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Thread: Laminar's M3 5.0 swap: Fünf-Null

  1. #226
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    Des Moines, IA
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    '97 M3/4/5.0
    I dug through my pics and here's what I found:





    The topmost hole lines up with stock. I drilled out the mounting holes and pressed in the split spacers from the stock MC so that 6mm bolts fit snug.

    The bottom hole is connected by a small piece of 1/8" that extends the mounting point from the pedal bracket down to where the MC's lower hole is.

    The MC pushrod is pretty heavily modified. I cut a chunk out of the middle and re-welded it together to get the right length.



    The rod end is a PN 1064K751 nylon rod end from McMaster. I drilled a hole through the outside and barely into the ball to stake it then drilled the ball out to match the clutch pedal's connection point. I cut down the threaded section as short as possible, then inserted a PN 94165A447 insert to drop the threads from 7/16-20 to 5/16-24 to match the Wilwood pushrod. The shortened pushrod makes it easy to side load, as I found out, so alignment is critical.

    I used the included tubing and was able to run up the stock reservoir.
    Last edited by Laminar; 05-14-2017 at 07:20 AM.

  2. #227
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    perryville Mo, USA
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    98' 328i
    Sweet, much appreciated. I was just out there taking some measurements. Are you not running the clutch spring assembly? Or just not installed in these pics? Thanks.

  3. #228
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    No clutch spring, it totally wrecked the clutch feel and really throws off the ability to know what the clutch is doing. It works well with the stock clutch and stock release point but if that point moves at all the spring becomes a huge hindrance.

  4. #229
    Join Date
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    Pre-race inspection revealed both bolts on the driver's side motor mount were snapped. This happened in May at Lincoln, I remember feeling an increase in vibration, but I didn't realize it was because the engine was sitting on the subframe.



    I had to weld a nut on each thread to get it out of the block.



    Autocross went really well. It was a fun course and I tore it up in the morning, then got slower in the afternoon.





    Ended up 10th overall which I'm very happy about - everyone in front of me is legit fast and I don't feel bad about losing to them. Also I finally didn't get beat by the stock Fiesta ST which feels good. He usually takes 1st in PAX but it still feels wrong to have a slower raw time!

    I did manage to cone out of my fastest run by hitting the two cones at the finish lights. That run would have bumped me up two more places.

    I'm finding a happy place with the front tires at 36psi and the rears at 38psi. I had the rears at 37 psi last event and understeered the whole time. This time I bumped them up to 39 and the rear got loooose. I dropped to 38 and it settled down. Lively enough that the whole car would rotate when I needed it to, but it would still grip hard out of the corners.

    Two new issues popped up that will need addressing - my steering wheel slip ring is all sorts of crunchy, maybe it's time for a new steering wheel.

    And I think my rear main seal is leaking, I'm seeing oil dripping out of the bellhousing. I'll probably throw a new flywheel and input shaft on while everything's apart, I haven't been happy with the vibration since I did the new clutch and I think my input shaft pilot bearing surface is a bit chewed up.
    Last edited by Laminar; 11-12-2017 at 06:53 PM.

  5. #230
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    DeWitt, Michigan
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    '97 540i/6, '97 328i
    Good stuff!

    Have you given any thought to trying some drifting? I think you'd like it, it's pure fun. No pesky time clock.

  6. #231
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by tptrsn View Post
    Good stuff!

    Have you given any thought to trying some drifting? I think you'd like it, it's pure fun. No pesky time clock.
    Yes! I'd love to! I haven't found any events in Iowa, though, so my options are limited. Is there a good repository of events nationwide or by region? Autocross works for me because the time commitment and vehicle wear are minimal. If I could find something within an hour or two I'd totally be up for it.

  7. #232
    Join Date
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    I just realized I didn't post last month's event. It was the two-day Iowa Challenge between Iowa's SCCA chapters. Held at the Oskaloosa Airport, it's usually a typical runway course - some straight stuff, a turnaround, and some more straight stuff. The event chairs did a great job of switching it up with some interesting crossovers and fun elements.

    Day 1 was my day for sure. It was a very fast course, cars were often on the rev limiter in at least two places. My time was good for 17th/64, beating some drivers that I usually trail by a second or two.

