e36 M3 - IP Build Chronicles

[TIATO]

DB - LOL. Indeed

Chuck - In car video is here. Enjoy.



Car is up on jackstands and transmission removal will begin tonight. Parts are on the way and will start arriving today.

[TIATO]

Removed the exhaust thursday night. Disconnected and dropped driveshaft.

This evening I dropped the transmission and conclusively determied what caused my engine RPMs to surge by over 500 rpms on two different corners in two seperate sessions while powering out of high g load turns in 4th gear.

Transmission input shaft seal is history. Now with the transmission out, I can vissibly see the fluid leaking out from behind the throw out bearing tube.

In high G corners, in 4th gear the fluid would leak/squirt into the bellhousing and the airflow within the bellhousing would pick upthe fluid and fling it everwhere. The inside is very moist. The PP has radial streaks from fluid being centrifuged outward.

The clutch itself has plenty of life left, but its a shame that a few of the ceramic plates are visibly discolored from fluid getting on it.

New clutch and PP have arrived. A spare tranny is in the house and re-assembly prep will begin tomorrow.

[TIATO]

The old transmission leaks like sieve. Needed to place it in a few positions to take off the gear selector input shaft coupling, old motor mounts and transmission cross member. Within a matter of minutes, there was a 12" puddle of redline MTL on the garage floor beneath the tranny. Now I am not surprised why I expreienced some clutch slip at the Glen.

Now thats its out and and a little less full, Ill drain it down the line and crack it open to see what these things are made off and depending what I see possibly obtain the reseources to rebuild it for the hell of it.


Productive night. Got the following done:

New Clutch/Flywheel combo installed.
Installed new throw out bearing guide tube
Cleaned/lubed and installed clutch fork and TOB
Bolted on the spare tranny
Installed new guibo
Reconnected the drive shaft
Reconnected the shift linkage
Remounted the clutch slave

Had to fully remove the starter as corrosion on the locating dowel made it difficult to seat the starter on the bell housing. Punched out the pin and polished it with some 800 grit sandpaper to remove oxidation from both the dowel and dowel hole in the starter.

Tonight menu specials will be:
reinstall of undercar heat shields
reinstall of exhaust system from the header back
reinstall TB, MAF and airbox (needed to remove to gain access to starter and to locate for reference upper bellhousing bolts)
Flush brake system
Check suspension nuts and bolts

Car will be ready to be put on the trailer on Wed eve for a Thursday AM departure for Mid-O.


Some related notes:
This has been the most work I have had to to the car inbetween events. I give a lot of credit to individuals who race on a weekly basis and do this kind of car work weekly. Obviously I did not expect the issue with the tranny to pop up at the Glen with Mid Ohio 2 weeks away. I am not complaining, my 148k mile tranny with over 6000 track miles has served me well for almost 2.5 years of track usage. The first week I spent researching the problem and ordering parts. In the meantime I got the car in the air. Any free time I had last week I spent moving furniture and room contents around in my upstairs. We are getting hardwood floors installed.

So between the car, moving stuff around, living in a totally unsettled second floor, work and other general household tasks, family time has been at a premium.
Again I must thank my wife for her understanding and for her unwavering support. Kudos to the kids for their patience as well. Without my families support, what I do would not be possible. I owe it all to them.

A word to the younger followers of this build thread. If you are going to get into racing or heavy DE, get into it before you get married or have kids. The time demanded by the sport and the vehicles can be overwheling at times (especially if you are trying to contain costs by doing all the work yourself). If you find yourself on the way to the altar, make sure your woman understands what she is getting involved with. Now is the time to choose the car or her. It wont be so easy afterwards.

Although I only do 16 track/race days a year, with all my other responsibilities, I feel that I am pushing it.

[BMWParkingOnly]

Although I only do 16 track/race days a year, with all my other responsibilities, I feel that I am pushing it.

I understand and agree with all the above points - and I'm only doing ~9 track days/year! My wife knew what she was getting into though with me pulling all-night thrashes on cars back when we were just dating......and I think she's still in denial thinking I'll change one of these days after 9 years of marriage.

