DirtE30 - 1990 BMW 325i

[Senor_Taylor]

I may have just noticed it. It really does sound like pinging, but I'm starting to think it's either a vacuum leak that gets loud under heavy throttle, or ping induced by a lean condition from the leak, or both.

Turns out you can't adjust timing on a M20 so that's out the window. It definitely does have some kind of vacuum leak (not bad, idles fine) so I'll look into replacing vacuum lines. I need to hear another m20 so I know which noises to except and which not to.

I have a video of my Tacoma engine running and not making weird noises that has thousands of views from people I assume want the same experience, haha.

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[Senor_Taylor]

Got it aligned this morning after doing my tie rods and it seems installing the new rear trailing arm, I knocked off .3 degrees of positive toe, which is good. The bad news is, I'm still toe out a little bit on the left rear. The bushings didn't really look that bad, so either the subframe is tweaked (unlikely) or this arm is also bent slightly. I think I'll leave it for now and look into getting Mach V to weld in some adjustment tabs for me over the winter so I won't have to worry about this ever again. Otherwise, I'm stuck tracking down where this bend is from and may end up replacing a subframe, which is a can of worms I don't want to open of "While you're in there" parts. At least, I don't want to do that just yet

My question is, can anyone give me some insight into the legality of toe/camber adjustment plates in the rear? I'm assuming it's not legal in SE30. It wouldn't be the end of the world to swap a subframe in without the tabs if I ever wanted to make this a spec car, but I'd like to know.

[.RJ]

Something is bent in your left rear.

[Senor_Taylor]

I've gathered that much. Haha. I replaced the entire arm and brought it back .3 degrees. I'm probably going to get a professional to look and figure out if this arm is bent or if the subframe is bent. I'd be bummed if I replaced a bent arm with a slight less bent arm.

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[Senor_Taylor]

First motorsports event with the E30! Refrigerator Bowl Rounds 1 and 2 on the Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point. It's been a scramble to get the car feeling safe and planted with all of this old tired suspension, leaks, and worn out parts, but it's coming along very nicely! I towed it up on Sunday and set up camp. It was a cold, damp morning so that didn't lend much confidence to me considering I was already pretty timid about flinging a junk yard E30 in 4th gear around a track with no experience past a Miata in 2nd gear in a parking lot. A loose inspection, 10 minute driver meeting, a spirited parade lap around the course, and we were already started. My first run was conservative and a learning experience. I've put less than 500 miles on the car so I honestly had no idea how it handled. It was happy to pull into third gear before the second turn, which was very exciting. It's more loose in the rear than a Miata, but much more forgiving. I could feel the rear end gradually get more loose and I felt confident to push it as the day progressed, The car let me get decently sideways before I felt like I wouldn't be able to get back. The main concern I found was weight shift. Under hard braking (Which these Hawk pads do very well) the car gets loose in the rear, I think because the front dives hard. I have new shocks in the rear, but not in the front, so this should help. Jake took the car out for a pace lap and gave me some much needed positive feedback and that gave me confidence to begin to push harder in the second round in the afternoon.

The car did not oversteer as much as I thought it would and the car held decently well flat out in fourth gear through the finish lights with both course directions. The later rounds were much more fun and I got twice as many runs as the morning rounds. Thomas Shea, who is new to the club, found his way out to Jefferson all by himself to come ride along with me and I'm really happy to see a new member taking such initiative! He was there to witness first hand as I turned a faster lap every single time. 11 runs, and 11 time improvements. I finished the day near i a 39.XX run which seemed pretty fast compared to other times I was hearing. The timed portion of the course did not include the front and back straights of the course, but I may or may not have had a spirited cool down after each run, and I can say the car felt very stable near the top of 4th gear and under braking into turns. My pads did smoke a decent amount, which may have been them actually bedding during these runs. I will however, bump up a level or two in pads to HP+ or better and swap them on for track use next season. The HPS pads are great for street use, but I underestimated their use at high speed.

When I get time, I'll splice all of my runs together, but this is one of the faster and cleaner ones.




As for plans going forward, I have a speedometer sensor and flex disc in the mail now and will get those installed. Fuel filter and battery tie down will be next. Over the winter, I think I'll get Mach V or someone to weld some adjustment tabs onto my subframe so I can dial in some 0 or negative rear toe and adjust camber to keep the car stable while I'm learning and throw in some Trailing arm, subframe, and diff bushings while they're in there. I'm passively looking for two race seats so me and the instructor can be stable, but I'm holding off on the harnesses just for a minute to make sure I don't rush into prepping a car that may be not right for what I need. Tentatively, I may have a fun season with NASA in 2018!

[Jake]

Glad to see you/it out there and nice improvements in your times from the sound of it!

The car is unstable under braking because of both the goofy spring/shock setup (which you are fixing) and the one rear wheel still having mega toe compared to the other (which you are also fixing). Get the alignment corrected - the easy button is to have Deren weld in those tabs and align it for your intended uses - and finish your suspension install, and I think you'll be surprised at how much better it feels.