    Day 2 I wasn't quite on fire - the only straight section of the entire course was pointing toward the finish line at an angle.

    We also had the chance to do some fun runs after day 1. I let a few different people drive my car and got a lot of compliments on how easy it was to drive, how well it gripped, and it didn't actually feel like a hacked together mess.



    Yesterday's event was back at the Iowa Events Center, its parking lot is on the small side but usually makes for some interesting courses. Among the interesting cars that showed up were a new Civic Type R and four Focus RSs. Temps in the 70s meant the tires took a couple of runs to warm up, but there was grip to be had and I found as much of it as I could. The course flowed well and my best time was good for 8th/80 in raw, possibly my best showing yet. Note the tires squeaking as they lost traction over every painted line through the sweepers.





    Future plans: I got a poly transmission mount designed for a Mustang, but it will require completely redoing the trans crossmember. The engine mounts are poly, the diff mounts are poly, and the trans mount is 13 year old stock V6 Mustang rubber. Not sure if I'll get to that this season as I'm focusing on the '69 Cougar right now, but it's on the list.
    Last edited by Laminar; 08-14-2017 at 10:01 AM.

  8. #233
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  9. #234
    Join Date
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    Totally! We had a dud of a course this year, but these last few have been great fun. After the airport course, my tires were super torn up, all sorts of rubber beaded up and plenty of OPR stuck to them. When I pulled them off the car yesterday, they were clean. Probably a combination of cooler temps and a more uniform surface. The airport concrete is pretty torn up.

    Watching the latest video again, I'm really impressed with the car's ability to put the power down. When I go through the second crossover between the trees, you can see me go full throttle early and hold it all of the way through the turn. You can hear the tires fighting for grip, especially over the painted lines, but it holds on and pulls all the way through the corner. The car got a little loose before entering the crossover so I didn't carry as much speed through as I could have - if I could have nailed down that second that would have been good for at least a tenth. And in this case, taking a tenth off of my time would have moved me from 8th place to 4th place!
    Last edited by Laminar; 08-14-2017 at 03:48 PM.

  10. #235
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    Dec 2014
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    Drag strip trip!

    A track about 2 hours away has a Friday night test and tune for $25. Grabbed a friend and headed up there.



    Running 225 RE-71Rs up front, filled up to about 45psi.

    Really old Potenza RE-11s out back, dropped to about 23psi.

    Worked on my launch quite a bit, but if the tires slipped at all it was instant, violent wheelhop so I had to be careful. I still had to get home somehow.

    Got in about 14 runs, here's my last run:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BY4evz5DVbS

    Best of the night was a 14.012@96 with a 1.8 60'.



    I wanted 13s reeeeally bad but it wasn't happening, most of my runs were 14.1-14.2 range.

    The internet calculators tell me those times and my weight put me around 250hp which sounds about right as I still have the stock Explorer cam in place.

    I beat a V6 Camaro and a Fox 5.0 and got smoked by everyone else.

    I have a bunch more video including car-mounted GoPros and the view from the stands, I'll have to put something together when I get a chance.

  11. #236
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Herndon, VA
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    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e
    That's awesome to see you putting the car through all of its paces. I'm jealous of how much seat time you're getting in your car, I wish mine were half as reliable!

  12. #237
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    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    That's awesome to see you putting the car through all of its paces. I'm jealous of how much seat time you're getting in your car, I wish mine were half as reliable!
    I bought the car so I'd have something to beat on and have fun in without risking my DD. Autocross, rallycross, drag racing so far. I'm doing a TSD rally this month, but I'll probably take my DD since it's more comfortable and conducive to 300 miles of intense navigating and calculating. I'm planning on doing an EVO school next year and hope to make it out to a real track day. My Starting Line school this year included a free entry to an SCCA Track Night in America, but the closest one is about 4 hours away. There's a closer track that has a Fast Friday I may need to hit up.

    With Autocross I can hide my low power with grip and good driving and still place well. Low power is much harder to hide on an open track where I'm using more than second gear.

  13. #238
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    This month's event was on the infield at Iowa Speedway. Early morning rain gave us a damp course that dried out throughout the day, though one spot did stay wet until the end.