That's a lot of work in a week man, you're an animal with a VERY understanding family.

[TIATO]

BmwParking - I am lucky. She is coming to Mid Ohio with me this weekend to crew Funny you say Im an animal. My good friends say that whenever I get wrenching on the car and there is a reason for that. In the winter I do 4-6 week marathon evening wrench sessions to implement my maintenance and upgrade plan. My wife sees little of me in the evenings in that time, but I do a lot it in a very condensed period so I have more time for her and the family throughout the rest of the season.


Last nights adventures included:

Heatshield re-install
Header back exhaust re-install (which included having to loosen the frontmost header to get enough wiggle room to align the header downtube and v-bands)
Airbox, MAF, TB re-install
Tidying up odds and ends
Transmission fluid flush
X-brace re-install

Car starts and runs.

Now Ive got to get her of the stands and on the trailer. As what is now becoming the norm, I will not have time to wash the car for the third straight event. Priorities - LOL . Good thing its silver and hides the dirt well.

[M3Rob95]

Awesome save during your agricultural experience.

Awesome build up too. I want to do just about everything you have done. Thanks for sharing!

[BMWParkingOnly]

She is coming to Mid Ohio with me this weekend to crew

I love that track, enjoy.
Make sure she is consistent with the tire pressure and temp measurements, eh?

My wife and 3-1/2 year old son were at my last track event as 'crew'......that meant I had food ready and cold drinks when I came off the track from instructing.

Cheers,
Chet

[luv4myE36]

Mario, can you give me a good email to reach you at?
i have some questions about your tooling choices to assemble that head as i
need to do that for my car so i can finally make it out on the track

[TIATO]

Way past due with updates.

June - Thunderbolt CR

Fun track with good action over 2 days. Great to see the usual suspects. This event was my last rookie race and boy did I learn a lot. Lots of hard learning but educational nonetheless, specifically....

....When in the heat of the moment, keep some brain capacity available for the flags. Im usually very, very good about this and I am embarassed it happened, but this was the first race where I was actualy driving competitively and all my concentration was on that. The result was I passed under yellow, not once but twice, then followed that up by not immediately recognizing the black flag that was pointed at me. Net result, a firm talking to from the comp stewarts and a significant loss of class position. Guilty as charged, my *** up. Lesson learned and integrate it for the next time.

This was also the first time I was involved in some unintended race contact. Got hit by a mini in my pass. side door in T1. After the hit I continued balls to the wall racing. No time to dwell on it. Now have a nice Mini shaped wheel stamp in the door and rocker panel. Driver tried to avoid contact but just ran out of road. Shit happens and it was my turn to get that out of the way. No feelings hurt, a new friend was made and the metal can be bent back. Race on.

In the Octopus I got a little love tap from M3LTW98. Thought nothing of it and I wasnt even sure I was nudged. I got out after the race and walked around the car and saw nothing unusual. I went over to Jarred and asked him if he gave me a little kiss. He confirmed he did. Few minutes later he comes to me and told me the stewarts sought him out and were now were looking for me. I t appears that 20 minutes after the race the corner workers reported that they "thought" they saw some contact. I immediately go to find the appropriate officials and get a incident report form. They were not pleased with me. They want to know of every contact regardless how minor. I complied to the T after my door hit. Understandable. Here I wasnt even sure I got nudged and the damage was only a scuffed UUC sticker. Another lesson learned. Report everything. But shouldnt a line be drawn with this kind of contact non-damage vs. bent metal. Id like to hear some of your thoughts on this.

Regarding the flagging at this event. The NJMP flaggers were not good. Unfortunately this is an unimproved area of concern from when I drove NJMP last October. Very inconsistent when compared to any other BMW chapter or organization I have run with so far. A mod car looses a bumper in the middle of the chicane - no debris flag ever come out, even though there is a flag station RIGHT there. No subsequent removal. Another car went off and dumped a lot of dirt on a corner apex - no debris flag. Blue flag - did I even see any? They were good with the yellow only (even though I missed 2). No station, other than S/F displayed a black flag. Any other worker group would have been throwing the black flag at me.

