Right, my E30 track car died a death the other weekend, slowly lost all compression and gone. Water temp went high, but not in to the red, but the engine was red hot, water instantly flashing to steam if you poured it on even the inlet manifold 20min after switchoff.
Head is cracked, pistons have melted slightly, the lot.
It had done 175k and a whole lot of track use, so it did well, but I'd like the replacement not only to be a bit more fun, but hold together better too.
1st up- Engine mounts- Another thing that happened that day was my 3month old so called "heavy duty rally" Mk1 Escort engine mounts died, well one did, literally split apart.
What can I use that wont do that? Comfort/vibration I don't give a damn about really, but them falling apart on track I do.
I didn't go down the hockey puck route as it seemed the pikey way, but wish I did now.
E46 rack swap so they need to be higher than stock too.
2nd- Flywheel- I like very light flywheels, and stock weight is about 8.5kg I think (is that right?), not great. I've seen 4.5kg (TTV Racing in the UK) and even 3.2kg (RHD Engineering in Oz) flywheels. There no issue with using them on these engines is there? Seen some recommend the E21 323 release bearing too, why's that?
3rd- Thanks to Chinese labour, large capacity alloy radiators are pretty cheap these days, so it makes sense to improve the cooling. E36 radiators fit, right? The fact they've got the filler/tank on the left no issue? Do you simply remove the OEM expansion tank and blank off the hose that normally goes to it then?
I'll be fitting an electric fan or two while I'm at it, I don't trust the viscous one anymore, and when the engine mount died it jammed it against rad too.
4th- Exhaust manifold- Both the RallyPrep and FritzBitz websites both blame the huge amount of heat held in the stock RHD log manifold for head cracking issues on track/race cars. Is this true? Though as I have a E46 rack and RHD, I'm not sure I can do anything about this?!
5th- Better oil cooler seem wise? My stock one is pretty worse for wear anyhow.
6th- Simplifying the water system- Is there anything I can do? All I can think of is removing the throttle body water, but can that be blanked off both ends or does water still need to travel that path, just bypassing it? As if bypass it don't really simplify it lol.
I think that's all. I think?! Thanks in advance.