    Accidentally ran with full interior. I put the back seat in to get it out of the garage and forgot to yank it out before racing.



    Positions 10-14 were all within 0.104 seconds of one another (I was 14th). I'm starting to think about changes for next season to get on the front side of that curve. Another racing school is definitely in the works!
    Last edited by Laminar; 09-18-2017 at 12:20 PM.

  14. #239
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    Woah, haven't updated this thread in a while. I did a 2017 wrap-up video of all of the racing I managed to do this year and also all of the stuff I broke.



    And then I did finally put together all of the footage from the drag strip into one comprehensive video:


  15. #240
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    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e
    Remind me, what springs are you running on the car? I'm having issues with binding in the rear when I rally-x with my 60mm "coilover" springs and am considering going back to beehive style springs to prevent that, but I'm worried stock springs won't match up well with my stiffer front springs. Thoughts?

  16. #241
    Join Date
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    Mazda 3
    I think you touched on it briefly on your site but here goes: I believe the Explorer ECU can be tuned to allow the retention of the EDIS and running the T5. Do you see this as being a good, cheap alternative to running the Explorer engine without going MS? I don't think it's that complicated to switch to a Mustang distributor and A9L ECU but if I pursue my build I was interested in trying to keep as much Explorer gear as possible (plus cam and valve springs at least).

  17. #242
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    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    Remind me, what springs are you running on the car? I'm having issues with binding in the rear when I rally-x with my 60mm "coilover" springs and am considering going back to beehive style springs to prevent that, but I'm worried stock springs won't match up well with my stiffer front springs. Thoughts?
    I'm using H&R Sport springs all around. I actually swapped back to stock springs for RallyCross just to get the ride height up. I never really made it to enough Rallycross events to get a good feel for suspension setup.

  18. #243
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    Quote Originally Posted by LSxDreamer View Post
    I think you touched on it briefly on your site but here goes: I believe the Explorer ECU can be tuned to allow the retention of the EDIS and running the T5. Do you see this as being a good, cheap alternative to running the Explorer engine without going MS? I don't think it's that complicated to switch to a Mustang distributor and A9L ECU but if I pursue my build I was interested in trying to keep as much Explorer gear as possible (plus cam and valve springs at least).
    Someone else here used a Quarterhorse to pull the transmission-related control out of the ECU to make it work with the T5.

    However.

    rprbeantown started with a Quarterhorse and decided to go Megasquirt.

    AquaticBob started with a Quarterhorse and found it was too expensive, especially compared to the Megasquirt.

    I'm 110% a "how cheap can I do this?" type of person. If I can spend 50 hours to save 50 bucks (often for a worse outcome...) I'll totally do it. But from what I've found, Megasquirt is legit the cheapest way to get it done.

  19. #244
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    I looked around a little bit in the past, and I really got the impression that the Moates Quarterhorse is really more of an EEC-IV thing; not too many people trying to leverage it up to the Explorer motors, and those who do need to be intrepid. But I could be wrong.
    If God meant for man to motor-swap LS engines into track cars, He wouldn't have created Corvettes.

  20. #245
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    "I'm not a fan of swaps, you know what, I think they ruin the original intent of the manufacturer and we need to respect that. That's all I'm saying..." - Laminar

  21. #246
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    Laminar: I hadn't seen your 2017 in Review video...nice job! Again...hats off to putting your craftmanship to the test!

  22. #247
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    Quote Originally Posted by ponchiz318 View Post
    "I'm not a fan of swaps, you know what, I think they ruin the original intent of the manufacturer and we need to respect that. That's all I'm saying..." - Laminar
    Hahaha glad someone caught that!

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Mc View Post
    Laminar: I hadn't seen your 2017 in Review video...nice job! Again...hats off to putting your craftmanship to the test!
    Thanks! There was a snow rallycross yesterday that I'm bummed I missed, wife offered to let me go but we have a five week old baby at home and that seemed more important than breaking my car again.

  23. #248
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  24. #249
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    First event of the year! The forecast called for sub-40s and damp, so I ran my snow tires. It didn't go well.


  25. #250
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    Time to cause some trouble.






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