All in all, despite the hard lessons, despite the weather, I had a great time with all involved. Although I do appreciate the effort NJBMWCCA put into this event, I think some friendly suggestions for improvement may be in order. Thanks all.

The Thunderbolt club race once again brought to the forefront my nagging problem of clutch slip due to a transmission input shaft seal. So a few weeks after the race I pulled the transmission for a second time this season. Took everything apart and sent the clutch to clutchmaster for a rebuild, the flywheel to JB racing for a check over. Replaced the input shaft seal.

Then the car sat for nearly 10 weeks and I did nothing car related in that time. I simply enjoyed the summer spending time with family, going on vacation.

I love the feeling of staying away from something for an extended period of time because one comes back refreshed and recharged.

Now with the WGI club race a month away the time has come to put the car back together and pull some of the bent door metal from my last race.

Thunderbolt In car video:

[ame="http://vimeo.com/5226383"]T-Bolt Qualifying[/ame]
[ame="http://vimeo.com/5174535"]Thunderbolt Feature Race[/ame]

[mtrsprt]

Nice, Mario!
I was wondering where you've been....
Looking forward to seeing you at the Glen!
I will be there, too... It looks like there are alot more people signed up on the website now... so, I hope it's out of the way of potentital for cancellation.
IP should be a fun one there!
I can't wait!

[TIATO]

Tuuurrboooooo!!

I will be there and look forward to racing with you. Ill call you over the next few days to catch up.


Pics of the Thunderbolt race damage...









Currently looking for a replacement door. I banged, bent out what I could, screwed the molding directly to the door (dont want it flying off on track).

Also removed the side skirt. The most serious damage was under there but only visible from the top. Ill pull that out in the off season and fix it as best as possible untill I have the skills, tools and time to section in a new rocker I got from dortiz. Fortunately, the side skirt will hide the nastiest dent.

Now that the drivetrain is back in, there still remains a work list in prep for the Glen club race:

-Remove passenger door glass and all associated power window items.
-Recover pass. door with aluminum trim panel.
-Got to gut the door as the car will be re-scaled and aligned in 2 weeks.
-Swap out the GC AD suspension for JRZs.
-After 12 days of track time, its time to change brake pads. (The rears are down to 1/16th". The fronts at 50%. That is a huge testament to the quality of the performance friction brake system. I could just swap the rears and still get another 4-5 days out of the fronts.)
-Re-attach pass. side side skirt.


Of course there still remains the task of prepping the new trailer. Got to figure out how best distribute/organize all my tools and misc. stuff

[JClark]

IP should be a fun one there!

Absolutely.

[magnetic1]

You need the door pitpal for your trailer

Mario, I have a spare pass side door if you cant find one local for cheap. Im coming up to the NJ area end of the month so I might be able to bring up.

[TIATO]

Eric - pitpal. Does your friend still have his for sale? I dropped the ball on that one.

Email me or call me with a price on the pass. door. I assume its gutted and either black or blue.

[raoke]

I have an excellent pass. door in alpine but I'm in CA. I'm not sure what it would cost to ship.

Edit:
Just saw the other guys post and it would probably better to wait for him. GL.

[Naka]

Travel window made from OEM window. Determined height, cut and bent some stock flat .060" aluminum, bolted brackets to window using OEM hardware and slide in.

Mario:

Would you mind showing us how you attached the aluminum brackets to the window OEM hardware, please?

Also, what did you use to cut the inside door sheetmetal? Looks pretty smooth.

And the wire covered by the hose, across the door, is that the handle to open the door?

Thanks.

Sorry about your incident. And congratulations on the trailer. It looks awesome!

[TIATO]

Gary -

Yes, the plastic hose enclosed steel wire is attched to the door latch and thats what I used to unlock the door.

Regarding the cutting of the door sheet metal, my cage builder did that. Wasnt a plasma cut so Im think he used air shears/scissors for that. Yes a nice edge and sharp to boot.

Here ya go....

Bent tab to shape to ensure window is in full up position. Then used some left over hardware to bolt (10mm hex, m4/5 thread IIRC) them to the threaded holes that attached the window to the track.

