'94 S52 6-Speed Track/Race Car

[Johal E32]

Who installed it? ATI themselves warn about threadlock and all that, I'll check mine again but it didn't move after two days Sonoma/Buttonwillow.

The engine builder installed it. I spoke with a few E36 guys who do endurance racing and they said the VAC damper has done this before. Oh well, I'm looking at the GDM Engineering ATI damper this time around. They also offer it with A/C pulley incase you want to retain the factory A/C compressor

[circuit.heart]

The engine builder installed it. I spoke with a few E36 guys who do endurance racing and they said the VAC damper has done this before. Oh well, I'm looking at the GDM Engineering ATI damper this time around. They also offer it with A/C pulley incase you want to retain the factory A/C compressor

Good news is, just checked those 12pt bolts after another 6 weeks and they're still torqued to spec, so I will keep my fingers crossed and keep checking.

Finally got the time to pull these 1-event-old FAG bearings out. Even going super gently with a puller, they just fell apart. Trash.

20220226_172004 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

In went genuine BMW bearings, and I will try again. They feel much tighter and more heavily greased than the FAGs and so far I haven't been able to reproduce the brake pedal dropping to the floor. There's still a little bit of knockback but it's easier to deal with now.

20220226_165147 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

I also have genuine M5 bearings to try next if need be, but let's see how much life "real" non-M bearings provide.

With maintenance done for now, working on upgrades/optimizations before the next track day. I'm gonna try to take the Buttonwillow Sub2 more seriously this year so any excess weight that you can't see (important) is coming out.

As much as I love my Sweidit wheel, the 385mm is too big for my short arms and I really want the wheel to sit closer to my chest. So, Momo Mod.78 with a 2" spacer. Counting the airbag and everything I think it's 1-2lbs lighter than stock.

20220325_183226 (1) by Brian Ma, on Flickr

Much more low-key/period correct than my last Mod.08, so I'll take it. While I was in the driver's seat I removed the metal kick-panel support as well so that's ~4lbs give or take. The plastics are zip-tied where they need to be so nothing moves haha.

20220325_182916 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

No pics for the next step but I 1) re-installed the factory rear sway bar and subframe brace and 2) removed the extra Magnaflow muffler I had installed under the left rear axle. 15lbs saved, it's a lot louder than before but I'll deal with it for the sake of objectives.

Also replaced my Interstate battery (~30lbs) with this glorious little thing. 3.8lbs!

20220329_124306 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

Internal automatic kill-switch! If it detects a drain it cuts itself off from the drain, and you just push the button up top to jump the car (of course, traditional jump packs/cables still work). Tested it last night, the 13.8V seems to have no issues with electronics or alternator. 25lbs saved here.

More stuff coming:
- Fog light deletes
- Removing aux fan
- Trimming crash bars
- Trimming hood supports
- Removing trans computer, airbag components, and wiring

Car's still going to be full interior but I'd like to hit 3100lbs and move as much of it to the back as possible

[Johal E32]

Good news is, just checked those 12pt bolts after another 6 weeks and they're still torqued to spec, so I will keep my fingers crossed and keep checking.

Good! I am glad to hear this.

After removing my old crank hub, I discovered it was rather loose (it came off the snout of the crank by hand).The new crank hub is nice and very snug, I had to torch it pretty hot and then slip it over the crankshaft snout. Apparently ATI requires that the crank hub is a very tight fit or else the damper will not do a good job of keeping the engine harmonics in order.

I'm not super technical.. but this is how I understand why the old pulley failed.. I guess the high rpm harmonics rattled the bolts loose and the damper decided to fail.

I'm signed up for 04/15 Thunderhill with NCRC, will you make it up north one of these days?! Would love to see you out there

[circuit.heart]

I'm not super technical.. but this is how I understand why the old pulley failed.. I guess the high rpm harmonics rattled the bolts loose and the damper decided to fail.

I'm signed up for 04/15 Thunderhill with NCRC, will you make it up north one of these days?! Would love to see you out there

Yes, if the hub isn't press-fit on the crank hose, it's relying 100% on the crank bolt to keep it stiff and that's not really a guarantee. My VAC/ATI hub is one of the later ones so it requires a press tool and a special puller tool to take on and off, that might be the difference as I've heard early ones were more like stock M50 crank hubs.

