK REGAL (????).
I'm assuming this was one of the '97-04 body style, meaning it would have a 3800, meaning 200 or 240 HP(supercharged) if stock & they are fairly light for a modern car, ~3500lbs. Additionally, the suspension from the cop car Impala bolt on, making it handle fairly well. All in all, there is decent aftermarket support for the W-body platform.
FooBag wrote:irish44j wrote: Of the 17 FWD cars there, only 3 beat me (an impreza, a Neon ACR, and a BUICK REGAL (????).I'm assuming this was one of the '97-04 body style, meaning it would have a 3800, meaning 200 or 240 HP(supercharged) if stock & they are fairly light for a modern car, ~3500lbs. Additionally, the suspension from the cop car Impala bolt on, making it handle fairly well. All in all, there is decent aftermarket support for the W-body platform.
it was in stock FWD class (which it won over a Mini and a Kia Forte). It looked like a giant leaning boat - especially since the course was tight. But times don't lie, so I guess the guy was just a hell of a driver!
There was also a grand marquis there that finished just behind the two e30s in stock RWD class
Any pics of the red NX2000?
unfortunately not. i think you were running right behind me (or a couple cars in front of me), so I didn't get any shots of the car on course.
Eric Helgesen from our team took some photos at the event though...Here is a link to his album;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirt3_monster/sets/72157632049593451/
He definitely has a few shots of your car in there. Here's a couple. They're in higher resolution on his site (like....HIGH resolution). If you copy/use them, just make sure to credit Eric Helgesen.....he comes and takes great shots at our events (he's only 15, so he's not driving), so give him credit!
after raking up about 30 bags worth of leaves this morning, I had to take a detour on the e30 to try and figure out why the power steering pump on my 2009 WRX is making a ton of noise.
First I checked the belt and it was trashed. This doesn't look like normal wear on a 70k mile car (and the AC belt looks perfect) so I think there is something else up. First try is that there is definitely air in the system (bubbly froth in the reservoir). Checked all hoses and no visible leaks, but there may be air getting in since this started just when it got cold (and hoses inside diameters contract in cold, so a leak may have formed). First, though, try the 'easy fix' that is notorious on subies - the o-ring on the entry hose on top of the PS pump. I put a new o-ring on, and it made less noise, and no bubbles in the reservior at the moment. So maybe fixed. I need to bleed the system this weekend to make sure. Otherwise time to replace hoses, or the pump :P
Here's what the belt looked like.....scary
so, back to the e30 because the subie is a PITA to work on......
First, examining the mess of hoses for the heater. This apparently was a BMW dealer retrofit/recall item since I guess people were cooking their heater cores or having them blow up or something. Looks to be some kind of thermostatically-controlled relief/bypass valve. A look around the e30 forums and it seems that some people just get rid of all this mess, and others don't. It has been suggested that since this car is run hard I should probably keep it. IDK....the hoses are all in pretty good shape though so might keep it for the time being. If they were bad, I'd think about deleting it.
Then a box came in from blunttech with the last few parts I need to finish up the engine.
First, the new oil pressure relief valve. The original valve is made of metal and as you can see it definitley chafes against the cylinder it sits in (under the oil pump). Here's a pic of the valves from both my M42 engines...
And here's the redesigned plastic valve (next to the old one), as well as the old 200k+ mile spring (next to a new one).
With some help from the wife got that back in with the c-clip in the groove. Now can finally button up the oil pan...
For anyone interested, I'm using permatex copper gasket spray on the OEM-style gasket, I've had good success with this stuff in the past on other cars, so I use it on pretty much all gaskets.
I also replaced the timing chain tensioner with a new one, just to be on the safe side. Old one seems fine though.
Once all this was done, could finally take the engine off the stand and put it on the wheeled dolly I had rigged up to hold it, so I can mess with the transmission end of things..
works pretty well :)
So, now to the transmission end of the engine.
First, replaced the input shaft bearing. This was a pain in the arse to get out. Also interesting that there is the bearing, plus a thin metal washer behind it and a tapered washer/grease cap type thing in front of it. Neither of these parts were on my parts M42, and neither are shown in REALOEM or other catalogs. Maybe an aftermarket fix or something. In any case, they seem like a good idea so I just re-used them with the new bearing. I packed it with some synthetic grease (Hopefully that's correct!)
