Return of an Original Gangsta

[autox320]

So they're gonna run the first autox day event of the season next week. To meet rules it will be broken into multiple events to keep car count down. 25cars per event, 2per events per day, over 2 days. We signed up for just one Saturday morning next week.


I pulled the car out to shake it down. Right away the water temp wouldn't hold and tried to overheat. The thermostat was stuck. I waved a portable torch on it and made it open while running. Still temps seem unstable. Sometimes when use too much water and no coolant there is rusty build up. Sure enough swapped the thermostat and had gummy rusty paste and tarnish in it. Probably in the block too, so flushed with some coolant flush. Seemed to work and have decent temps about 180F.

Went to run it then and warm up the oil temps. Stuck close to my driveway on the main road. Temps looked good so gave it a rip from 2nd gear. Tach zipped up and just as touched 7k rpm . . BOOOM! BLAM! POW! and lights out . . . engine died immediately. I barely coasted to the driveway to get out of the road. I'm a bit puzzled and it wouldn't refire. Got out and about that time Dad walks over to check it out. He takes one look and goes "looks like you lost your distributor cap" LOL One of the securing clips must of popped off damaging the cap and rotor. Walked up to the shop to get a spare set and a couple zip ties to extra secure the cap on.

Did a few pulls and seems good. Not been in the seat it's crazier than I remember and quicker haha. Cracked a beer and will work on the trailer some this week. New wiring and battery for the winch.

[Somjuan]

I about had a heart attack when you described the sound, I was imagining a newly air-cooled engine.


Post videos of this weekend!

[autox320]

Thought I'd share a quick non car post if that's alright.

Bought a Harbor Freight 6x8 greenhouse awhile back this year. We've always had a large garden down below on the other property, but wanted to try a greenhouse project. Everyone says the HF ones are great starters. Not to bad actually if you screw secure all panels and don't rely on their clips alone. Other than that the base is about as much as the greenhouse itself in lumber and block. I wanted to set up so can walk inside cause i'm taller. I secured it to the ground with 2x 4ft overkill mobile home anchor screws and half inch carriage bolts. The panels will blow out but the base and frame will be there lol. Also added conduit to strengthen the roof-line for weather and snow. Thermostat controlled fans, temperature remote wireless inside the main house to monitor temps. Also electric fence outside for the raised beds where other items are coming in ie potatoes, corn, etc. Some led rope lights when want to visit it at night. I've also ran a 3/4 water line to it so the lady can easily use a expandable hose inside ease access to water. Can add a misting system easily. It's our first greenhouse to try some year round produce. Just getting started maybe couple months now. I'm sure there's others out there that dabble in this stuff on the side. Great rewarding hobby. Lettuce varieties, carrots, tomatoes, strawberry's, melons, corn, potatoes, squash, beans, herbs, you name it.





- - - Updated - - -

- - - Updated - - -

I about had a heart attack when you described the sound, I was imagining a newly air-cooled engine.


Post videos of this weekend!

Oh yeah I was thinking worse cause there's so heightened senses when taking it out for the first time in 6mo. It cranked but wouldn't run so I was like man it just can't be mechanical. Dad about laughed at me with it. I swear he identified the cap missing as I was grabbing the bar to exit the "door". Needless to say I was instantly relieved. Been awhile since drove the beast it's kinda new again if that makes sense.

Sure will!

[autox320]

Found out why the winch was getting weak. It was getting slower to pull the car up on the trailer. New larger 900cca battery didn't improve much. Noticed the wires were not liking the sun being crappy non UV casings faded colors and some even were splitting open exposing wire. I was mistaken about the HF winch wires being copper and they are CCA lol damn. They were overheating. Aluminum is horrible for wire and banned in households for a reason. Some car stereo cable is CCA and bothers the hell out of me needing to be so big to handle current. Even then a fire isn't worth it.

So without even trying to remove them, they fell apart as Dad touched the connectors. Using some #4 copper welding cable and redoing all of it.
Lesson learned as suspected. When buying a HF winch, make your own cables.

[autox320]

Finished up trailer maint, and about ready for next weekend. AGM H6 battery and rewire of the winch. Sealed up the cables to the box and put the lid on. Dad wants to take the car out this week sometime for a shake down himself. Told him the zero droop rear setup is "interesting" Our road isn't the smoothest lol

[autox320]

Didn't want to order a stock resistor style spare rotor button and have to cut up for removing the resistor. So broke down and ordered another pair from Ireland Engineering. They came in and well taken for a ride my friends yes. If you want a non resistor rotor here's all you need to buy and can find anywhere now. I bought some from rockauto for less than $3 each. IE is making a killing on these now so no need to give them my hard earned money.