The HPS is a fine pad for early HPDEs. Run 'em until you are down to 1/3 of the pad life and then re-evaluate which pads you want. I had HP+ on the Miata for a time and they were better performers, but super noisy on the street. If you want to street-drive this thing on nice days, keep the HPS for now.

My pace lap was conservativeish given the alignment issues but yeah, we didn't die in a fire and the car responded as asked so I was pleased. It's fascinating how much more connected you feel in the older cars. Going from the E30 to Brandon's F30 was stunning.

[JPolen01]

Glad you were able to get the car dialed in enough for its first on track experience!

The finish line photos are so god damn bad it hurts my eyes.

[Senor_Taylor]

Thanks Polen!

It's one of the preview photos and mine is the most offensive. I'm sure it was just a little over processing in a hurry to get it out so quickly. I can't complain about such good shots being taken for free.

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[Senor_Taylor]

Rear IS springs are on now, so I should be a little lower and stiffer. Found that my hard line was pinched shut, so either it was damaged before I put that trailing arm on, or I pinched it with the jack. Luckily the one on the old arm was in good condition so I swapped that over.

Deren has my strut housings and is going to swap over my is springs from Dave and put new top hats on. The lock collar was pretty corroded and I had no way to get it off. Good way to get myself introduced. Once I get those back and I get them on the car, I should be ~1/2" lower and a little stiffer with the "new" bilsteins. It was kind of embarrassing dropping off a box of rusty parts for him to mess with, but what can you do?

Once the car is back on the ground, I'll drop it off with him for a good inspection and some advice on what should be done before a season of DE. Right now, I'm planning on doing adjustment tabs welded onto the subframe so I can control camber and toe in the rear, and OEM rubber bushings for the trailing arms, Poly for the diff and subframe. I figure I'll get Deren to do all of that at the same time since the subframe needs to be dropped to weld the tabs. Does that sounds reasonable or am I missing some awful reason not to do it? E30s apparently bend trailing arms pretty easily, so it'll be nice to be able to fix the alignment when I need to.

I've read that E30s can rip the sway bar brackets out of the car under track conditions. Has anyone heard this? If this isn't the case, would it be useful to swap poly sway bar links, or is that not needed?

I've also heard people say to remove the clutch fan since the electric fan on the front of the radiator does fine. Is this what Spec E30 people do? Should I go aluminium radiator before I even start DEing?

What are some things I NEED to do. Not "nice to haves" but things that would be a terrible idea not to do before DE. I can build the car as I go for the "nice to haves".

I'm looking for used seats and some brackets before March, so let me know if anyone has a lead on some. I'll keep my stock belts until I can do harnesses properly, but the car needs to be street able for a few more months at least.

[Senor_Taylor]

"New" shocks are on all the way around, IS springs are on all four corners. It feels stiffer for sure. Replaced a gasket I was missing on my rear shock and added the spring pad I forgot on the other side. Even got my speedometer working. Took the clamp off the leaking power steering line and added a hose clamp and I think it's slowed my drip to a trickle. The steering feels pretty heavy, but maybe that's me being used to the over boosted 4Runner. I also painted my calipers orange and did a lug stud conversion and replaced the guibo. #YOLO

As the car sits, it's obvious it needs to be lower, but at least now it doesn't do a stoppy when I get hard on the brakes.

Need to bleed the brakes one more time after replacing that hard line and she'll be ready for the refrigerator bowl. Then she's off to Deren at Mach V for an inspection and to begin a list of parts to throw at it. Starting with brake lines. I would have done them already, but I dread trying to get to the lines above the rear subframe.

Running total of parts that have been replaced or are new within the recent past:

Reworked Head
Plugs, Wires
Timing Belt
Waterpump
Head gasket
Valve Cover Gasket
Coolant Hoses and Coolant
Front control arms and bushings
"New" Front Bumper
New Battery
Pioneer head unit
fuses, wiper blades, various vacuum lines
New ground wire for engine to frame
TRM Motorsports C1M and Dunlop DZ102
Brake Fluid
Seat Covers
Gear Oil in Diff and Trans
Speed Sensor plug wired in and new sensor installed
Front lip
IS springs
Bilstein HD shocks
Rear trailing
Rear Seats
Glovebox
eBrake handle
Hawk HPS Pads
Centric Rotors
Sway bar brackets front
OEM Tie rods and hardware
Swar bar links
OEM Giubo
Lug Studs

Really cool to see how far this car has come, and how far it will go! The only thing I fear is something catastrophic failing on me. So far, I'm just fixing things that needed to be fixed when I broke it, but as soon as I break something, that's when I'll lose steam. This car is 100% funded by poor financial decisions and cheap used parts and take-offs. So please send anything my way you see that's a good price and I can use. The list is long and extensive for what I need.

[Senor_Taylor]

Absolutely fantastic day today! Had PTO to burn so today I was off. Swung by DJ's place to grab some old race seats from him and discuss race car things.



Came home and started to fiddle with the car a little more. I found that there was a radar detector installed behind the grill (blocked a large portion of the radiator). A few E30s came with dealer installed radar detectors, but I don't believe this was one of them. The wire had been cut, so I removed it. Interesting none the less.