Also replaced the rear main oil seal, though the old one wasn't leaking from what I can tell. But I"m in here, so might as well. I forgot to get the super-thin gasket that goes behind the retainer plate (which was pretty much dissolved anyhow), so I just used a generous amount of red RTV. I was going to use Permatex Gray, but someone forgot to put the cap back on the tube and it's no good.
Ok, so that back on here's the spacer fitted on the crank face (not the one bored-out hole to fit the sleeve)
And the flywheel test-fitted. Unfortunately, even with the spacer it rubs the back of the oil pan slightly.....
That's not gonna be satisfactory, even though it would probably wear down and clear pretty quickly. So took out the grinder and shaved the two little "legs" there. This doesn't affect anything in terms of strength, etc....just frees up a little bit of space.
and after:
and zoomed-out shot of the M20 flywheel on
also did a quick mock-up of the M20 starter. Most people swap the M20 pinion gear onto an M42 starter, but I have two old M42 starters and a brand-new M20 starter, so would rather use the latter. Here's the clearance when not engaged. Just like stock....
I'm waiting for some shorter flywheel bolts from blunttech, and once those arrive I'll put the FW/clutch together and bolt the transmission on. I still need to scrounge up a few additional transmision mount bolts, but that should be easy enough.
One question for anyone still reading this thread: does anyone know if the M10 driveshaft will work with the M42? I'll measure once I have them out together, but I only ask since my M10 shaft is in great shape, good U-joints, and new center support bearing. The M42 shaft I have here is pretty nasty looking, and the CSB is trashed.....
I'll also plan on using the clutch slave cylinder from the M10, since I know it's good and it's the same part number as the M42. Plus that will allow me to just unbolt it and leave it on the car when I pull the engine. One less thing to bleed when I'm done :)
Some more weirdness....
So as I mentioned above with the pilot bearing, the one on the "rebuilt" engine was an old-style open bearing, complete with a felt seal and dust cap. I didn't think much of this until I noticed that the "parts" engine has a sealed bearing there (no felt, no dust cap).
After more investigation, it turns out that they have different inner diameters!
Now had to look at the transmissions. ON the outside they are identical, with identical part numbers and markings. But as it turns out the one on the "parts" engine has a thicker input shaft than the one on the "rebuilt" engine. See below:
soo....that's odd. The thicker one, I'm thinking, must be from a later car where they beefed it up. The thinner one is the same as on my spare M10 G240....so it must have been a carryover or something.
I HAD been planning to use the tranny off the "rebuilt" engine since it looked clean and didn't appear to have any leaks. The "parts" engine tranny was gunky as hell, with oil all over the inside of the bellhousing (rear main leak? tranny rear oil seal leak?).
But now I'm having second thoughts, so investigated the "parts" tranny more and sent an email to the previous owner asking about how it worked before he did his engine swap.
Anyways, I pulled the input shaft collar and seal to check things out....all looks fine there and no sign of a leak - so it must have either been from the clutch slave cylinder or from the engine side.
So basically now the plan is to use the second tranny with the thicker input shaft and the sealed bearing. It must be an updated/newer model and thicker transmission parts are always better in my book, for strength.
In reply to irish44j:
Great, thanks a lot. The shots are great, tell him I said thanks.
kind of cool, I got an email from the director of the RG 318is Rallye series in Germany, which is kind of a "SpecE30" series but on rally courses. I think it's more like rallysprint (single-stage) than a full stage rally, but it's very cool.
He said: "The BMW is a full Cup Series, the cars are all Built on Cup Rules. To keep costs low, we drive all the Bilstein B6 Series shock absorbers [Bilstein HD's in the US] and springs or springs from one E30 325ix. Preferably, the springs from the 325ix. I am happy to send you a sticker set, it is an honor. If you come to Germany, you're happy with invited us to ride. You can find on our home our rules under "Articles" The yes you can with a translator (Googel) Compile. Since I can not speak English I do that as well. Please send me your address. Your picture will be put on our home.