Recommend a good bosch only cap with either brass or copper contacts. We use the 80-83 "pin" style for the wires to lock onto.

[autox320]

Well damn . The winch failed completely trying to put the car on the trailer for the event. It was burned up probably from the shoddy wiring and relay. Drove it up on there but it's sketchy to do lol. Almost made a fool outta myself getting it back on the trailer at the event to leave. Hard on the clutch to feather it so bought another winch today. Went with a HF ZXR 5k for $160. Going to toss the HF components, and wire with continuous rated heavy duty solenoids + copper wire.

The event went ok, but the new rear end zero droop setting was a failure. The way its setup the preload rate of the spring reaches the corner weight. In a nut shell the car teeter tottered on the rear tires and was just too tight. Any amount of non straight line acceleration resulted in losing rear traction. Couldn't keep the power down to save my life, especially around the carousels which this course had plenty; was super high speed for an autox. It was disappointing but learn to fight another day. Still placed near the top of the pack but got ousted by the fastest of the bunch. I literally counted extra time in my head as I slid around carousels instead of being under power. No adaptive driving could fix the issue. Short on time I took it as a lesson and we packed up to head home. Still had a good time and chat at a distance with fellow club members about racing etc. Members of the club were hoping we were running both days and all events. Think I made it 5th overall or something time wise.

[autox320]

Redoing my girls m42 with the updated timing setup deleting the idle gear. Thought I'd post a quick vid of the rotating engine stand in action


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MF3...DDCEcMuWl/view

[autox320]

Here's last weekend autox. Set the rear droop to 7/16". Hooked up well but course had some tight turns. We were ousted by the exocet, a well driven camaro 2.0T, and factory five cobra. Still had fun.

[Somjuan]

Looked absolutely wicked! Nice run

[m60b30530i]

Hmmm rear droop ? Can you explain please

[autox320]

Thanks Guys. Dad and I figure we ain't doing to bad for only 2nd time in the car this year.

Hmmm rear droop ? Can you explain please

Sure man here's the post I made about it. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...1#post30337431

Definitely another tuning tool front and rear. Our front droop is right at 1.25" which is really where it ends up after lowering the front to desired ride height based off roll center as the limitation (angle of front arms). Rear uses the limiters to adjust and dial in a set amount of droop. Right at 1/2"-7/16" is what our setup seems to like. Too many factors so having adjustable allows to dial for any setup or conditions. Trial and error, but once in the sweet spot it really makes a difference how it handles, behaves diving into corners hot, and power oversteer out with total confidence. Gets the power down majority of the time instead of dragging a wheel around drooping. Always see it at autox's especially where one wheel droops too far doing nothing to get the power down. Very noticeable in front wheel drive cars, but it's in rear wheel drive too paying close attention to the unloaded tire.

edit: I'll add this has me looking around the paddock when at events. Almost always people are jacking up their cars to swap tires, or check something out. I now always look as they raise the car, how far the wheels travel from rest vs the body then tire leaving the pavement to see droop. When a wheel lifts almost same exact time with the car aha

[m60b30530i]

Thank you ! Will definitely try this out on my car. I changed up my setup this year. I raised the front of the car 1.5in to bring the control arm angle back.

In the rear I added a little more negative camber. 2.5 vs 1. This so far made a huge difference, taking care of my snappy surprise over steer.

[autox320]

Thank you ! Will definitely try this out on my car. I changed up my setup this year. I raised the front of the car 1.5in to bring the control arm angle back.

In the rear I added a little more negative camber. 2.5 vs 1. This so far made a huge difference, taking care of my snappy surprise over steer.

Yup good deal. Aren't you drag racing also? Droop settings are critical for drag strip launches especially front droop setup for rear transfer on RWD.

I feel I've reached a spot where not going to mess with car settings as much. It's dialed in IMO, unless I just want to experiment more. Honestly planning to finish up my girls M42 updated timing component swap (another 97 Z3 cover). Then I've been dabbling with research, emails to Germany, and specs to rebuild the bottom end again on my 2.7L M3. Plan is to start back on the M project to pass time for the remainder of 2020. Maybe just maybe can get it to paintable stage next year.

[m60b30530i]

Yup good deal. Aren't you drag racing also? Droop settings are critical for drag strip launches especially front droop setup for rear transfer on RWD.

I feel I've reached a spot where not going to mess with car settings as much. It's dialed in IMO, unless I just want to experiment more. Honestly planning to finish up my girls M42 updated timing component swap (another 97 Z3 cover). Then I've been dabbling with research, emails to Germany, and specs to rebuild the bottom end again on my 2.7L M3. Plan is to start back on the M project to pass time for the remainder of 2020. Maybe just maybe can get it to paintable stage next year.

