1985 BMW 318i + M42 engine swap = Prepping for Season 2 in MR Rally-X - Page 21

irish44j · 08-06-2012, 05:21 PM

we decided to have a bit of group solidarity fun for the bimmer group, so we got some "team banners" made up for all the e30s (and the e2

, just for the hell of it. And because rallykar.

Rex_Saugerty · 08-12-2012, 03:38 PM

here's some inspirational videos from local e30 driver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HeWqyWfAM

irish44j · 08-17-2012, 11:09 AM

walked outside to get something out of my car, and there was a little package waiting for me. Delivered in less than 2 weeks, pretty damn good.

Also noticed that Kirk now curves the backstay pieces to match the wheel wells, which they apparantly didn't used to do.

Rex_Saugerty · 08-17-2012, 12:49 PM

thatš some sweet thing. but does it really help?

irish44j · 08-19-2012, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rex_Saugerty

thatš some sweet thing. but does it really help?

I know it's not a full cage, but then again I'm not doing full rally, so I don't want 250lbs of steel added to the car. In my viewpoint, this serves a few purposes:
1. safety, to some extent, in the (hopefully not) event I roll the car.
2. once I get a race seat, I can safely use my 5-point harness.
3. good place for camera mount
4. adds some structural rigidity (probably not a ton, but any bit helps)
5. and hey, a rallycross car always looks cooler with a rollbar

irish44j · 08-19-2012, 05:53 PM

I actually got it in without taking out the front seats (yay 4-door!) so that was good, though did scrape up my rocker panel on one side manhandling it in (like I care).

Even with the curved plates, though, they don't really sit very flush. I have almost a finger gap at the bottom of the right side one (left side is much closer)

Also, what did you do on the floor since it overhangs the floor "contour" there? I'm thinking I'll just get some 3/8" aluminum sheet pieces and use them to "fill the gap" on the lower side.....or did you just bolt them up and crank em down until it flattened the floor ridge?

The other issue, of course, is that I'm going to have to change my cargo carrying methods. The only way to get the wheels into the backseat now is to mahandle them past the driver's seat tilted forward, which will suck when they're all muddy... :P I can still get them in as you can see in the pic, but may not be worth the effort.

I can put the tires in the trunk, but then my two "field boxes" of stuff that are usually there can't fit in the backseat either. In the end, I may just get some smaller field boxes, lol.....nothing I can't work around, but I was *kind of* hoping the wheels/tires could fit through the side opening on the bar....oh well

irish44j · 08-19-2012, 05:54 PM

Before running out this afternoon/evening for a wedding, went ahead and installed the bar. Pretty straightforward, nothing real exciting other than getting it where I wanted it. I drilled and loose-bolted the main hoop feet first, then did the backstays.

though the foot plates on the backstay are curved to contour to the wheel wells, the backing plates are not, so I did some pre-bending with a propane torch and a vise..

Did a pretty good job at getting the contour I think. The bolt threads sticking out so far make me a bit nervous with the soft springs on this car, though don't *think* that the tire could possibly contact them. But I may flip them and put the nut on the inside of the car. Not like I care about the cosmetic aspect there...

Once tightened down it did deform the wheel well curvature a bit, but not too much, and not that I care

I used a few washers to level the floor plates, but didn't really need to. Once tightened down, as expected, it just flattened out the little ridge in the floor pan.

Unlike the autopower bar, which sits on the raised section of the floorpan and causes interference with the fuel/brake lines underneath, the Kirk bar mounts a bit farther inboard so no issues at all - just clean (well, muddy actually) floor pan to deal with

will hit everything up with undercoating once I do a final torquing tomorrow. The "inside" face of the backing plates I already painted with POR-15 to keep any rusting away.

irish44j · 08-19-2012, 05:54 PM

Finished up the rollbar stuff today. Well, except I still need to go pick up some SFI-rated padding next weekend out at OG Racing, which thankfully is local and a great place to get race gear.

Fully installed:

one reason I went with the Kirk over the Autopower (among others) is that I wanted to make sure there was clearance for my hand-crank rear windows. I don't think they autopower would clear, since its legs mount farther outward and they don't kink in like the Kirk.

wheel well backing plates undercoated and all the gaps filled to keep rust out. I also flipped the bolts so as not to have 1" of thread sticking down into the wheel well to hold mud (and possibly contact the tire on a hard impact?).

and mocked up a mount for the GoPro, using regular GoPro components. This is a work in progress

irish44j · 08-26-2012, 05:26 PM

Rained hard today so took the car out for a self-car-wash. Then finished up my inside camera mount, using some 14ga steel cut out of the framing from an old gas fireplace. And since I only have curved GoPro click mounts left, I just curved the platform a bit so I could just use those and don't have to buy more...