Greetings from Germany
Norbert "
very cool.
I have to admit I wasn't altogether sold on rallycross but after taking the Miata out a couple weeks back I'm thoroughly hooked. It's a ball.
got some swag from Carlos at CondorSpeed :)
I approve to the highest degree!
So as mentioned above, was chatting with Rallye Gruppe 318is Cup, and they put us on their homepage 
nothing real exciting, but small victory so I guess I'll "document" it :)
Got the rest of the shorter flywheel bolts in from blunttech (thanks for the fast shipping!), so finally able to get the flywheel onto the car. To hold the flywheel still while I torqued the bolts to spec I rigged up a little "holder" with some angle aluminum. Bolts go about 80lb-ft.
yay
no pic, but there is a slight clearance behind thanks to grinding the ribs on the rear oil pan down.
and with some new clutch bolts, torqued to spec (20ftlb), the clutch is on too. This is a new Sachs clutch. The flywheel and pressure plate surfaces were milled by the previous owner and are very nice...
and on goes the transmission. still need to clean up the casing some...
so that's it for now....need to get a few more tranny mount bolts and some starter mount bolts....
also need to get the rear transmission shaft bolt off and do the rear tranny seal, since it looks like it leaked at one point and not sure of its current condition. I have a spare seal that came with my old M10, so that's free anyways.
some minor tranny work this evening...
replaced the output shaft seal. The old one looked pretty fresh, but I had a spare new one that came with the car when I bought it, so might as well while I'm in here.
pulled off the crossmember and old tranny mounts....yum
cleaned up and replaced them with some UUC "black" urethane mounts. I'm using the Condor solid engine mounts, but since I like to drive this car around and have to drive it to events, didn't want solid tranny mounts. I thought I had some urethane tranny mounts in my parts box, but as it turns out they apparently are not for an e30, lol....whoops.
UUC had a thankgiving sale going, so I got these cheap anyhow, so that's good...
all cleaned up
also pulled off the selector nub to look at the little seal there. The seal looks to be new and I don't see any evidence of degradation, so I'll just leave it....I don't want to bother ordering a new one anyhow.
But, the selector rod wobble joint was cracked....I guess the P/o was pretty aggressive shifting, lol
luckily I had a couple good ones sitting around on my 2 spare G240s, so use one of them. All put back together.
one question: RealOEM shows the main output seal nut to have a lock collar (like the CV axle nuts). None of my three transmissions have this lock collar on them. So all have probably had the rear seal replaced and they didn't reinstall, I guess. All of them were still torqued to spec. So do I need these, or will some Loctite RED do the trick fine?
So now I've posted all the M10 stuff up for sale, so I need to get moving on getting it out of the car. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rare 70-degree December day here, so I'm burning the last of my use-or-lose leave at work to stay at home and wrench. Will probably take the car for one last drive with the M10, check compression for the next owner, whoever that is, and then start getting stuff ready to get the engine out....drain the coolant, take out radiator, take off exhaust and driveshaft, clamp off and remove fuel lines.....we'll see how much I actually get done.
In the meantime, picked up a partial M42 exhaust system from a local for a few bucks. It's broken/cut off just behind the resonator (which was rusted out anyhow). The guy's car was LOOOOOW so it has a lot of scrapes on it.
also a cut in the y-pipe from a dremel....not sure what's up with that but will get it welded up.
the cat shield had a lot of nastiness inside of it. The cat substrate looks like it's breaking up and not all there. The plan is just to cut the cat out and put a test pipe in or something....don't want a re-do of my last cat disintegrating and clogging the exhaust...
or if I get lazy, I'll just gut the rest of it.
mock-up :)
one other little thing.....the one throttle body elbow I have is brittle and cracked. The other one (in this pic) is still pretty good rubber, not brittle or anything. But it does have a crack where the ICV hose goes. Hopefully a couple zip-ties and black RTV silicone will work here :)
Today was beautiful weather so I took the day off work. The plan was to get everything prepped for pulling the M10 out at a later time....all wiring disconnected, fluids drained, radiator out, driveshaft detached, etc etc.