No drag racing with the e21, I might take the Chevelle for fun. But I even set that car up to handle for what it is.

I have 2 track days coming up in September one at NYST and the other hopefully at Lime Rock.

[autox320]

Oil levels.

We're always learning right, so this is for those that want to ever build a hot m10 and maybe even use M3 style oil pans etc. One thing for sure after the rod bearing swap I wanted to take a closer look over last winter. Something just didn't seem to add up. I lost the photos so took some new ones cause wanted to bring this into light. The M10 and S14 blocks are essentially the same when it comes to the oil tube location and distance. I've a 1.8, 2.0 M10, 2.3, 2.5evo M3 blocks and they are all the same. So here's what had baffled me and we've adjusted our fill line accordingly by making a score line on the 320 dipstick.

The M10(12.5") dipstick tube itself is longer than the S14(10.5"). So here's where pictures are worth a thousand words. It's been documented for the S14 that any track duty ie (dtm boys recommended long ago) to always and I mean religiously fill the S14 dipstick to the first kink. This is over the max fill line to compensate for high rpm continuous use. Every S14 owner runs at the kink. When running hard oil is staying in the head more than it drains back to the pan, and the overfill keeps it at "race level" making sure there is enough keeping the pump fed. As you can see using the 320 tube and stick side by side the S14 max line is just showing low on the stick (first bump). How much are we talking to get to the "kink" line? Well that depends on pan configuration. We are using a 318i upper and S14 lower with baffles so capacity will vary. Ours this is about 1.5quarts difference So yup first couple seasons, and track days we were technically running low on the stick.

I'll mention again this is a good place to remember about the oil "jet" an M10 should have in the block to mimic an S14. the "jet" is just a small orifice to control amount of oil to the head. The M10 there is just a hole to feed the head. If in race use it's not uncommon for an M10 to pump most of the contents of the pan into the head and have all kinds of crank case venting puking oil out by the quarts. Also how the crank and rod bearings die early death. The "jet" is a needed item IMO to make it survive. Fits in the same hole the M10 already has available in the block. If not seen the post there is one during our engine build in this thread I'd gladly show again.

Also welded/mounted the new Badland 5k winch on a trailer mount with quick disconnect. Allows to just remove and store in the shop. Plug is common on skid steers.

[autox320]

Doing a little forceful driving Saturday. Almost took out the stop box. I know sounds crazy but adjusted the droop from 7/16 back to 1/2". Wouldn't think it's much doing 1/16" but guess it mattered. Car feels like it sticks at will again in the rear. I was having to adjust driving style and also was in happy mode drifting again under power hooking up. Was just a lot of fun, so much I actually forgot I was trying to best my own times. I was having more fun being carried away than improving. Ehh isn't that what we do this for sometimes? It wasn't just me, Dad said it drove better too. So exactly like we left last season we are back to those settings. Trial and error leads in circles. Don't know till ya know I guess.

[autox320]

Looking at times and results for autocross. Just can't seem to put together a fast run but if could it's there. After beers in the garage with Dad told him to hell with it...... lets just setup to take the entire front end off for autocross. Nose weight forward of the front axle center line is the last card to play. Rules for prepared don't really pertain to us since we're the only ones in our class and we always end up running against the fastest top contenders in the club. When I factor power to weight they have an advantage (especially the Factory 5 Cobra @5 or so odd pounds/hp/trq).
Deleting the front is a free mod. I mean it comes off with 4 bolts. There's nothing that says you have to run a hood, or bumper so
Threw on scales and tweaked it a bit. Ready to see if can sign up for the Sept event.

[autox320]

Well our next Day series event for autocross is cancelled. Signed up for the next "night series" autox event. Dad and I are planning a couple more autox events to burn off last of the tires. Then park for winter. Just too much going on right now. Not scheduling a track event this year.

[autox320]

Whoohoo night series. Dark, rainy wet, cold. Tires are worn out so made for some fun wet driving. Took the front end off to save weight and kinda said screw lights Placed 8th for cars overall. about a second off from lead. Could of launched faster and drove better with some actual tires




done with the RE71R's


new set of wider 225 Azenis 660's came in yesterday (RE's only came in 205)


Ordered a 11k light bar for night series events; hope to test on the last one of the season and post it soon.

[autox320]

first thoughts on the azenis 660's dayum son

Scrubbed them in on the road here. Did a couple hard launch pulls from a stop. They heat up fast which is great just like the RE71R's. Will take a few tries to leave the line cleanly with new found grip. Signed up for the last two events of the season. Added the light bar specifically for the night series to test out. It's a 30in 11k from superbrightleds of course.