2 weeks until the season resumes with a saturday test and tune and then sunday competition. After almost 3 months off, I really can't wait to get back in the dirt. Next year when there is no new baby-having going on, I may try to make a run out to Ohio or another not-too-distant event during the summer break at Summit....I hate waiting. Also would like to give a try at some other surfaces. We'll see.

downpour!

camera mount

cghstang · 08-27-2012, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irish44j

I may try to make a run out to Ohio

We'd love to have you! Do it!

irish44j · 08-27-2012, 03:35 PM

what's the MR field look like out there and what kind of surfaces do you guys run on (clay, dirt, etc?). Not that it would matter, just curious.

cghstang · 08-27-2012, 03:56 PM

MR is relatively small but healthy right now in OVR (Columbus, OH area) and WOR (Dayton, OH area) with about 75% crossover between the two.

We've got EvanB and his turbo miata (myself codriving lately) and NoisyCricket aka Peejay aka Izzmus with his bridgeported and otherwise heavily modified FB RX-7. He and myself drove it at the national championship last year and were the highest placing rwd in an M2 class with 20-some cars, finishing just outside the trophies (not that it means much).

The surface at OVR is 'dirt' compared to Summit's clay, with a gravel access drive being used occasionally. WOR's Roos Farm site is more clay-ey and has not-insignificant elevation features but is a bit on the small side and more limited in terms of course design options. Both groups are a lot of fun to run with.

irish44j · 08-27-2012, 04:42 PM

damn, with that group I may not want to come embarrass myself, lol....I can hardly keep up with a near-stock RX-7 running MR locally haha......Of course most of our MR cars locally are really near-stock cars with maybe a few minor mods that are running rally tires. None of us are real MR builds. Light PR at best.

Well, once I get the M42 in there and have some reasonable power (yeah, it's sad when 130-140hp is considered "reasonable" these days)....maybe it'll be more competitive if I come next year

eage8 · 08-28-2012, 02:08 AM

Me and Jim just got back from OVR, it was a blast as always. The surface is really different and it's fun to change it up.

Here are my videos from the national challenge:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9966341C73CBAE03

There was also another decently fast 2nd gen rx7 there, not sure how local he was though.

irish44j · 09-01-2012, 05:03 PM

A week to go before the season resumes, and I think the car is generally ready to roll for the time being. Unfortunately, Pat and Jason are a bit behind on their prep and were having an issue with a cylinder missing. So I shot out to West Virginia this morning to do a couple hours of work with Pat in figuring out the problem and checking out some other things on their eta.

First we checked compression on the cylinder, which was consistent with the other cylinders, so that was good. Then replaced the distributor and rotor (which had pretty corroded contacts) and plugs (which were pretty grimy). Still had the misfire. Since we didn't have any new wires we swapped a couple of the wires to test that cylinder and it still misfired. So after eliminating the cylinder and ignition, the problem was narrowed down to fuel, obviously.

Pat had gotten some reconditioned/cleaned/tested injectors and replaced the leaky/grimy ones that came with the car. We first checked the injector connector/wiring on that cylinder by plugging it into one of the old injectors. It had the usual audible ticking/tapping and seemed to be working. So that really just left the new injector. After spilling much fuel we got it out and plugged it in....and no tapping. Damn. So put in one of the old ones, reassembled...and no more misfire.

Goes back to the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" thing, I guess, haha.....

After doing that and a few other things I headed back home on some nice winding roads through the mountains (in the WRX, not the e30).

Once home, looking for something to do. Pat had traded me a red sport spoiler that I thought might look good on my car for my old black one (since his car is blue). But the red one looked bad, lol.

This was a good opportunity to do some painting. My trunk is all scratched up and has several rusty chips in it. Been meaning to hit it with some paint and this was a good excuse. Instead of black, decided to try to match it to the hood color, Delphin Metallic. Of course there is no cross-reference for duplicolor or other rattle-cans.....Did a bit of discreet testing at the store and found that Duplicolor Metallic Gray (formerly 183) is a close match so did up the trunk in a coat of that.

the lighting is off, but here's how they compare. Closer in person, and my hood is really dirty.

also did the spoiler, though I may do the backside/bottom of it in black. Why two-tone spoiler? Because racekar.

Since the hood and trunk don't abut each other, when viewed as a whole car the colors look to be more or less the same, so that's a mission accomplished right there, lol

So yeah, pretty much ready for Saturday's test&tune and the main event. Will see what needs to be done after that!