Spent a couple hours this morning doing that, and various other things related to the other cars and house....
mmmm....coolant. For some reason I hate anti-freeze with a passion. Far worse than any oils or lubricants. Don't ask me why....
all the wiring disconnected
exhaust off (a good inch of caked/baked-on clay on the front pipe sections)
Did a few other tasks once all that was done, and planned to come back in a week or two to pull the engine. Then my wife gave me a birthday present early - an engine/lift leveler. So it was only 2pm....might as well just do this now, with the car on an incline, by myself :)
Started lifting the engine out, and for some reason it wouldn't clear the passenger-side motor mount. Sat there for like 10 minutes racking by brain before remembering the dumb little "shock absorber" that attaches next to the passenger motor mount. Couldn't see it from above so i forgot all about it...duh.
So once that was disconnected....
empty bay....will get a good cleaning and maybe some random paint color before I put the new engine in. I really hate the black bay paint, since it makes it "dark" to work in, and doesn't show leaks that I want to know about....
now we be rolling rally-kar style yo...
with the car on an incline, I was able to just let off the brake and roll it out of the way of the engine. Then dragged the whole hoist into the garage since I'm already using my two ghetto-rig engine dollies for the M42s...
It's getting pretty crowded in here. I need to get rid of some engines!
The plan of attack for the next couple of weeks:
and other things I'm surely forgetting.....
just ordered up a run of next season's "team" stickers. I give these away to the other local e30 drivers, and also send them to other e30 drivers around the country that rallycross, in swap for their team/local club stickers. Kind of a fun way to meet other people. Will have to send one to Caswell for his rallycar :)
Moving along with some projects before I put the M42 in.
First, going to clean up the bay and repaint it a light color (or several, whatever i have in rattle-cans sitting around the garage). Having a black engine bay sucks because it doesn't show up leaks, and it's dark when working in there. So this one will end up a tan/beige color. And hey, it won't look so dirty since the paint will match the dirt, lol
wife caught me working...
So looking at what i have to do here, looks like I'll have to make a few changes. The M10 power steering line is oriented wrong for the M42, since the M42 PS pump is rotated 90 degrees down from the M10...so I need to score up another M42 line. Also will replace the LP hoses since they look pretty old.
Also mocked up the M42 radiator and the lower mounts are totally different location and height from the M10, so will need to fab up some new lower brackets or something.
In case anyone cares what an m10 vs m42 radiator look like...
bay a bit more cleaned up.
also ordered up some delrin bushings for the shifter carrier (where it attaches to the transmission) to eliminate some slop, and need to get a new shifter bushing, since the M10 has the sheet-metal carrier/console and uses a smaller bushing than the aluminum carrier on the M10......
Took yesterday and today off so I could head down to Richmond to see a show. Total non-sequitur to this thread, but I've seen 200+ concerts over the last 20 years or so, and this one ranks in the top-10 easily. At least, the headliner Halestorm. Great show, great musicians, really it was a perfect show.....bands played top-form, perfect soundboard, and overall entertaining.
and frankly, Lizzy Hale simply rocks. She could be Joan Jett's daughter, lol...
had to come home early this morning since the kiddo had a high fever. While she went to the doctor's office with mom, I took the opportunity to.....
PUT THE M42 in!!
yup, that's an engine in the car again :)
Got most of it hooked up, except for the PS system (still need to find a HP hose that fits), and didn't do any wiring yet. But it's in there so now I'm just hoping it runs well once I get everything ready to start...
Condor Speed Shop (silence) solid motor mounts
UUC poly transmission mounts
also looks like my M10 driveshaft will work fine with a minor adjustment in the slip/splined joint, so that's excellent....since the two m42 DS's I have have pretty un-smooth feeling U-joints and shot CSBs.
Also just hooked up the old clutch slave cylinder, since they're all interchangeable. Tested it by turning the output shaft by hand with the clutch in (turned freely) and then let the clutch out and of course it wouldn't turn. So that's good :)
got the fuel lines hooked up, but still have a few things to clean up and hook up.
so.....that's it for now
I love every update. Can't wait to hear it run.
yeah. me too. hope it does
You'll need to log in to post.