I'm signed up for 4/9 Buttonwillow 13CW and 5/28 Sonoma, unfortunately THill is just too much of a trek for me to do a 1-day outing so I haven't bothered going yet. Maybe when work calms down, it looks like a great course.

[circuit.heart]

Well - Buttonwillow has come and gone and I'm more tired and annoyed than satisfied really. Summed up in two photos:





Don't even feel guilty for "stealing" the pics. Caliphoto has never been great and their latest work was the laziest I've been party to. The event was overbooked (180 cars, over 30 in most sessions), track was not groomed before event (dirt everywhere including on the racing line), drivers were not distributed into appropriate run groups (easy 30s laptime spread from fastest to slowest), and some drivers (the Miata AND the 370Z in this pic) had the gall to brake-check people during a live/hot track session. Unacceptable.

Since hot lap wasn't going to happen, I spent another day coaching friends and giving ridealongs to anyone who wanted one. Peep golgo13 hanging on the oh-shit handle







That's all I got for this update. I spent the day coaching Dane and Cole, gave a little bit of lead-follow practice to Cole and another forum member. Hoping I was able to give them something helpful is probably the most positive thing I got from that trackday - otherwise, I just had a few minutes of seat time to practice driving.

Will pull videos off the GoPro soon and see what's actually on there. The rear sway bar definitely is coming off, it makes the car slower, and the extra-tall extra-camber roll-center adjuster pucks could not be here a day too soon. Excited to finally give this car the geometry it needs to perform.

[moroza]

Overcrowded track events, ugh. Been there, done that, didn't get the shirt because the line was too long. Brake-checking? Is it possible those were accidental? Otherwise, how did it not lead to a black flag, or at least a stern warning?

FAG is usually quality. Where were these made?

[circuit.heart]

Overcrowded track events, ugh. Been there, done that, didn't get the shirt because the line was too long. Brake-checking? Is it possible those were accidental? Otherwise, how did it not lead to a black flag, or at least a stern warning?

FAG is usually quality. Where were these made?

Brazil and China FAGs have been letting us down for the better part of a year now. It looks like my current set of bearings (genuine BMW / Slovak FAG fronts + SKF rears) has survived the most recent trip to Buttonwillow as I've actually got zero brake knockback after getting the brakes to go mushy in Session 5. Why it only got good after fading it once.... no idea. But it feels excellent at the moment so I'm not going to ruin a good thing lol.

Slower lap than the last Buttonwillow trip due to letting a Mini JCW pass (good driver, great car), but this was one of the fun moments from Saturday. 2min 6s of not needing to wait for parade traffic.

[moroza]

Looked to me like the Nissan screwed up the line and braked to avoid going off road. Combined with the observation about poor driver distribution, I'd suggest a lack of skill - for the run group - is to blame, not malice. A malicious but skilled driver wouldn't've lost so much speed in a mere brake check, nevermind taken that kind of risk.

China or Brazil? 'Nuff said.

[circuit.heart]

People with good headphones are telling me the Nissan money-shifted, I can believe that - apparently it's a thing for inexperienced drivers to panic-brake instead of clutching in immediately. Either way a lack of calm for the run group among other incidents that day. I gotta start taking PTO to attend open-test days at the track, it's usually 20-30 cars max, 8 hours of uninterrupted track time and as many laps as you can fit in it to get some practice in.

[circuit.heart]

Good things happening!

1) I still can't show it, but the 2-piece roll center puck szacsi72 and I designed is finally getting machined - once it arrives I don't have a whole lot of time to get the helicoils in, install, relax my strut tower bar and realign the front end. I'm guessing it'll hit about -4.2deg camber but hold your breath till it happens

2) I bent 2 or 3 of my Bimmerworld TA16's, so an emergency order had to be placed for some new track wheels:
20220416_115425 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

For street wheels I'd normally not overreact like this, but track wheels see a lot of abuse AND I loan this car out to other drivers all the time. So running repaired wheels isn't worth the risk to save $1400. Additionally, these Titan7's are back to being 9.5" wide so I can stop seeing molten rubber on the inside of the rear tubs.