08-06-2012, 05:21 PM	#301
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	we decided to have a bit of group solidarity fun for the bimmer group, so we got some "team banners" made up for all the e30s (and the e2, just for the hell of it. And because rallykar.

08-17-2012, 12:49 PM	#304
Rex_Saugerty Dirty Member Car: Slow Alice Join Date: May 2009 Location: Latvia Thanks: 1 Thanked 8 Times in 8 Posts View Photos By: Rex_Saugerty	thatš some sweet thing. but does it really help? __________________ Bubba02sti: technically its an AWD rallyinspired grocery getter coldturbo get me a photo of her ripping up a field with wild flower

08-27-2012, 03:56 PM	#312
cghstang Regular Contributor Ford Escort ZX-2 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Fairborn, OH Thanks: 36 Thanked 48 Times in 38 Posts	MR is relatively small but healthy right now in OVR (Columbus, OH area) and WOR (Dayton, OH area) with about 75% crossover between the two. We've got EvanB and his turbo miata (myself codriving lately) and NoisyCricket aka Peejay aka Izzmus with his bridgeported and otherwise heavily modified FB RX-7. He and myself drove it at the national championship last year and were the highest placing rwd in an M2 class with 20-some cars, finishing just outside the trophies (not that it means much). The surface at OVR is 'dirt' compared to Summit's clay, with a gravel access drive being used occasionally. WOR's Roos Farm site is more clay-ey and has not-insignificant elevation features but is a bit on the small side and more limited in terms of course design options. Both groups are a lot of fun to run with. __________________ Chris Hastings ! WOR SCCA RallyCross ! http://www.youtube.com/user/cghstang

08-28-2012, 02:08 AM	#314
eage8 Regular Contributor BRP '01 2.5RS Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: MD Thanks: 2 Thanked 13 Times in 13 Posts	Me and Jim just got back from OVR, it was a blast as always. The surface is really different and it's fun to change it up. Here are my videos from the national challenge: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9966341C73CBAE03 There was also another decently fast 2nd gen rx7 there, not sure how local he was though. __________________ '01 Impreza 2.5RS - RallyX SA '89 RX-7 TurboII - 270 rwhp - Megasquirt3 '89 Corolla SR5 - 4A-GE 20 Valve - Megasquirt2

08-17-2012, 11:09 AM	#303
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	walked outside to get something out of my car, and there was a little package waiting for me. Delivered in less than 2 weeks, pretty damn good. Also noticed that Kirk now curves the backstay pieces to match the wheel wells, which they apparantly didn't used to do.

08-19-2012, 05:53 PM	#306
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	I actually got it in without taking out the front seats (yay 4-door!) so that was good, though did scrape up my rocker panel on one side manhandling it in (like I care). Even with the curved plates, though, they don't really sit very flush. I have almost a finger gap at the bottom of the right side one (left side is much closer) Also, what did you do on the floor since it overhangs the floor "contour" there? I'm thinking I'll just get some 3/8" aluminum sheet pieces and use them to "fill the gap" on the lower side.....or did you just bolt them up and crank em down until it flattened the floor ridge? The other issue, of course, is that I'm going to have to change my cargo carrying methods. The only way to get the wheels into the backseat now is to mahandle them past the driver's seat tilted forward, which will suck when they're all muddy... :P I can still get them in as you can see in the pic, but may not be worth the effort. I can put the tires in the trunk, but then my two "field boxes" of stuff that are usually there can't fit in the backseat either. In the end, I may just get some smaller field boxes, lol.....nothing I can't work around, but I was kind of hoping the wheels/tires could fit through the side opening on the bar....oh well

08-19-2012, 05:54 PM	#307
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Before running out this afternoon/evening for a wedding, went ahead and installed the bar. Pretty straightforward, nothing real exciting other than getting it where I wanted it. I drilled and loose-bolted the main hoop feet first, then did the backstays. though the foot plates on the backstay are curved to contour to the wheel wells, the backing plates are not, so I did some pre-bending with a propane torch and a vise.. Did a pretty good job at getting the contour I think. The bolt threads sticking out so far make me a bit nervous with the soft springs on this car, though don't think that the tire could possibly contact them. But I may flip them and put the nut on the inside of the car. Not like I care about the cosmetic aspect there... Once tightened down it did deform the wheel well curvature a bit, but not too much, and not that I care I used a few washers to level the floor plates, but didn't really need to. Once tightened down, as expected, it just flattened out the little ridge in the floor pan. Unlike the autopower bar, which sits on the raised section of the floorpan and causes interference with the fuel/brake lines underneath, the Kirk bar mounts a bit farther inboard so no issues at all - just clean (well, muddy actually) floor pan to deal with will hit everything up with undercoating once I do a final torquing tomorrow. The "inside" face of the backing plates I already painted with POR-15 to keep any rusting away.

