318iS race car - back on track

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rix313
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Fri Jul 21, 2023 4:23 pm

I as of yet, haven't entered a race this year. I have done a couple of test days, one at Donington and the other at Goodwood.

Donington was good but I quickly discovered I had fuel surge that once it came on, never went away until the fuel was topped up.

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Previously I would get a splutter and I could continue for a couple of more laps before needing to stop. So I decided a swirl pot system was in order. Luckily the wiring installed when I did the loom was beefy enough to not notice the small 1.5amp draw from the low pressure lift pump for the swirl pot.

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After breaking my back doing that (not fun being hunched over the rear panel reaching into the boot) I also decided I wanted to fit an interior light to the car for the darker nights. This snowballed into also deciding I wanted toggle switches rather than rocker switches on my dash panel. As the holes for the rocker switches were much larger than the ones required for the toggle switches, I had to make a new facia panel. I was mostly able to trace the old one but I did decide to add a further spare switch to the panel on account of all 7 being in use.

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Finally fitted:

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8) 8) 8)


The Goodwood day was wildly over subscribed so I got very little track time unlike Donington which times felt like a provate test day. The track gods didn't have much planned for me that day as my exhaust manifold cracked and stopped play. I've removed it now and I am waiting for it to be repaired. Im also going to get it crack checked by an F1 buddy to make sure it's not going to throw any more suprises at me when it's refitted.

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martauto
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Mon Jul 24, 2023 3:57 pm

That dash looks so cool and explain to simple people like me what a "swirl pot" does? :mad:

Mart.
Only the E46 cab left now.
Just got too old.
rix313
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Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:28 am

It's a seperate tank to the fuel tank, only small volume which is fed by a low pressure pump and the return line from the engine. It removed the possibility of fuel surge when cornering on low fuel levels.
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martauto
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Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:00 pm

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Mart.
Only the E46 cab left now.
Just got too old.
rix313
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Tue Jan 23, 2024 6:43 pm

Exhaust gate went on far longer that it should have and is in some respects, is still going on. But anyway, finally pulled my finger out and went to Donington to shake the car down and pick up where I left off nearly a year ago.

I'm rather pleased that the swirl pot worked an absolute treat. When I did a low fuel test, the car only stuttered when I was down to 0,6L of fuel left in the system! The fuel tank was bone dry (appreciate that's not going to be healthy for the lift pump, but it was an experiment). Compared to last time when with 7L, the car was undrivable it's a great win.

Some pictures

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rix313
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Wed Apr 15, 2026 3:54 pm

2024 was going to be my year to get into the racing again. After the Donnington day I booked into the official power run day for the championship. That did not go well. I was down on power and had to figure out why. Turns out there was movement in the valves and somehow and I was down on compression. I had the engine builder remove the head and after spending a load of money having everyting machine and repaired I totally lost interest and parked the car up. Had nothing but issues to this point.

Cut to 2 years later and I finally dragged the bottom end out and prepared to fit the spare engine I had. The spare engine is actually the one I removed to fit this expensive anchor. So after 6 years under a bench it was back in the car again.

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Turns out my clutch issues were due to the clutch plate being fitted the incorrect way round at the engine shop......

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My initial plan was to bung the engine in, get it going, have fun but I didn't want it to look tatty so got carried away cleaning, painting and tidying the components up

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My wiring on trusty scrap yard purchase fan from all the way back in 2008 was starting to crumble so I decided to replace the fan with a new one.

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I have always liked my white cam cover so I sand blasted it and repainted it with a fresh coat of gloss white VHT. Popped it on and Installed the ITB's.

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On the exhaust front I purchased a second havd Fritzbits stainless system and had one of the centre silceners removed. I did this for weight and improve flow.

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With eveyrhting on it was time to kick him in the guts and get running. 6 years this engine was under the bench. It fired up with zero hesitation, I wish I'd never removed it. After warming up I drained the oil to check it, ran it through a filter and put it back in.

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So! To the dyno! I booked it in with Guy Higgs Tuning in Cheltenham. He did a fantastic job. This standard motor with an exhaust, ITB's, light weight flywheel and standalone made 161bhp and around 135nm of torque. Done. More than happy with that, I just want it to work. We did a back to back power run, open stacks vs the airbox. I expected the airbox to hamper performance but infact it produced exactly the same power and had more torque with the airbox on. Not to mention the benefits of a cold air feed VS open stacks dragging in hot air.

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Off to Castle Combe for a brilliant track day. Well managed only 12 cars on track open pit lane. The car pulled well, was great to drive and really gave me reason to be excited about the car again.

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Brianmoooore
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Thu Apr 23, 2026 10:32 pm

Great to see it back in action! Any racing planed?
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