E30 Track Kar

[ispoonwithmugen]

Well I have put it off long enough and don't feel like doing any summer class homework right now.

As many of you know I bought Chris P's E30. Here is his FS thread from here:

Here is a great project car for someone looking for an inexpensive way to get on track for HPDE's or to autox. The big ticket items have already been completed, and a lot of work has gone into the car. This is not an eligible model E30 for Spec E30, but a great HPDE car (good handling, lower powered, RWD).

As with many projects, this unfortunately was never completed. The good side to this is that it never made it to the track. All of the parts are basically brand new without wear (besides a few miles on the street). It has been sitting for about 4 years, but was moved around occasionally. It is currently in a barn at my parent's place in Powhatan, VA. I recently swapped 2 of the wheels with tires that would hold air pressure so it can be moved. I have not started it recently, as I feel it would better to take the time to properly do some fluid changes before starting. It will run perfectly fine; it just needs some attention, an alignment, and then needs to be driven.


Features:

51,603 original miles!
Painted flat black
Welded in roll bar
Stripped interior and trunk, removal of air conditioning components and power steering
Interior and roll bar painted black
Sunroof delete and panel welded in place
Sparco circuit driver's seat with sliding adapter and mounting bracket
Sabelt racer passenger seat with fixed mounting bracket
Spec E30 race suspension: H&R race springs, Bilstein sport shocks
Powerflex control arm bushings
Rogue engineering rear shock mounts
Carbotech front Panther Plus pads, Axxis Ultimate rear pads
Stainless steel brake lines
Lug stud to wheel stud conversion
ÔÇ£WinkÔÇØ rear view mirror
New exhaust muffler
Maintenance items completed: timing belt, water pump, alternator belt, distributor/wires/plugs, all new brake rotors, brake fluid flush with ATE superblue, air filter, intake boot, oil pressure switch, fuel filter, new battery

Fluids changed: oil, coolant, transmission and differential (redline products)


Immediate needs:

Alignment
Tires
Floor pan under the battery in the trunk is rusted- simply need to cut this out and weld in a new section
Harnesses for the seats (if it were to be tracked)
Hood release cable
Coolant sending unit (have one, included with car) I believe needs replacement- gauge was not working


I have the maintenance records for the work my friend and I completed on this and lots of current pictures that can be emailed. I have a couple of boxes of random parts, an extra rear bumper, and some other things that will be included based on the sale price.

Price is $3,500. Located in Powhatan, VA. This will need to be trailered. I have a trailer and can transport it for an additional fee based on your location. Please contact Chris at 804-240-4334 or <!-- e --><a href="mailto:c.procopio@gmail.com">c.procopio@gmail.com</a><!-- e --> for any questions and pictures.

[ispoonwithmugen]

I went and picked it up back during spring break. That weekend I flushed the coolant system and replaced that. Drained the oil and put some in to run temporarily. After that it pretty much sat until I got home from break. As soon as I got home I started cracking away. First thing was to change all the spark plugs and secondly to drain the 9 gallons of fuel out of there with a harbor freight hand pump (holy hell it hurt), an hour later I was feeling high and the tank empty. When I had pulled the plugs they had oil in it and found it was a common thing for the valve cover gasket to cause this. I personally didn't see the old one to be bad but hey it was like 6 bucks from TurnerMotorsports. I then put some new fuel in and I wasn't getting fuel and found the transfer pump to be bad. Bought a new one replaced it and still wasn't getting fuel. Finally my dad helped me figure out what was going on when we jumped the fuel pump relay and it started spitting fuel. It turned out to be the main relay. Replaced that today and it finally was spitting fuel out but I'm still not getting the start. It wants to but I'm having trouble figuring out what is restricting it from finally starting. Hopefully I will be picking up some tires soon so I can throw them on at my friends house (he has a tire mount and balancer I can use for free) before I head back at the end of the month. I also just traded the driver seat to my friend because my fat ass wasn't fitting in there. I'm looking into the Sparco US evo 2 (I believe). Hopefully have it fired up soon and then I can get some of the stuff cut and weld. Oh and I also picked up a Sabelt 4 point for the passenger and a for the driver side a G force one from Justin. Any advice, hints, etc spit it out!

