E21 S54 Race Car - Duracel79

[redcar]

Wow, that's so cool

Welder ftw!

[mattrs]

Thats gonna be a F'ing animal! Very

[duracel79]

Oh my... that does look impressive!

Please though - do fit some kind of air filtration......!

Gravel is the least of your worries, especially on a lovely engine like that - trust me, I am an engineer!


Mike

I do want to fit something, its just finding any socks that fit over these huge trumpets, they are about 100mm OD at the mouth and taper down to 55mm over about 120mm.

I think the plan will be a mesh plenum box to stop anything big getting through and causing a major failure. Untill I get some socks I'll need to live with a higher wear rate from the smaller particles that get through. At least we're not in Bahrain with sandstorms going through an engine.

Duracel79

[keri-WMS]

Cool project! If you do decide to go LSD have a word with Gareth as he's been doing custom 40% etc rebuilds (assuming the E21/30 share a basic diff design?).

[Karan]

Lovely car.

Welded diff should be no prob other than in the wet it will push on a bit, and hairpins will be a bit of an issue.

I'm more concerned about the way the trumpets are joined with those joiners, I expect there is a step there which isn't great.

[duracel79]

Lovely car.

Welded diff should be no prob other than in the wet it will push on a bit, and hairpins will be a bit of an issue.

I'm more concerned about the way the trumpets are joined with those joiners, I expect there is a step there which isn't great.

Not the best picture but theres virtually no step inside

[Karan]

Sweet

[Demlotcrew]

I think you might need a bigger fan/or more fans as that S54 is going to run hot in there!

Andrew

[duracel79]

I think you might need a bigger fan/or more fans as that S54 is going to run hot in there!

Andrew

There are two fans in there, the second is lower down on the passenger side not shown in the pic.
The fans together cover the whole height of the core.
Space was pretty limited so two thinner fans were chosen instead of one large fan. Also didn't want to obstruct the rad with a fan in front of it.

Duracel79

[duracel79]

Finally picked the car up on Friday.


Fast!!!, only managed 20yrds before leaving black lines

Emerald's words were Savage & Brutal for a NA engine
Needed buckets on cement and two bodies in the boot to get traction on the Rollers for mapping higher power runs.

No video's yet, I was on my own all weekend, fettling other bits of the car.
Tried to place my phone on the wall and video the car, came out crap.

These are the power charts from Emerald's RR for my old 2.7 and 2.5 M20's compared to the new S54:


Bear in mind Emerald's RR is very accurate and doesn't overestimate as much as some others (Evolve charted the 2.7 as +6% on these figures).
Best to just look at the increases from the other runs.

Comparison with a very fast S50B32 M Coupe with Schrick Race Cams, VANOS delete and every possible bolt on (Exhaust/intake etc)



First proper drive done on saturday, its fast!!!!!

Also soooo noisy with the induction barking and the drivetrain whining like a race car (solid mountings for you
). No idea what the exhaust note is like cos you can't hear it

Was hoping to get to the Ace Cafe tonight, but the weather is looking a bit Sh*te
I'm scaring myself in the dry, let alone in the wet with a welded diff.

The noise from the intake is emmense


Any S54 swappers want to run standalone then Emerald can now do it with the VANOS Still working.
When the ECU's are only £595 + VAT Its a pretty cheap route for installing it.

http://www.emeraldm3d.com/ecu.html

Duracel79

[Mikey_Boy]

^^^^^ That's great to know!!

I have an Emerald ECU for my S14 install - wiring harness being made as we speak..

Whilst I won't make 330hp (that's freaking awesome!) I am hoping the Emerald will be a nice addition to the build...

Excellent stuff - thanks for sharing!

[Hoobs]

If your anywhere near me sometime soon, I'd be happy enough to video you. You can hook the GoPro up inside too.

[duracel79]

Poor vids I took:

Second vid, when driving back off camera it was 1st then 2nd with instant wheelspin both times on dry tarmac

http://vid180.photobucket.com/albums/x1 ... 2_xvid.mp4

http://vid180.photobucket.com/albums/x1 ... 0_xvid.mp4

Duracel79

[duracel79]

Some vids from Snett:

[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

[milescook]

Sounds sexy!

[Demlotcrew]

Topic moved in here

[duracel79]

Thought I'd update this thread a bit as it needed the picture links fixing.

Have completed a few trackdays and Santa pod runs over the last few years.

July 2012 at Santa Pod ran a 12.7s quarter @ 111mph

After two E30 Getrag 260 gearbox's died/broke, I upgraded to an E36 328i ZF box:



LSD unit was sourced from an E9 CSL in 3.25 ratio to suit the gearbox. Rebuild by Gareth with better ramp angles.


Brakes were also found wanting so upgrade time again:



Wheels wouldn't fit over the new brakes so splashed out on a new set of Image rims


Old wheels vs New wheels - makes an amazing difference to tha car.



Electric E24 speedo fitted with external diff chopper wheel on driveshaft - and its reasonably accurate (within 10%)


Then went on a little 2500 mile trip round Europe and the Alps


















Cheers
Duracel79

[duracel79]

Probably should also mention I have now broken the propshaft, so taken the car off the road.

It'll now be a long term project with a re-shell and other improvements along the way.

New targets are:
380bhp
850kg
Some wider arches and rubber
And some downforce.
Colour NOT Yellow

We will see what happens (or what I can afford )

[gareth]

Aaah, I saw this at the Raw/Ergen track day in March but never twigged who's it was!

How's the diff?

[rix313]

Road trip looked brilliant! I would love to do that in mine but would prob pussy out and tale the road car haha.

Are you running with the SVG championships next year? I'm aiming to do Pre 93 in my car.

[duracel79]

Aaah, I saw this at the Raw/Ergen track day in March but never twigged who's it was!

How's the diff?

Hi Gareth,

Diff was ok then Half way round Europe it stopped locking up.

When I checked it out back in the UK it was the teeth had sheared on the friction discs (Didn't think this would happen before any slip). My guess is they were just old original ones that the surface was still very good when you did the rebuild. Bit like new old stock parts that had gone brittle. My car was heavily loaded up with spares/tools/camping etc. and all those hairpins was putting too much load through the diff. i suppose an S54 doesn't help either.

Anyway I got some new discs and dog plates from Driveand traction, gave the diff a flush and put it all back together with fresh oil. Used the running in procedure detailed on Hardeman Motorsports pages. Not had any issues with it since and it locks up nicely again.

Cheers

[duracel79]

Road trip looked brilliant! I would love to do that in mine but would prob pussy out and tale the road car haha.

Are you running with the SVG championships next year? I'm aiming to do Pre 93 in my car.

Europe was brilliant, once in a lifetime trip.
Two big BMW car shows (one at the start and one at the end)
Nurburgring
BMW museum
Lots of Mountain Passes

I won't be racing for a few years now with the required rebuild but when I do it will be with Classic Thunder or Special Saloons because of the engine swap.

[gareth]

Wow, not see that happen before! S54's are brutal though!

Did you get away without any damage from the sheared teeth?

[duracel79]

Wow, not see that happen before! S54's are brutal though!

Did you get away without any damage from the sheared teeth?

Hopefully I've got away with it. I carefully flushed all the bits of metal out of the diff and LSD, also cleaned all the bearings.
Its up and running and still nice and quiet so fingers crossed not longer term issues.