E30 Zone

Welcome !

Some of you may have come accross my car before on here which started years ago. The previous build thread is long winded so I will just sum it up here too before starting this rebuild thread.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=148702

So, it's a 2 door (facelift), non sunroof E30 which I have built to the following spec so far...

Chassis
1989 BMW 316i (2 door, non-sunroof model).
RPM Front strut brace

Engine
M52b28 (2.8 24v from E36 328i sport)
Piper-X Carbon air filter
Silicon intake pipes
Big bore throttle body
M50 inlet manifold
Ultrasonically cleaned 328i injectors
NGK Iridium spark plugs
Viscous fan delete
Modified M52 manifolds
Catalytic converter delete
Scorpion twin pipe exhaust

Drivetrain
Lightened M20 flywheel
F1 racing clutch (6 puck/unsprung)
E36 M3 ”aZF”a gearbox
E30 2.9 LSD

Cooling
E36 328i radiator
Electric fan
88 deg thermostat

Suspension
Apex E36 M3 evo front coilovers
RPM fully adjustable top mounts
Gmax -40mm rear springs
Gmax rear shock absorbers
E30 M3 front anti roll bar
E30 318is rear anti roll bar
Various polyurethane bushes

Brakes / Wheels / Tyres
E30 M3 brake master cyl
E36 M3 ”aEBC”a drilled/grooved front discs
E36 M3 ”aEBC”a yellow stuff front pads
E36 Compact rear disc assy with standard discs and pads
Goodridge braided hoses
ATE super blue racing fluid
E36 M3 forged wheels (7.5x17”aF / 8.5x17”aR)
Yokahama Parada spec 2 (215/40/17) front and rear

Steering
OMP dished steering wheel
Custom (solid) steering UJ linkage
BMW Z3 steering rack (OEM quick rack)

Exterior
IS front lip
Colour coded mirrors
Tech 1 spoiler
Shadowline trim

Parts not fitted yet
Brake Bias valve (not fitted)
Hydraulic handbrake (not fitted)
SE skirts

She was weighed at 1180kgs which I did not think was too bad for a full interior and 24v swap/17" wheels.

As the car was needed to transport me and two passengers in some comfort to the Nurburgring it has a pair of sport front seats, and full carpets and stereo etc.

I do have some videos of her in action on the ring chasing and overtaking a Maclaren SLR/E46 M3 and some others. Obviously they were not being driven properly or they would have minced me but it was nice to give these people with "all the gear and no idea" a taste of E30 in a car which I bought for £600.00 and modified (hehehe).

It is all to change now though, here are some pictures of it.

Mid build


All done !










and my favourite pic ! (I was lucky enough to have Andy Carlile coaching me around the track)


So thats the car anyway. The plan was always to get it together and road legal/to germany and then work out the niggles etc. Now that I have given it a good shakedown at the ring and a few miles on the road to boot it is time for the "step 2".

The car is going to be put on an intense diet and be for track use only, I would like it to still have an MOT so it can be driven to tracks if I want.

The plan so far is;

Chassis
Remove sound deadening
A full custom fabricated multipoint weld in cage (to turrets)
Some seam welding
Lightening of panels (hole cutting etc)
Gut doors (for weight)
Fit lightweight panels (carbon bonnet, grp boot etc)
Attack any rust !
Roll arches
Tidy exhaust tip surround area (was cut square in a mad rush).

Suspension
GAZ rear adjustable shocks
Trailing arm polybushes
More front camber (lots !)
Raise front height a little

Brakes
Replace discs and pads for something better
Fit hydro handbrake
Fit bias valve

Interior
Get new in date buckets/harnesses
Make, flock and fit a fibreglass dash shell
Fit padding to the cage
Paint interior grey
Hide or tidy wiring
Fit skateboard griptape to drivers footwell
Route fuel/brake lines inside the car
Install 52mm gauges
Install various GoPro mounts

Exterior
Lightweight panels
lightweight plastic windows
A full respray (two tone) with full livery.

Other
Proper tyres (The yoko's were cheap/for road use)
Move (a new lightweight) battery to the boot
Create a custom wiring loom (bare minimal wiring) or chop back the existing one.
Fit elec cut off etc and fire extinguisher
Heat wrap exhaust mani's
A fuel swirl pot and good inline pump/filter
A sump gaurd
A better radiator and or an oil cooler

It's going to be a very expensive few months coming up !