[navin]

Any reason you are going with the 4-pt's? I'm not too knowledgeable about them, but I thought they weren't the safest item out there unless they have the ASM (Anti Sub-Marine) feature.

Someone correct me if I'm way wrong here -- but I think it might be better to just grab some expired 5/6pt harness instead and use those.

ps. Buy DJ's spare LS1, you know you want to! :twisted:

[ispoonwithmugen]

Any reason you are going with the 4-pt's? I'm not too knowledgeable about them, but I thought they weren't the safest item out there unless they have the ASM (Anti Sub-Marine) feature.

Someone correct me if I'm way wrong here -- but I think it might be better to just grab some expired 5/6pt harness instead and use those.

ps. Buy DJ's spare LS1, you know you want to! :twisted:

I was looking at his old ///M motor. The 4 point is for the passenger, the driver has the 5 point. This will only be used for Autocross, HPDE's, and Hyperdrives at the moment so I think that should suffice. Someone correct me on that if you don't think so.

[Evan]

that rollbar is yummy.

definitely a great deal on that car, its going to make a great track car.


4 point is probably ok for a passenger at an autoX, but no, a 4 point is not sufficiently safe for anyone on a racetrack.
An instructor will not get in your car if you dont have equivalent protection for him as you do for yourself, and it may not even pass tech anyway.
Expired 5 points are fine, as long as they arent *too* expired. You shouldnt go over 5 years. Webbing quickly breaks down under UV.

[Evan]

Hopefully I will be picking up some tires soon so I can throw them on at my friends house (he has a tire mount and balancer I can use for free)

this is a very very good friend to have

[ispoonwithmugen]

That's good to know then. I'll look into buying another expired 5 point for the passenger. I need to get a new battery and the rust cut out and welding a plate in. As for the harnesses, what's the best way to mount them? Weld something in to hold the ends or something? I also just changed out the coolant temp thing, pretty easy after I snapped off the old broken connector, haha.

[ispoonwithmugen]

She lives! Got the car fired up but it seems like it's getting starved a little bit. Was VERY rough idle and I was flooring it and it wasn't going above 2k rpms. Going to bed now, hopefully have it actually driving in the next few days!

[D_Eclipse9916]

That's good to know then. I'll look into buying another expired 5 point for the passenger. I need to get a new battery and the rust cut out and welding a plate in. As for the harnesses, what's the best way to mount them? Weld something in to hold the ends or something? I also just changed out the coolant temp thing, pretty easy after I snapped off the old broken connector, haha.

These: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ogracing.com/reinforcement-plate-for-harness-mounting">http://www.ogracing.com/reinforcement-p ... s-mounting</a><!-- m -->

Paired with these and a large Fender washer: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ogracing.com/eye-bolt-for-harness-mounting-2">http://www.ogracing.com/eye-bolt-for-harness-mounting-2</a><!-- m -->

As an instructor, I wouldnt get in a car with the driver having 5 poitns and me having 4 points. I would rather be in a stock seat belt at that point. I have 5 points currently, but will be switching to 6 points as my harnesses expire at the end of the year (same with my nets).

[FlaakCM]

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the harness system for the passenger had to be equal to or greater than the driver's harness in terms of safety.. :dunno:

[ispoonwithmugen]

That's good to know then. I'll look into buying another expired 5 point for the passenger. I need to get a new battery and the rust cut out and welding a plate in. As for the harnesses, what's the best way to mount them? Weld something in to hold the ends or something? I also just changed out the coolant temp thing, pretty easy after I snapped off the old broken connector, haha.