Btw did you know you can stack two 265's in the trunk of an Insight?
20220416_110945 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

I'm also a bit like Danny atm where there's way too much work to spend time on the car so I just made a little time to dust off the interior after coming back from Buttonwillow. I've enjoyed driving to work, it's currently in such a nice state that even if I never went back to the track, I could love this car as-is.
20220423_191245 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

As soon as work crunch is over, things to look forward to:

- Aforementioned roll center pucks
- Remove entire SRS system
- Remove factory keyless system/alarm
- Relocate charcoal canister to trunk
- Small mirrors

If anyone could point me to a how-to on removing the whole sunroof cassette, that would be appreciated too! Having a sunroof on a track car isn't a big enough flex to justify keeping 40lbs of crap up there haha. With all of these tasks knocked out, the car should dip below 3100lbs, after which we'll go for 3000

[Hofmeister]

I havent removed one, but iirc its take the seats and headliner off and out the rear door. The trick is plugging the hole in the roof

[Jcbe34]

Can you go into a little more detail on wheel fitment? Where are you seeing issues and what's the "sweetspot" on offsets to run 265/35/18 square?

Is your car still stock steering box?

[circuit.heart]

I havent removed one, but iirc its take the seats and headliner off and out the rear door. The trick is plugging the hole in the roof

Seems the scary part is keeping all the clips together, so I guess I'll put this off till the sunroof actually dies lol.

Can you go into a little more detail on wheel fitment? Where are you seeing issues and what's the "sweetspot" on offsets to run 265/35/18 square?

Is your car still stock steering box?

I run 275, almost 285 square effectively - the 265 A052's are wider than the 275/35/18 Firehawks/RE003 that I drive on the street. For wide front fitment, the wheel offset just has to be picked carefully to get the wheel and tire within 4-5mm of the strut. Add camber via the strut towers to pull the top of the wheel in as much as possible, then pull the fender as violently as needed to get the tire to tuck upon compression. Most E34's should be able to tuck a street-tire 265 with little fender mods, just -4deg of camber and 9.5" wheels.

The steering box is completely stock, I haven't had time to get the sector gear lapped flat. It's good enough, I don't notice the dead spot once there's enough pressure in the P/S lines and adrenaline in my system.

Haven't updated in a bit, have just been enjoying the car and doing small things one at a time.

20220509_222514 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

That passenger airbag is heavy! WTF? Removed a few more things and the parasitic drain seems to have improved. Granted, my battery's still tiny AF so it doesn't buy me much time before I need to start and idle the car again.

I got these in the mail:

20220501_113149 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

They've since been painted and ceramic coated, but I will save the final pics till they're on the car

These are coming in the mail and it's going to be epic:

280618188_5168851276567644_3388508865191333924_n by Brian Ma, on Flickr

I have the hardware from McMaster already to tap the aluminum threads for helicoils, and we'll be running class 12.9 bolts to hopefully guarantee that nothing's going to strip out or tear under track-use loads. Fingers truly crossed for this one as I've never tested a 2-piece wheel adapter before, let alone suspension blocks!

In more theoretical discussion, I think I've figured out what gearing suits the S52:

Screenshot from 2022-05-05 12-09-39 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

No more waiting below 3rd gear's peak torque in the tight hairpins, no more awkward upshift points mid-corner, and overall more thrust. Just gotta get the diff built!

Also got some new toys. Literally, toys.

2022_0520_19464900 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

They're actually solid mounted haha. Lots of velcro, adhesives, and self-tappers. Sonoma's this weekend, so I'm going to do my best to mess with people's heads once again.

[a777fan]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[circuit.heart]

Shit went down. Again.

TYP_6717 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

The good news: I had enough of a clear lap, enough of the tire remaining (15+ cycles A052), and enough physical stamina to turn a 1:58.2 in Session 2. I believe the PB might have actually been in Session 1 but I only have GoPro evidence from S2, so... it is what it is.

Most of the rungroup had just a little less pace than me, so it was actually a really enjoyable track day not being stuck behind traffic. Still, there were a lot of cars on track so opportunities for a "time attack" flyer lap were slim. Having the 2nd-slowest car in the run group is not helpful - it was a Miata, myself, then a C8 'Vette, an Aston, and a procession of new M3's and Porsches.



Those new mirrors look aite. I like that they're small but the glass is convex enough that the view is still about the same as factory.

TYP_6616 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

Definitely enjoyed being immature to all the people I passed. Which was most of the group.

TYP_5176 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

There are a couple setup things that I screwed up for sure, 1) the brake bias being too far to the rear:

TYP_3975 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

And 2) the rear sway bar really needs to go. I'm rolling on the throttle here on flat ground and you can see the inside rear is about to lift.