As I've said before, the entirety of my dash lights, right side running lights, tail light, and license plates lights have not worked since I bought the car. I've gone through at least $25 in fuses trying to figure it out and had largely given up. Today I got some motivation and picked up a box of fuses. After a while of my aforementioned wire tracing, I ended up upside down in my trunk. I found some wires I had never seen before on the driver side behind some panels and eventually found someone had pinched a wire ever so slightly with a bolt. Patched it, popped in a fuse, and commence tears of joy. 4 minutes later, I found a fuel leak that was pretty sizable and was seemingly causing a small stumble at idle. Adjusted the hose and tightened the clamp and she was right as rain. I went for a drive to celebrate just how far this car has come from a ratty, barely running barn find car full of spiders with dangerous steering and suspension, the rattiest interior, and no lights to a pretty decent little car. I'm very proud.

Going to touch my nuts tomorrow and make sure everything is safe, then load her up in preparation for the refrigerator bowl Sunday!

Sorry for the blurry picture. I was shaking so much I could barely get the fuse in!

[ScottyB]

get 'em Taylor! that's a good day right there. nice job.

Going to touch my nuts tomorrow

i bet you are

[Jake]

Whee! Glad you found the problem, wiring issues are the suuuuuck.

[Senor_Taylor]

Drove the car around Friday and Sunday enjoying having a car that actually functioned like a regular vehicle. Something just seems right about driving an E30 in the snow. Me, Matthew, Zach, Paul, and a few others went out to a vineyard on route 50 for Castro's birthday it was a beautiful locale. I snagged some photos while we were there.



Sunday morning I work up early and drove it to Summit for Rounds 3 and 4 of the Refrigerator bowl series. I didn't need to tow this time since my lights worked, which was very nice to not worry about. The car handled much better than I expected. The previous event, the car was really tail happy and would step out decently bad under heavy braking. Since then, I got the new shocks and stiffer springs installed in the front (among other things) and this really tied the car together. Firm, planted, predictable; it was a blast to drive. The car goes where you tell it to and you can get just the right amount of rotation coming into a turn with decent pedal play. My lines were bad, my inputs were sloppy, whatever, that's not the point. The car feels great, and it's only going to fell better with new bushings and a better alignment in the rear.



The morning sessions were a lot of fun and between runs, Jake, Matt, Ryan, and I would all hop out and compare times. It was a lot of fun, and the evening sessions looked to be even more exciting with more high speed sections of track. While we are off getting lunch, it seems someone "found" the GoPro I had attached to my car, but luckily it ended up in the classroom. I didn't know this until the end of the day, so I don't have any video of the evening sessions. The sucks tremendously because I really wanted shots of the flying through the carousel, which is a concrete, highly cambered turn similar to the famous one at the Nurburgring. My runs were getting better each time and the car was handling fantastically. What really holds me back is my aversion to really pushing the car. Handling a vehicle past 2nd gear is a new world to me, and so is prolonged braking from high speed. I road with Ryan Allen and saw just how late he braked and how hard he pushed the car and it made me realize how much I was leaving on the table.

The next run, I went out and was balls to the wall. Into third gear from the start to the carousel, hard on the brakes and dive in, hard throttle all the way through and feel the Gs. It turns out, it was too many Gs for my exhaust. As I exited the turn, I heard something dragging the ground and figured it was a piece of plastic so I stayed on it. The noise didn't go away and I started to realize it was metallic, so I backed off and babied it to the end of the course. Hopped out of the car and saw this.



The previous owner had replaced the entire exhaust right before he sold it and installed it with hose clamps instead of hangers. I had to drop the exhaust recently, and I guess I missed the lesson on how to properly hang an exhaust with the incorrect pieces, but somehow it came apart. I didn't really get a good grasp of what happened since I could barely get under the car at the time, but either the hanger broke off of the exhaust side from the hose clamp being too tight, or it wasn't tight enough and the exhaust bounced up and slid off the clamp. Either way, I got home and went to buy some rubber hangers and realized I have all of the stock ones from the car in a box in the garage. They are little weird rubber donuts that look nothing like any exhaust hanger I've seen before. Whoops.

At the end of the day, the car ran flawlessly, didn't hiccup, and surprised me every run at how well it handled. Officially the best handling car I've owned, as sad as that is. Really excited to get a few more things sorted out and shake her down at Summit again in January!


(Early run, since my GoPro went missing after this. Don't worry, they got better!)

[Senor_Taylor]

Need more low and more stiff.





lol

[.RJ]

Need more low and more stiff.

Why?

[Senor_Taylor]

Need more low and more stiff.

Why?

I thought the IS springs would be stiffer and lower than they are, but they're actually the same height of my non sport springs. It's not a huge deal, but I'm keeping my eyes out for some slightly lower and stiffer springs. Will probably hold off on thick sways until I'm sure they won't rip my mounts.

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[.RJ]

Why does it need to be stiffer and lower?

[Senor_Taylor]

It doesn't need to be right now. It handles fine for what I'm doing, but eventually I'll need to be a little more sporty than what was stock in 1990. Why is this a question?

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[D_Eclipse9916]