I am hoping to give the car to "Caged" in Somerset in around 10 days time so really have to get cracking preparing the interior (removing the dash/carpets etc etc).

Lots of progress pictures will be taken and updated here...

Will Frost

Sounds like a good few updates to come Looking forward to seeing pics!

Yes there should be a few thats for sure ! I have actually been studying your build looking for ideas, good work mate I like it a lot .

Will

Skateboard grip

Cool car!

Thanks very much, yes it's perfect and very cheap/lots of designs available lol !
I have used it before



Will

Hydro handbrake you differ!

I can highly recommend the S50 rad and oil cooler mate, I was getting up to 3/4 temp with the fan on with the old 2.8 rad, now the fan never comes on! The oil temp doesnt get above 80 degrees either

Ive never had problems with the standard pump, when the red light comes on I will do 1 more lap then come in, no sign of fuel starvation at all

The E30 loom is easy to sort out, its not worth pulling it all to bits because you will only be removing grams, once the elec windows/c-locking stuff is out there is no real need to attempt to lighten it any more.

Looking forward to the updates and pics

Differ haha !

I will admit Dan, theres nothing like having a good old drift session to release some stress !!! Practicing car control is great fun and good training but the main reason for a hydro is that I have intentions of a little rallying in the future .

Anyway ! Good idea re: the oil cooler and I am running the 328i rad with the 88 deg thermostat and an elec fan. On a hot day at the ring (well, v.hot for oct !) temperatures were starting to rise above half which obviously is not good. I think an S50 rad/oil cooler would be great. I have watched a few on the bay lately. Is it much of a job to fit to an M52/E30 !?

The only problem is, I will want to leave the S50B32 on that oil cooler !!!. That may also happen a bit further down the line after the shell prepping etc.

I was not really refering to weight when it comes to the loom though, I was thinking more about less clutter and having a simple fuse box where the glovebox currently lives. I just hate seeing wires lol...

Long time no speak anyway ! Hope all is well.
I checked your cage progress - looking good !

Will

You have to cut the front lower panel section out but its no big deal, well worth the effort



It took me about 3 or 4 hours to sort my loom, you cant see anything really unless you look under the dashboard where the glovebox used to be. Let me know on the dashboards

Thanks for that info , that seems easy enough and will definately do the job ! do you just use M3 coolant hoses and an E30 exp tank then ?

Yes mate I will do, a friend owns a company which produces motorsport related GRP products from scratch. They also do flocking .

I want to do a pair of wings, bumpers, bonnet, boot, door covers, dash, spoiler etc...

Time to get this piggy on a major diet !!!

Will

Yep, I will be relocating the expansion tank probably to the battery tray, it needs moving so I can fit a proper filterbox and intake

That is why I asked actually, I want to do the same but do not want to use the e30 exp tank...

My plan was to look around the cars at work for a suitable sized air filter element. One which aftermarket versions of would be available for (K7N for example).

And to build a (grp of course - from my friend) custom airbox which takes up the nsf corner of the engine bay and flows well/weighs next to nothing. Coupled with a nice black silicone intake hose or hoses if a maf if present.

I need to have a proper chat at some point too about a few other things which you may find very interesting ! I have managed to lose your mobile no. (another broken phone lol...)

Will

I am hoping to have my cage as close to this but as possible on my budget but what I end up with will eventually come down to cost at the end of the day .

http://www.s14.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37258

Im just planning on modding a BMW airbox with ram air in mind, no K&N though

Just pm me mate

Shock horror - I finally sorted it out and put a lap of the ring in my E30 onto youtube !

That only took me four months .

See the link below (by Jimbob) !

Hi mate nice set up there
I have same brake set up and the brake bias is way to much to the front, how do you find yours?
Putting bias valve in rear line will only reduce rear brake effect more???
let us know what your is like

[youtube][/youtube]

thanks Jimbob !

Will

703 wrote:Hi mate nice set up there
I have same brake set up and the brake bias is way to much to the front, how do you find yours?
Putting bias valve in rear line will only reduce rear brake effect more???
let us know what your is like

Hi,

I found that the the only time the rear end even came close to getting squirmy was under heavy braking, The brakes are really really good regarding strength and fade, and I did not even come close to their limits.

I am sure this may possibly change when I get some really sticky rubber on her though.

Yes, the valve will only let me reduce the rear braking effect but I am still undecided on my options here.

I will get the cage/paint/weight reduction done and then come back to this as it seems to work good enough for the minute at least.