TYP_4070 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

Unfortunately, the big screwup is a 4-3 misshift at 6500rpm. I immediately could tell I floated the valves, and after pulling into the pits the car still turns over and starts, but the idle is rough. If I'm lucky, it's just a bent valve and I can get away with replacing just a few of them. In the worst case, I've damaged the bottom end and need to rebuild an S52. We will see, I've got some friends coming over tonight so we're gonna pull the head and have another christening party for this POS.

TYP_5376 by Tyler Pham, on Flickr

[Hofmeister]

interested in how the rear bar delete works out. Last time i tracked mine was S52, 3.23lsd, 3220lb, and street tires. I have RD adjustables and run center hole in front and stiffest on rear. Staggered wheels though, 235/265

[BleedsBlue]

I really dig the look of those mirrors. Where did your source them, if I can ask? And loving the back window characters, so much

Sorry to hear about the misshift, but I'll vote team bent valves. Let's hope and pray it was just a misshift and not the famous moneyshift.

[a777fan]

Those track shots look amazing. Curious how long it will take you to tear apart the s52. I’m sure your timing yourself this time.

I see you have a passenger in some of the pics. Is everyone carrying one? They’ll just slow u down… right?

[circuit.heart]

interested in how the rear bar delete works out. Last time i tracked mine was S52, 3.23lsd, 3220lb, and street tires. I have RD adjustables and run center hole in front and stiffest on rear. Staggered wheels though, 235/265

This car started off having no rear sway bar, and was faster without it. I put the bar back in because I was trying to compensate for some high-speed understeer. It technically did the job, but it makes the car slower because I don't actually have any more front grip, it just took away rear grip.

The way to have more front AND rear grip in my case, is to install those camber-adding roll center pucks (more pics soon) in the front, and then remove the rear sway bar again. I have underbody aero designed for the car already but not implementing until the chassis is dialed in.

I really dig the look of those mirrors. Where did your source them, if I can ask? And loving the back window characters, so much

Sorry to hear about the misshift, but I'll vote team bent valves. Let's hope and pray it was just a misshift and not the famous moneyshift.

Mirrors are from the UK - the paint guy actually broke the glass on one so I'm waiting on replacement glass while the car's down. Not too bad for timing lol.

Valves are bent and were extremely close to dropping - I got lucky/was smart enough to shut down immediately after the mistake. I'll update with more pics after digging through my box of extracted garbage.

[T-Rex]

What a great read, and cool car. As someone who recently acquired a '92 525i and doesn't know what precisely to do with it (cruise, bruiser or track being the options), this thread and build are quite the inspiration. Hope the head on the S52 is coming back together!

[5mall5nail5]

What a great read, and cool car. As someone who recently acquired a '92 525i and doesn't know what precisely to do with it (cruise, bruiser or track being the options), this thread and build are quite the inspiration. Hope the head on the S52 is coming back together!

I've owned my 525i for 20 years and I still don't know what I am doing with it lol

[T-Rex]

I've owned my 525i for 20 years and I still don't know what I am doing with it lol

Your car is the reason I wanted an E34 in the first place. I may need some build advice from New Sweden

[5mall5nail5]

Your car is the reason I wanted an E34 in the first place. I may need some build advice from New Sweden

No problem New Sweden Jr. and I are working on a ASA/Alpina/G-Power supercharger rebuild onto an E30 M/S50 swap

[circuit.heart]

What a great read, and cool car. As someone who recently acquired a '92 525i and doesn't know what precisely to do with it (cruise, bruiser or track being the options), this thread and build are quite the inspiration. Hope the head on the S52 is coming back together!

I think that's the best part about the E34. It's the best at nothing, but it's reasonably good at doing everything, so it's an easy car to live with.

The S52 head has been delayed 2 weeks, so I am patiently waiting for stuff to come in and I really should get the suspension parts out to the machine shop next week for the finishing touches needed. Unfortunately work has me slammed so I haven't had time to do much car-anything.

I'll leave this thread with the fun stuff for now:

PXL_20220728_012126478 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

PXL_20220616_164623566 by Brian Ma, on Flickr

[moroza]

I think that's the best part about the E34. It's the best at nothing, but it's reasonably good at doing everything, so it's an easy car to live with.

This. Though I'll disagree slightly, noting that it has IMO the best front interior of any car. I'll also add that their winter and off-road abilities are below average. Still, as I put it in my 544's sale ad, they are quite versatile, not one-trick ponies, perform a lot of missions very well. That makes getting rid of one hard to justify.