08-19-2012, 05:54 PM	#308
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Finished up the rollbar stuff today. Well, except I still need to go pick up some SFI-rated padding next weekend out at OG Racing, which thankfully is local and a great place to get race gear. Fully installed: one reason I went with the Kirk over the Autopower (among others) is that I wanted to make sure there was clearance for my hand-crank rear windows. I don't think they autopower would clear, since its legs mount farther outward and they don't kink in like the Kirk. wheel well backing plates undercoated and all the gaps filled to keep rust out. I also flipped the bolts so as not to have 1" of thread sticking down into the wheel well to hold mud (and possibly contact the tire on a hard impact?). and mocked up a mount for the GoPro, using regular GoPro components. This is a work in progress

08-26-2012, 05:26 PM	#309
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Rained hard today so took the car out for a self-car-wash. Then finished up my inside camera mount, using some 14ga steel cut out of the framing from an old gas fireplace. And since I only have curved GoPro click mounts left, I just curved the platform a bit so I could just use those and don't have to buy more... 2 weeks until the season resumes with a saturday test and tune and then sunday competition. After almost 3 months off, I really can't wait to get back in the dirt. Next year when there is no new baby-having going on, I may try to make a run out to Ohio or another not-too-distant event during the summer break at Summit....I hate waiting. Also would like to give a try at some other surfaces. We'll see. downpour! camera mount

08-27-2012, 03:35 PM	#311
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	what's the MR field look like out there and what kind of surfaces do you guys run on (clay, dirt, etc?). Not that it would matter, just curious.

08-27-2012, 04:42 PM	#313
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	damn, with that group I may not want to come embarrass myself, lol....I can hardly keep up with a near-stock RX-7 running MR locally haha......Of course most of our MR cars locally are really near-stock cars with maybe a few minor mods that are running rally tires. None of us are real MR builds. Light PR at best. Well, once I get the M42 in there and have some reasonable power (yeah, it's sad when 130-140hp is considered "reasonable" these days)....maybe it'll be more competitive if I come next year

09-01-2012, 05:03 PM	#315
irish44j Regular Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Thanks: 39 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	A week to go before the season resumes, and I think the car is generally ready to roll for the time being. Unfortunately, Pat and Jason are a bit behind on their prep and were having an issue with a cylinder missing. So I shot out to West Virginia this morning to do a couple hours of work with Pat in figuring out the problem and checking out some other things on their eta. First we checked compression on the cylinder, which was consistent with the other cylinders, so that was good. Then replaced the distributor and rotor (which had pretty corroded contacts) and plugs (which were pretty grimy). Still had the misfire. Since we didn't have any new wires we swapped a couple of the wires to test that cylinder and it still misfired. So after eliminating the cylinder and ignition, the problem was narrowed down to fuel, obviously. Pat had gotten some reconditioned/cleaned/tested injectors and replaced the leaky/grimy ones that came with the car. We first checked the injector connector/wiring on that cylinder by plugging it into one of the old injectors. It had the usual audible ticking/tapping and seemed to be working. So that really just left the new injector. After spilling much fuel we got it out and plugged it in....and no tapping. Damn. So put in one of the old ones, reassembled...and no more misfire. Goes back to the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" thing, I guess, haha..... After doing that and a few other things I headed back home on some nice winding roads through the mountains (in the WRX, not the e30). Once home, looking for something to do. Pat had traded me a red sport spoiler that I thought might look good on my car for my old black one (since his car is blue). But the red one looked bad, lol. This was a good opportunity to do some painting. My trunk is all scratched up and has several rusty chips in it. Been meaning to hit it with some paint and this was a good excuse. Instead of black, decided to try to match it to the hood color, Delphin Metallic. Of course there is no cross-reference for duplicolor or other rattle-cans.....Did a bit of discreet testing at the store and found that Duplicolor Metallic Gray (formerly 183) is a close match so did up the trunk in a coat of that. the lighting is off, but here's how they compare. Closer in person, and my hood is really dirty. also did the spoiler, though I may do the backside/bottom of it in black. Why two-tone spoiler? Because racekar. Since the hood and trunk don't abut each other, when viewed as a whole car the colors look to be more or less the same, so that's a mission accomplished right there, lol So yeah, pretty much ready for Saturday's test&tune and the main event. Will see what needs to be done after that!