E30 with SR20DET

[Theo]

A couple of pics for the photo-fiends.

Interior:

Battery install:

Front spoiler awaiting prep and paint:

[toby]

We like the pictures and videos are even better. When is this seeing a track again Theo?

[toby]

We like the pictures and videos are even better. When is this seeing a track again Theo? (Sorry if that's a frustrating sore point.)

[Theo]

'Ring in September, and a UK trackday some time after that - probably Donnington which is opening again in August. Hurrah.

I'll try and record a lap or two of the 'Ring to satisfy your video requirement!

[Theo]

Just ran out of fuel = fail. Fuel light was working last week, but not anymore! Did some fault finding and the level sender is causing the problem.

Also struggling with the bastard tacho since getting the car back together (it was previously fine) sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the movement is smooth, sometimes it's rather jerky. One time a coding plug made it read really high, now the same coding plug doesn't! I hate electrical faults!

[crossie]

your trip to the nurburgring go well at the weekend?

no running out of fuel?

[winx]

this is now a very serious car, as confirmed by a rather fast pilot this weekend
Thanks for the ride Theo, massively impressive.

[Cook318IS]

i really like this. I bet is fooking rapid! I'd love to have an e30 with an sr20det - im very jealous

[Splondike]

I drove past you tonight Theo - what brought you to Trashford mate ?

[Theo]

your trip to the nurburgring go well at the weekend?

no running out of fuel?

Yeah had a great trip, no fuel issues thankfully. The car actually managed almost 35mpg on a run which is fairly impressive.

True to form I've taken absolutely no photos or videos, I don't know why this happens every time, I'm just useless!

On Sunday evening I handed the keys over to a rather eccentric Scandinavian chap who took the car for a lap. He was an ex-rally driver and was evidentally fond of pitching the car into a corner sideways under braking. He also had zero sympathey for my poor gearbox - I've never seen someone change gear as fast as him! We did have the driftbox in the car but sadly the plug fell out after a particularly heavy landing (he liked jumping the car off kerbs) so there's probably only a few split times we can recover from it. I'll let him have another go in it next year to see if he can acheive the 7.40 lap he said the car is capable of.

It was great to get his feedback on the car, he loved the engine but said the suspension was very bad! At least 40% more rebound needed on the rear apparently.

Mark - I was in Ashford on my way back from Dover. Probably looking miserable because of post Nurburgring depression.

[crossie]

[crossie]

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[Theo]

Nice pics Ed!

[crossie]

Just had a quick look - was looking for some photos of my mx5 as well but not many people about the rad am ring weekend!

[Splondike]

Mark - I was in Ashford on my way back from Dover. Probably looking miserable because of post Nurburgring depression.

You did look a bit glum, still looks like you had some fun mate.

[tomislav]

Hey, lovin the car.

Where did you get the front panel from, its fookin mean as!

[Theo]

Cheers Tom. It's part of the BMW aerodynamics package and is made by Pfeba, they're pretty rare (I've only ever seen 2) I got lucky and got it off a local zoner for £30!

[Simon13]

i can never find any photos, hopeless everytime

[Theo]

Try here mate: http://www.ringportal.nl/en/photography/calendar

[GeoffBob]

On Sunday evening I handed the keys over to a rather eccentric Scandinavian chap who took the car for a lap. He was an ex-rally driver and was evidentally fond of pitching the car into a corner sideways under braking. He also had zero sympathey for my poor gearbox - I've never seen someone change gear as fast as him! We did have the driftbox in the car but sadly the plug fell out after a particularly heavy landing (he liked jumping the car off kerbs) so there's probably only a few split times we can recover from it. I'll let him have another go in it next year to see if he can acheive the 7.40 lap he said the car is capable of.

Very brave of you to hand the keys over to someone Theo especially when you had to drive the car home afterwards. Any comments from him on your brakes?

It was great to get his feedback on the car, he loved the engine but said the suspension was very bad! At least 40% more rebound needed on the rear apparently.

Not likely on an E30 semi-trailing arm, unless he raised the issue because he feels your current dampers are limiting the stroke of the arm? Is that possibly the case Theo?

[Theo]

It was a calculated risk letting him drive it, well worth taking thought as it ended the trip on a really good note. He said the brakes were fine, personally I thought something wasn't quite right as the pedal was rather long and soft. The were dreadful on the friday, but slightly improved after bleeding. I will get better pads, renew the fluid and try again - but if this doesn't firm the pedal up I will have a look into changing M/C sizes (I'll be sure to read up on my pedal box thread where you posted all the braking graphs up) I found it really hard to commit on the brakes which was a shame as I felt extremely comfortable with car's other characteristics on the track.