These: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ogracing.com/reinforcement-plate-for-harness-mounting">http://www.ogracing.com/reinforcement-p ... s-mounting</a><!-- m -->

Paired with these and a large Fender washer: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ogracing.com/eye-bolt-for-harness-mounting-2">http://www.ogracing.com/eye-bolt-for-harness-mounting-2</a><!-- m -->

As an instructor, I wouldnt get in a car with the driver having 5 poitns and me having 4 points. I would rather be in a stock seat belt at that point. I have 5 points currently, but will be switching to 6 points as my harnesses expire at the end of the year (same with my nets).

Does that mean those will be for sale at the end of the year? And are there specific points at which those should be welded? Anyone have some good links on it? Also any ideas for checking the motor?

[Dave]

I'm pretty sure that it's advised, but not mandatory. Ultimately, it's up to the instructor to make that judgement call when they tech the car.
A good way to look at it is that they're putting their lives in your hands to go out and teach, so it's fair that you both be out there with equal safety gear. They don't HAVE to get in the car with you and I've totally seen students turned away to make adjustments to accomodate safety issues. Nobody will ever argue with the instructor on it unless they're being unreasonable; the only options are to get a different instructor who isn't concerned, fix it before you go out, or go home.

[premiershine9]

Exciting man! Looking forward to seeing a startup/ run vid? Maybay?

[ispoonwithmugen]

Exciting man! Looking forward to seeing a startup/ run vid? Maybay?

Hopefully by the end of this weekend! I can take a startup video but it isn't going to sound too hot, haha. Ehhh whatever, I don't feel like doing this Micro and Macro assignments right now anyway. BRB... :thumbup:

[ispoonwithmugen]

No video tonight. I don't feel like going outside and taking the battery out of my car. I promise one tomorrow or the Sunday.

[ispoonwithmugen]

Looking to pick up some 195/45/14 Toyo Proxes T1R's tomorrow. Any opinions on that? It'll be going on the stock bottlecap wheels (14x6) and come winter I'll go with some TRM C1's or Team Dynamics.

[ispoonwithmugen]

Held off on new tires. Just gonna go with 15" wheels. 15x7 or 15x8 C1's? Also what should I check out with this fuel problem? Heading home for the entire weekend.

[Beej]

Held off on new tires. Just gonna go with 15" wheels. 15x7 or 15x8 C1's? Also what should I check out with this fuel problem? Heading home for the entire weekend.

As for the wheels, it's been like a decade, but I remember anything wider than 225 being a stretch without fender work. 235's are like nonexistent, and 245 would require perfect offset. 225's fit fine on a 7" with the right offset - mine were tight on the fender side at et22 (no fender work), but I forget how much room was left on the inside. I certainly don't think there was 10mm on each side to spare.

As for the fuel issue, are you sure it's fuel? Sounds like the pump/relay might have fixed that?

[ispoonwithmugen]

I'm not sure that it's fuel. But I can't get the rev over 2k and I have to give it more fuel for it to even hold an idle. I changed all the spark plugs already too. I'm thinking of just doing the 15x7's et 25 with a 225. That's what all the SE30 guys use I believe.

[Beej]

I anticipate this will be the least helpful paragraph ever. Seems that before and since the purchase, the fuel pump (I think there might be two on early eta's?), fuel filter, all ignition (dizzy, wires, plugs), and main relay have been replaced - doesn't leave too much left to troubleshoot. I'm just throwing darts, but the main culprits left are:
1) AFM (though I don't think it would idle poorly - I think the ICV takes care of idle and it ignores the AFM until you're on throttle). Try unplugging the AFM to see if that has any effect. I wouldn't drive it without it, but see if it affects idle and if it'll rev past 2k.
2) FPR.
3) Possibly the ignition coil?
4) It's also possible that if it's a two-pump car (high pressure one in tank, transfer one in front of driver's rear wheel, I think), the other pump may not be good? If one had died, it might make the other work harder until it fails.

Got a Bentley for diagnostic purposes? Throwing parts at a car isn't fun.