What master cyl are you using ? I have an E30 M3 one - I am not sure if the bias is any different on that - I think it is just the total piston size ?? I am sure somebody will correct me or agree soon !?

As you may be able to see from the video there are 3 things hampering my lap times at the minute.

1. Fuel surge
2. Tyres/Geometry
3. Weight
3. Traffic !

So obviously I will address these issues first, but after that I really would like to use a floor mounted bias pedal box or even make my own ideally.

The fuel surge is easily sorted with a swirl pot system in the spare wheel well.

The tyres simply need replacing with a better set and the geo needs adjusting to cure the understeer.

I did not know it at the time but I only had -0.5 neg camber at the front - It was laser aligned but literally on the way to the ferry and we were late so I just jumped in and drove off. It felt fine on the road but when I started to push it on the track it became very noticable. When I pulled the geo results out of the glovebox I noticed how it had been set up. The rear had -1.5 deg and stuck like **** to a blanket !!!.

Obviously the weight will be tackled in the usual ways with removal of things, lightening of other parts and grp panels etc.

The goal is to get under 1100kgs which should not be too hard I hope.

Traffic I will just have to live with I guess !! Or pick my holidays where there is least likely to be people there, ie in the week .

Will

I would actually try and lap with the windows closed before all of your other 'mods'

I had no choice bud, It was very hot for the time of year and I had to have the cabin heaters on full to aid engine cooling. I did not even have a top on and I was dripping with sweat after a lap !

The cooling system will also get "mods" so I may drive with the windows shut lol.

Will

Im using 750 master cylinder (25mm) it may be more bias to front then as my fronts lock like you would not believe , iv been looking into e34 rear calipers as they may fit and have 38mm pistons.

More camber on the front should stop some off the tyre squeel

Z3 "M" trailing arms/rear brakes have been on the cards for some time now, I will find some at some point !!

The car is being taken away for its roll cage to be fitted in 1 weeks time !

I am very excited.

First step is to remove the interior/dash and sound deadening...

Will

What cage you going for Will?

It's a custom multipoint weld in type very similar to the one in this link http://www.s14.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37258 except for the bit joining the b pillars.

It is being done by "caged" in Somerset. Their work is second to none

Will

Lightweight T45 tube?

I am hoping so. The materials and final design are not 100% yet. The options will be discussed in person upon delivery of the car and are subject to how many banks we hold up en route lol :-p

But on a serious note, The cage is obviously something very important and cannot be replaced later on in the build like most things can so I am looking to spend as much as possible here and now.

So, the work begins.

So far, I have removed;

The seats
The carpet
The centre console
The rear 1/4 interior panels
Rear shelf trim/speakers
Pretty much all of the sound deadening from the interior
2 x Metal plates from rear footwells (rusted and need replacing).

We used a heat gun and a paint scraper to remove the tar. Then began the job of cleaning up after the mess. We used white spirit and brake cleaner with a load of clean cloths. We did not finish it tonight but got quite a lot of it done. We left a good amount of white spirit all over the remainder to eat it up in the hope of just wiping it down tomorrow.

A whole carrier bag was filled in the end and there is probably a fair amount in the hoover too, I will weigh it tomorrow...

some pics...

















There werent really any nasty surprises (rust) either. Two small spots and thats it which made me happy .

Will

Good work!

Non sunroof model! Rare!

Thanks , and yeah good eh ! Thats the reason I bought the car !!

Will

the cage is going to look good in there will

I can't wait to get the paint gun out Dan

703 wrote:Hi mate nice set up there
I have same brake set up and the brake bias is way to much to the front, how do you find yours?
Putting bias valve in rear line will only reduce rear brake effect more???
let us know what your is like

I meant to ask what brake pads were you using ? You could run different front rear pad combinations to try and balance things out

Will

Tonight was mainly spent scrubbing footwells until I ran out of white spirit/brake cleaner !!

I then removed the a, b, and c pillar trims, the headlining, and the sun visors etc.

On another note, my spare (uncracked) dash has gone off to the GRP magicians so I can get a quote on having a grp mould made from it.

Tomorrow I am going to take a set of scales down to the workshop and start weighing all of the bits and bobs which have been removed. I was amazed as to the weight of some things (in particular the carpet !).

Will

found this thread,looks a really nice car will.bit better put together than my old dog.ive never suffered fuel surge?standard every thing running m50.you sure its not another problem?