318iS race car - back on track

[rix313]

I don't expect so no. I'm happy that the 6 point with the extra gussets will do the job, it's better than the bolt in cage would have been. I will probably get some of the Cabrio front strut reinforcement brackets from BMW do help give them some extra support and leave it at that.

I always try to take lots of pics, I shan't be there for the actual fitting but will get lots once it's done .

[redcar]

I don't expect so no. I'm happy that the 6 point with the extra gussets will do the job, it's better than the bolt in cage would have been. I will probably get some of the Cabrio front strut reinforcement brackets from BMW do help give them some extra support and leave it at that.

I always try to take lots of pics, I shan't be there for the actual fitting but will get lots once it's done .

cool, was just thinking because iirc your old cage had a rear cross. Unsymmetrical cages look strange lol
Look forward to seeing some pics of it fitted

[rix313]

The cage arrived the other day and I got the car over to the chap who's fitting it for me. I had to take a couple of steps back and spend a bit of time taking the fuel tank back out again (along with the prop and exhaust) to give him piece of mind when welding the main hoop on. I also removed the rear quarter windows to make it a bit easier and to make way for my polycarbonate ones which arrived the other day too. I didn't have time to remove the rear one but it's scrap any way. I won't be fitting the new windows until the cage is in so they don't get trashed by rogue sparks.






Also got a bit over excited ordering shiney bits for when the cage is in. Got a 14inch mirror, OTTO lap timer with beacon, Carbon door cards (which I'm still waiting to arrive), tow strap for the front and some aluminium bolts to replace all the steel ones holding my P-clips etc.




Hopefully next time I'm back home the cage will be in and I can be on my way with painting it and getting all the bothers bits bolted on

[Demlotcrew]

Thats a rather large mirror Are you expecting to be over taken a lot?

[milescook]

Some race series mandate wider mirrors.mine is even bigger because i know i will have a lot of people behind being held up

[Demlotcrew]

Wiring looks nice and neat

[rix313]

Thats a rather large mirror Are you expecting to be over taken a lot?

The car is going to be quite far down the class rankings; class C or D depending on which championships I do, this leaves plenty of more powerful and faster cars in the higher classes and with that I anticipate being lapped and don't want to get tangled up!

Wiring looks nice and neat

That's how I roll lol! When I had the car at college 'back in the day' we did quite a good job of removing most of the wiring that wasn't needed. Before I put the dash back in I'll replace the cable ties and make sure nothing is rubbing. Maybe remove that big old heater box too!

[rix313]

It's been a long time...... but something has finally happened and I received this long awaited photo of some actual progress with my roll cage:



Not close to finished though The rear section still needs to be done along with the extra gussets to tie it all together but the light it beginning to shine on this chapter. I'm looking forward to getting it back and painted so I can fit the pile of bits I've been hoarding

[milescook]

Glad to see you haven't given up mate I need to paint my cage - I gave it a once over with primer ages ago... so it's still grey with specs of orange poking through

[rix313]

We've been so busy at work that I haven't had much time to spend on it. The fact it's been at this guys place all this time hasn't either helped but starting to get some where.

I've been speaking to a local engine builder about having the engine stripped, inspected and rebuilt. I've had it a year now and for one reason or another I haven't got it running yet. It also has an oil leak which I would like to investigate so might as well get it off some where and sorted, thats the next job!

[SJW]

Awesome build, just read it all the way through

[rix313]

Cheers mate, feels like I'm pretty much starting again with everything that I now have planned lol!

I had a few days off work this week after a mammoth stint and I was able to get over to the chap who was fitting my cage and give him a hand for that big push to get it finished. I got the car home today and I'm really happy with it. The cage hugs the car so tightly it was a bit of a mission to have room to fit the gussets to the A pillars. As a result they've turned into more of a token gesture but every little helps












I managed to get a full coat of primer on it as it was getting dark this evening. I'll be going away again after this weekend so won't likely get to put another coat on until I get back.

Now that is sorted I'm now organising for the engine to go away and be inspected and rebuilt with a local chap. While it's away the plan is to get everything else up together so I can drop it back in and have a car that's ready to go we shall see how well that works out lol!

[appletree]

Looks realy good rich, I'd never even seen this sub section until you PM'd me, but your build looks great. Do you still have two IS's?

A 6 speed e36 m3 box would go nice on a IS track car I recon, on mine it seams to keep it on the boil as such better than than the 5 speeder did although it's a bit short on the motorways, 75mph is about 3k.

Suppose it depends if the series lets you change it.

[rix313]

This is where I hang out these days haha! Yeah still have the pair of them. The other one hasn't seen the sunshine this year, just been to busy with work to get it sorted. Hopefully have the pair of em out next summer

With regards the gearbox that sort of thing has to remain standard. The most I can really do is change the final drive ratio. I was looking for a 4.25 or even 4.45 slippy diffs but they are pretty hard to come by.

[maxfield]

How well did the cage fit?

I've been looking at custom cages but I fitted one to a golf earlier this year from them and wasnt too impressed with the fit.

[appletree]

This is where I hang out these days haha! Yeah still have the pair of them. The other one hasn't seen the sunshine this year, just been to busy with work to get it sorted. Hopefully have the pair of em out next summer

With regards the gearbox that sort of thing has to remain standard. The most I can really do is change the final drive ratio. I was looking for a 4.25 or even 4.45 slippy diffs but they are pretty hard to come by.