I will have to get back to you regarding the suspension setup, I didn't really understand everything he was saying so I will need to email him and get his thoughts in writing.

[GeoffBob]

Sounds like quite an experience Theo, one I would have loved to have had.

I remember (vaguely) doing those M/C calculations for you. I usually work on a figure of around 30 to 40 kg to reach threshold braking, so no way your pedal is soft as a result of the M/C sizes. I'd have a look to see if there is any air in the pipes if I were you. Any chance you boiled your fluid?

[aluntirlan]

Well after much procrastination, I hope to follow in Theo's footsteps. This time the Nissan motor will go into a lightweight dedicated track car...


Donor car: 200SX. I bought the complete car, which was a daily driver when I bought it.


The SR20DET we hope to transplant.


M42 engine, box and loom removed.


The E30 sprint/hillclimb car I'm building - into which the SR20DET will go! Everything under the watchful eye of my 7 month old project manager!

More updates as we progress!

Alun

[E30BeemerLad]

Alun,

Be a good idea to start your own build thread so all your posts can be kept together. Exciting project

[aluntirlan]

Sure. Will do, no worries.

Cheers - Alun

[Theo]

Looking good there Alun. That aluminium water outlet which bends round underneath the cam position sensor needs shortening, otherwise the top rad hose will need some overly acute bends in it.

I've just gone for a blast in my car after renewing the front brakes. Brembo grooved discs (hopefully will cure the pad glazing I was suffering from) ATE typ200 fluid and Performance Friction 01 pads - the brakes are so much better both in terms of bite and feel. There's still a fair bit of slack on the brake pedal which I'd like to reduce.

I've also binned the old ebay cheapo DTM style mirrors in favour of some genuine group A mirrors which look much better.

Tacho and oil temp gauge are still not working, there's a wiring fault somewhere but I can't find it. I'm toying with the idea of a digital dash...

[winx]

good to hear it is still getting updated! I have been looking at those pads and will be interested to hear your thoughts after a track day.
On the digi dash, I am currently looking at a Race Technology Dash2 and DL1 package:
http://www.race-technology.com/content. ... &cat=30592
although I wont be needing it for a few months was considering buying it this year to beat the vat increase. Let me know if you would be interested in that package or just the dash and I can see if they will do a discount for 2 at the same time...

[Theo]

Yeah that's the dash which is tempting me - best part of £600 without the data logger though, maybe I should just rewire the car to eliminate the wiring fault(s)!

With regard to the pads, I have high hopes for them. They felt really powerful braking from 100+ down to 30, better than ever. I'm doing a track day at Silverstone on the new Arena GP circuit on 3rd December so will write some feedback then.

[GeoffBob]

Oooh, that is a nice gizmo. I once considered a Stack 1080, but eventually decided against it since you lose ALL your info if the display fails. On the other hand, reading half a dozen individual gauges is not easy. In hindsight I should have bought the Stack 1080, although the one you are looking at looks better.

Ideally I'd like a HUD inside my helmet visor, imagine that !!!

I hope you have the same compound pads front and rear Theo, otherwise those calcs I did for you are worthless. Wish I knew why your pedal is soft at the top. Mine is hard from the top. Sounds to me like there is something in your plumbing that is more compressible than it should be.

[oldroydsr4]

Yeah that's the dash which is tempting me - best part of £600 without the data logger though, maybe I should just rewire the car to eliminate the wiring fault(s)!

With regard to the pads, I have high hopes for them. They felt really powerful braking from 100+ down to 30, better than ever. I'm doing a track day at Silverstone on the new Arena GP circuit on 3rd December so will write some feedback then.

Hi theo, let me know what you think of silverstone GP. I did a bike trackday there in the summer and to be honest I thought is was a little overrated. I was riding a R6 and the straights seemed too long for that. It really is a BIG power circuit.

Your e30 looks ace and is obviously progressing very well.

[Theo]

Oooh, that is a nice gizmo. I once considered a Stack 1080, but eventually decided against it since you lose ALL your info if the display fails. On the other hand, reading half a dozen individual gauges is not easy. In hindsight I should have bought the Stack 1080, although the one you are looking at looks better.

Ideally I'd like a HUD inside my helmet visor, imagine that !!!