[mtrsprt]

Tuuurrboooooo!!

I will be there and look forward to racing with you. Ill call you over the next few days to catch up.

I am very much looking forward to it... I, too, have some work to do on my car before the event, like maybe getting my head down out of the roof and some other things... Call me anytime.

Also, that is a beautiful trailer. Very, very nice!
And, I know where those pictures are from... that's the same place that I got my trailer, and just had the A/C installed.
What size is that?
I can't wait to see it in person. You'll enjoy it very much, and I can totally relate to the idea of figuring out where to put things... Too many choices.

Absolutely.

Jesse, Did you fix that thing yet?
If not, I might be scared to be on the track with you
j/k, obviously...
It should be great fun all around!

[TIATO]

Goeff,

left a VM on your mobile. The trailer is a 24' bought you know where up in Flanders. A/C is next year. With your A/C, you plan on sleeping in the trailer trackside?

[JClark]

Jesse, Did you fix that thing yet?
If not, I might be scared to be on the track with you
j/k, obviously...
It should be great fun all around!

Hell I'm scared to be on track with me.

It's in the capable hands of Bimmerworld right now getting fixed.

[TIATO]

Jesse - getting fixed. What was the diagnosis?

[JClark]

Low oil pres even with the baffled stock pan. Calabogie is too much fun for the stock oiling system. S54 pan/pump is installed and the damage all fixed.

[TIATO]

Low oil pres even with the baffled stock pan. Calabogie is too much fun for the stock oiling system. S54 pan/pump is installed and the damage all fixed.

See you at the Glen.

More catch up...Mid Ohio Club Race

My wife and I made the 8 hour trek to Mid Ohio on memorail day weekend. It was my first time at Mid-O bringing my total of new tracks learned in the last 18 months to 5.

It wasnt until the end of the first day (of 3) that the track clicked in my head. Until that time I did not like it.

As the weekend progrssed I got faster and more comfortable driving it. As expected the racing was fun and had opportunities to play with Tim Smith and SG_M3. Also had lots of paddock fun with Maxfish, Jclark, SG_M3, Magnetic1, Neil and lotsa off track fun with Naka, Bill Heumann, James Clay and DWhite.

One of the best parts of this event was watching Jesse, Sean and others troubleshoot No.77 and getting it out there to win JP.

The only complaint I had about the car was killer understeer in some of the tighter sections of the track but nothing that I couldnt work with.

I partnered with Anthony Maganoli for the enduro and we had an absolute blast and it was the first time I had ever shared my car with anyone. Ive known anthony for a few years and knew I could trust him and felt comfortable with his driving abilities.

Race strategy was simple. I start because it would be easier and safer to cinch down the belts to his size than to pull them out to my size. We also decided to split the 60 minutes 50/50. We also had to add weight to the car (spare wheel) and run a full tank of gas so that during the pit stop we could dump another 5 gallons in, in order to meet weight. Anthony is much lighter than me. However while the driver change was smooth, the refuel prooved to be slow. Our friend Scott fuled while I held the fire extinguisher. Standing there, hot and breathing heavy from adrenaline with the visor down from my stint and waiting for what seemed like an eternity to fuel made for some very uncomfortable time.

We sent Anthony on his way and watched him kick ass from pit row.

Unfortunately, at the end we were penalized one lap for too short a pit stop which dramatically changed our finish from 4th overall to 12th and from 2nd to 4th in class. Obviously very disappoiting but we had some good lessons learned. Best of all Anthony and I make a good enduro driver combo.

We will pair up again for the Glen club race.

Event video:

[ame="http://vimeo.com/4913911"]Sprint 1[/ame]

[ame="http://vimeo.com/4891275"]Sprint 2[/ame]

[ame="http://vimeo.com/4922268"]Anthony Maganoli Driving #818 in the Instructor Session[/ame]

Some event pix...

[ryosten]

Do you have any more detailed pics of the mounting of your switch panel (windows and flashers, etc)?

[seatown88]

so with this beautiful new trailer, are you going to add pacific raceways to your new track list?;-)