[autox320]

Tires were a success. Far as car placement goes FTD(well night;FTN?) for cars. A shifter kart had fastest time but um yeah dude it's a shifter kart. Managed to oust all the top runners and high hp cars luckily. There were a few eyeball popping high hp machines there. Notably a 135 BMW with crazy boost, a vette, and subi wrx. My fastest run wasn't even the cleanest IMO, but hey it got it done out of 78 drivers. One guy with a subi brz was 8 hundredths away from stealing my thunder but nope not this time homie.

[autox320]

Couple quick issues we had lately. One is during scrubbing in the new wider sticky tires noticed a noise out of the steering rack. I thought man the pinion bearing is going but nope. Upon closer inspection the rack U bolt clamps were coming loose. Probably from all the banging on the splitter since it mounts below them. I'll replace with top locks instead of nylocks. Possible the nylocks are seeing some heat too which is the reason to always use metal top locks like on our suspension and exhaust header. Re-aligned and checked weights.

A major one thats been bothering me for awhile is the airhorns on the carb. They secure with stainless little straps that you bend to make tight to the carb top. Worked ok I guess but I always thought was crappy. I always found the airhorns gapped from the carb over time. This isn't what you want when using airhorns. I'd re-bend tighten the tabs only to find gaps later again. I took off the tabs and drilled+tapped some 1/4-20 bolts in the corners of the horns then epoxy'd neo magnets to secure to the top of the bolts below. That looked good and seemed ok till last event. Had high idle during our first runs then it cleared up and ran normal. Come to find out after back in the shop I took off the air cleaner carefully to see if the horns were in place. They were vertical and inside the aircleaner Fail. Back to the drawing board. Cut off the magnets. Took off the top plate of the carb and lapped it to make sure it was flat. Looked closer at the airhorns and theres a machined groove to sit on the carb. After some marker paint there were some high spots and thats why it rocked on the carb never fitting perfect. Got in there with cone sanders and made a nice fit now. Finally it was flush to the carb looking under a magnifier. Then once on top of the carb the horns always had a slight lip inside the barrels. Probably several thousandths. Sand ported them to match. Secured the horns with a 1/4-20 center bolt made into a pin head. Filed a notch into the horns, back the bolt out to secure and locknut. Much much better solution to these short horns.






Signed up for the last day event this Sunday. Having my buddy co-driver with his sister again. Should be a lot of fun.

[autox320]

Last autocross event of the season. Split into two events again morning and evening. We only stayed morning. Was the fastest car there by a tenth ahead of the factory five cobra. The shifter kart was there again so yeah karts rule . FTD for cars; either way I was ok with my runs.
The cobra managed to edge everyone out for the evening event later.

My buddy Dan was just as fast as expected (he beat me in my own car last time he drove). He was a tenth off from my times. One run I was doing really good but hit a cone. Dan the same. His sister did good but was learning the car again. The new wider tire setup seemed to throw her off a bit. Gotta put the hammer down girl

In the excitement of final event and running with friends, I couldn't find my driving gloves to hold the wheel better. Anyone thats had a suede wheel knows you need gloves to get max grip. With bare hands it's very hard to hold on to especially with this car. After the event I found my gloves. . . in my side cargo pocket

[autox320]

Scamazon Amazon, Summitracing; bad fuel pumps from ChiiiNA.

not real carters especially at this price
https://www.amazon.com/Carter-P4070-...4162282&sr=8-3
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...SABEgIQIPD_BwE

Had the two carter P4070 pumps on the shelf that both failed. One was brand new at the track when we first went, the other was just driving on the street tuning. The one at the track became low output and was almost burn hand to the touch when removed. One ordered from amazon, the other from summit racing. In common they share the part number stamped 4070BC . No carter labeling so for sure China. I may have the last USA made ones on the car I can find.

The one from the track event that failed and was hot I decided to open and see what the hell happened. I mean these rotary pumps are usually reliable, found on many marine applications as well. I've never seen one fail especially just days out of the box.

Built like garbage thats why. They are offshore alright and not good. the casing is rusted inside like cancer. The zinc coating is crap. The motor itself was unreal rusted, and main failure was one of the two main magnets cracked and separated. Gouges in the bars. No wonder it barely worked. Was probably already rusted from the offshore mainland China factory. Out of box failure waiting to happen. I was beside myself. Already scrapping the idea of having one on the M3 as a lift pump now. A fire due to a shitty pump is the last thing I want to worry about.

Buyer beware. Just sad. Bosch Chinese copies are getter harder to spot as well.