I hope you have the same compound pads front and rear Theo, otherwise those calcs I did for you are worthless. Wish I knew why your pedal is soft at the top. Mine is hard from the top. Sounds to me like there is something in your plumbing that is more compressible than it should be.

Stack instruments are lovely, but even their 80mm tacho with speedo and a couple of pressure/temp channels is £500 (plus another couple of hundred for the sensors). Far too posh for me.

I don't currently have the same pad compound on the rear, though I'm hoping to soon change the rear brake setup to some larger vented discs and aluminium 2pot calipers - I have PF01's for these. £35 for a set of pads for these calipers, compared to £170 for pads for the e30 m3 rear calipers. I've been meaning to email you to check what impact this will have on master cylinder specs but could see you were sufficiently busy with your own car!

I'm very keen to eliminate the slack on the pedal, hopefully it will stop raining at some point in the next couple of weeks so I can check it out.

[Theo]

Yeah that's the dash which is tempting me - best part of £600 without the data logger though, maybe I should just rewire the car to eliminate the wiring fault(s)!

With regard to the pads, I have high hopes for them. They felt really powerful braking from 100+ down to 30, better than ever. I'm doing a track day at Silverstone on the new Arena GP circuit on 3rd December so will write some feedback then.

Hi theo, let me know what you think of silverstone GP. I did a bike trackday there in the summer and to be honest I thought is was a little overrated. I was riding a R6 and the straights seemed too long for that. It really is a BIG power circuit.

Your e30 looks ace and is obviously progressing very well.

Thanks Dave. I've done the previous GP layout and really like it, they do appear to have taken away some really good sections though - Bridge was a great corner. You're right in saying it's a big power circuit, not ideally suited to an e30 but I do like the fast corners (Stowe in particular)

[GeoffBob]

Stack instruments are lovely, but even their 80mm tacho with speedo and a couple of pressure/temp channels is £500 (plus another couple of hundred for the sensors). Far too posh for me.

Agreed, their products are expensive, but probably a bit cheaper here than in the UK. The stack 1080 sells down here for around the £1000 mark iirc, but that's including the sensors (one of which is a wideband O2 sensor, which is quite nice).

I have a stack AFR and fuel pressure gauge as I value the quality of these. I previously had an AFR gauge made locally. What a waste that turned out to be.

I don't currently have the same pad compound on the rear, though I'm hoping to soon change the rear brake setup to some larger vented discs and aluminium 2pot calipers - I have PF01's for these. £35 for a set of pads for these calipers, compared to £170 for pads for the e30 m3 rear calipers. I've been meaning to email you to check what impact this will have on master cylinder specs but could see you were sufficiently busy with your own car!

Lol. Now would have been a good time, I've just had two weeks away from the car as I reached saturation when I put her on the dyno. I needed a time-out to recover. Poor car has been tucked away in the garage after the dyno session without so much as the engine being cranked. That's all about to change though as my plumbing bits for the external wastegate arrived today. Should take me at least three weekends to plumb in the new wastegate I reckon. Feel free to PM or email me the details of your new rear brakes and I'll add them to the model. Shouldn't take too much time. At worst you'll need to change a M/C. At best you'll have to adjust your bias.

Having both simulated and implemented my own brakes I can honestly tell you that if practice matches theory then your brakes should be very very good (provided of course you have the tyre traction to cope with that amount of brake torque). If your brakes don't live up to your expectations then I can honestly say that you have something wrong.

[Theo]

Thanks Geoff, I'll email you over the new specs shortly.

As of yesterday my brakes are up to expectations in every sense except for the initial bit of softness in the pedal. The braking power is now excellent, the combination of these new pads and better quality discs seems to have had worked a treat. I think the slack could simply be down to the construction of the pedal box. I might see if it's reduced by lowering the pedal height a bit (winding the master cylinder push rods further into their clevises).

[GeoffBob]

I think the slack could simply be down to the construction of the pedal box. I might see if it's reduced by lowering the pedal height a bit (winding the master cylinder push rods further into their clevises).

Ahh, I see!! I don't know your pedal box personally (I forget which one you used) but that could definitely be it.

I delibertely set mine up so their was no slack. The rods from the ends of the clevis pin rest directly in the cup on the back of each M/C plunger. If for any reason your rods are lifting out of the cup (because of the angle you mounted the pedal set at, say?) then you would definitely have some slack there.

Are your M/C's pointing/tilted upwards by any chance as that could do it. If so then an easy fix is to attach a soft spring between the pedal and firewall to hold the rods into the back of the M/C's (but not tight enough to exert any real force force on the plungers, obviously)