A M3 box might help out so you could get away with a 4.10 LSD. 6th is slightly shoter than the 5 speeder somthing like 0.81 an 0.83 its the 2/3/4 were the 6 speeder is closer.

e30 325 clutch flywheel and starter athough i machined the spur gear to fit the M42 starter so only the teeth were different.

then a custom prop and a e36 M3 slave although i guess you may be able to fit others and a slightly modified linkage, just shorten and weld

[rix313]

Maxfield: I was only there for the very first dry fit and then the last few bits going in but I was impressed how well it fitted. There were minor mods to make to the ends of some of the tubes but nothing major. The only things that required more attention were the front and rear mounting plates which simply were the wrong shape but I'll be talking to them about this as they're only round the corner from me.


Matt: do you have a calculator or link to where I can look at what different final drives would do to the gearing on a standard box?

[appletree]

I have a spreadsheet that I did and can email you if you PM me your email again.

[appletree]

I have a spreadsheet that I did and can email you if you PM me your email again.

[rix313]

Cool dude thanks for that, had a play the other evening. There's some CWPs on eBay at the moment I might look into. In the mean time I've got a light weight heater coming to replace the standard one as well as a new fuel pump and a light weight billet flywheel. Lots to do

[redcar]

Hi mate, all well?

What heater did you go for. I'm looking to do something similar with mine as its quite a significant weight saving and I would imagine it frees up some space behind the dash.
Would be interested to see some pics and to hear how effective they are.

[rix313]

Hey man, yeah all good tah

It's one of these ones http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... ght-heater I deal with Jason Minshaw at DT and he said that a few of the BMW compact cup guys use them. I'm thinking over ways to mount it but when I get home and get the old box out, I'll have a play about and as always post up the results

[redcar]

Nice, I was looking at that one as well.

Do you reckon it may be possible to connect the outlets on that heater to all of the original ducting behind the dash, so that the air blows onto the screen and front windows etc.

[rix313]

There's 4x 51mm outlets so don't see why not. I can't use the front window vents because the cage will be in the way but easy enough to connect it all up using ducting or 'donkey dick' as its otherwise known haha http://www.sfsperformance.co.uk/ducting.asp

[rix313]

The heater box arrived and I set to work removing the standard heater box and fitting the new one. I've mounted it on rubber anti vibration mounts which are attached to the tunnel with M6 rivnuts; then the heater is held onto the rivnuts with K nuts:




I've had a quick nose at what pipes I'm going to need so will get those ordered up in the week.

I also gave the tunnel a dusting over with the rattle can before I got into spraying the rear half of the cage and the rear parcel shelf:






I quickly ran out of paint though and the local Helfrauds didn't have any more cans of BMW bright red so I called it a day. Last thing I did was mount my Anderson plug bracket:




Next up is get a spare dash to trim to fit around the cage, plumb the heater in, finish painting, fit windows, so on and so on...

[redcar]

Hi mate, any more pictures of the a pillars and the a pillar foot plates?

Cheers.

[rix313]

Hi mate,

These are the best ones I have of the A pillar mate. What is it you were wanting to know?

[rix313]

October is here! Time flies. First order of business for me was to get the dash trimmed to fit around the cage so I can get the rest of the cage painted. The primer took a battering so I'm glad I waited. Weapons for this job were a sharp knife and a set of snips.








I was going to get the dash flocked but I might not bother and save myself the money to be honest.

So that was done and out came the rattle cans to finish painting the cage:




I then fitted the carbon door cards. I mounted them with aluminium button head bolts and floating anchor nuts. I was going to cut out holes for the door handles but I decided I will leave them and go with a pull cable.










Lastly for today I plumbed in the heater box with the fittings I got from SFS Performance:




If the weather isn't too crap tomorrow I'll look to get a few more bits done on the interior to get that on its way to being finished

[Demlotcrew]

Heater box looks very cool!

But those hose clamps need to go

Good progress, cage looks nice and strong.

[rix313]

Hopefully it will be warm ;) ha

I decided to go ahead and fit the dash today, get that done and dusted. Also went over the loom and replaced cable ties and generally gave it a bit of a tidy.




Had a go a fitting the rear quarter windows this eve but the light was fading along with my patients so that's a job for another weekend I think.

[rix313]

Just another quick update. I ordered a performance Sytec fuel pump from our friends at Demon Tweeks. Incase it is of interest the fuel pump I removed was a Bosch one, part number: 0 580 453 053 and the replacement was FSEITP061. Which as it turns out is an E36 M3 pump.

[Demlotcrew]

Pump looks good! What model is it exactly?

I might need to upgrade to a 5bar pump and would prefer to stay with an in tank one!

Andrew

[rix313]

It's a Walbro pump. Part number on the pump is GSS 342 23313

HTH

[Mikey_Boy]

Pump looks good! What model is it exactly?

I might need to upgrade to a 5bar pump and would prefer to stay with an in tank one!

Andrew

Why's that then?? You have more plans for yours??

[Demlotcrew]

I'm going long rod ratio 2.7 not many things left to buy, one option is to upgrade the injectors which will flow enough at 3.5 bar.

That Walbro part number is brining up a 255lph pump?

Andrew