E30guydownunder's Track Hack, M42 + E85 + Boost

[e30guydownunder 2]

Hey guys thought I may as well start my own thread. Been mentioning it a bit in other people's thread so here is my own for you to ask all your questions and talk sh*t about some drunken Aussie attempting to go racing on the other half of my poor ass student budget

I think what I will do is Give you a rough story on where its all at currently. Then the rest of the background info nd then we'll carry on from there.

Currently the car has a 300k M42 in it, with a Markd Chip and is making 100hp at the wheels. Nothing fanncy but when there isn't much weight to cart around it gets moving alright. I have a fairly cheap suspension setup but it is definitely working for me. And here are some recent pictures:

Then for some retarded reason I figured I wanted more power? The natural progression I guess. So I have embarked on a turbo conversion. But nothing is ever simple. So I decided I would move the engine back about 95mm to help with weight dsitribution and then I decided I would do this and do that etc etc. Here's a few photo's to show where that has got to.

By this stage I was getting a bit worn down and time was running out for getting the turbo up and running for the new season. Then I made this mistake:

At which point I have sin binned all the turbo bits for a little while Having just done my first track day in four months I am full of renewed enthusiasm to get it all happening again, but right now I am going to focus on a few suspension issues and uni has started up again, so I have to concerntrate on that as well.

That will do for tonight, more to come

[e30guydownunder 2]

Alrighty so I came to the decision a 318i wasn't for me and upgraded to a 318iS. The new baby came with some 17" chromie shite that I couldn't dump fast enough. In the process I picked up a set of MIM 1900 wheels off a nice local bloke. We got a bit to talking and he mentioned how he was going to embark on a RHD conversion for his newly purchased M3 and that his track hack 325 was going to donate the critical brackets and firewall pieces. I had a quick look and couldn't believe how good a condition this "rust bucket" of a thrashed and "worn out" 325 I was looking at. We struck up a deal and I got a straight 325 shell and he got the front half of the bent 318iS (bought at auction for some front end panels...lil 318i had a stack ) kicking round I had. This 318iS kindly donated it's running gear to the cause and I was now well on my way to having that pipe dream racing E30.

The 325 roller:

All pretty typical really. The bent shell from which I took the critical peices:

Alright lets get cracking on removing stuff!

And that about covers all that went on with shell, before the rollcage and rest of this silly business. I ended up getting about 8kgs of insulation off the underside....pretty piss poor when you consider I spent three days attacking it with an angle griver and wire wheel attachment

Edited March 18, 2010 by e30guydownunder

[e30guydownunder 2]

the rollcage

[e30guydownunder 2]

the suspension and other chassis crap

[e30guydownunder 2]

some minor mod cons

[Eddie 66]

photo's of rolla?

[Guest Simon*]

Hey Chris!

Cool project. There's a lot of sentimental affinity here for Turboed M42's - one particularly badass red one passed through many hands in the past.

Has the blue bracket frame been fabbed up to allow the block to sit further back?

There seems to be some issues with linking your later images or something of that nature.

[e30guydownunder 2]

The only post with pictures in it is the first one. I just booked the other posts for when I feel like adding the essay and appropriate pictures If there is an issue in the first post I can't see at the moment so will have a look later.

The Blue Frame is a front cut. Or if you were talking about the RHS on the front of the engine that was used to position the crank. The engine has been moved backwards 95mm and rotated clockwise 10-15degrees.

Hopefully at some point this shall be a badass turbo'd M42 but I think the turbo is a bit small to allow that currently. Its a GT2560R and should just be able to squeeze out a bit over 200hp at the wheels. Will be nice and responsive though and has many bigger bolt in brothers GT2871 etc

Edited March 16, 2010 by e30guydownunder

[Forrest 35]

Very cool, follow this on e30tech a bit, will be a little monster when its done

[e30guydownunder 2]

Roller pics up. Thanks Nathan...if it isn't atleast a little bit of a monster there will be tears! and a bigger turbo

[Cale 36]

M42T FTW!

Good stuff man.

[Guest Ari Gold]

Been following this on r3v, nice work mate!

[antil33t 90]

Win sir

[e30guydownunder 2]

Alright guys. I have a confession.

1) updates are long over due, for that I appologise

2) I gave up!

The M42 was getting too expensive and taking too long. But before we get to the meat of the story. Some background work that was happening regardless!

A Brake Upgrade, front and rear are now ventilated. F: 280x24mm, 2 piston WRX Caliper, R: 270x19mm, Single Piston WRX Caliper. These calipers were free.

Painted some Stuff:

Welded some stuff

more painting of stuff

Oh what a large drivetrain you have there in your E30:

The Gearbox is out of a 300ZX, but don't be fooled it ain't got a VG in there. Nope this now has an SR20, tractor engine I know, but you can't beat the price of these things. Dollar for Power I don't know what beats it. Apparently the Mitsubishi stuff is cheap too, but a RWD box is much harder to come across for those!

ANYWAY, So I've gone and stuck an SR in the thing. Since then I have basically ahd to rework the whole setup!

I believe the first engine suffered some oil starvation at the hands of theprevious owner. Use was promtply stopped, the car sat around for a while, then he got the bright idea to sell it all!

I came across a "350whp SR20, gearbox and everything package" sweet I though, I was currently going through a bit of depression with the whole E30 project and life in general so this seemed like the answer. I had a track day in 4 weeks time and purchased an SR20. I then proceeded to bust my balls and also enlisted the help of my father, brother and a few mates. It was an all hands on deck effort to get this thing there.

Then to go to the Dyno the day before the track day and have the engine drop shits its pants about an hour into tuning and not even one proper power run on the board was a bit heart breaking. BUT, thats racing right! No pain no gain.

Some pics:

Intercooler mounted

Cold pipe

Dump pipe

New shifter location

Heater and turbo water cooling delete

We modified the position of the wastegate and then made up a screamer pipe

Heading off for the disappointment unknowning!

On the Dyno:

Alright so I picked myself up, bought an S13 and stripped it of its SR then sold it.

The New engine is pretty stout:

Arias forged pistons

Eagle rods w/ ARP2000 Bolts

Balanced

New oil pump

Ported and Polished head (only minor work)

HKS stage 2 272 exhaust cam , and 264 intake cam

HKS Valve Springs

HKS Rocker Arm Stoppers

new timing chain

all new gasket incl Metal head gasket with Cap screws holding it down

The cams were removed as it was suspected they were the source of a noise. I'm now no longer convinced this is the case and may reinstalled them yet.

SOME MORE BASTARDRY:

One thing that struck us as odd was how the Z32 conversion had been carried out. There were only 4 bolts holding the gearbox on! And non were across the bottom! Have since worked out this has stuffed the twin plate clutch that it was fitted with. But in any case. We have taken the time and made provisions in the Sump for some extra bolts to come through the gearbox!

[e30guydownunder 2]

SOOO BRING ON ROUND 2

So the new engine has been in and going for a lil while now. The setup has been changed further though. The turbo was f**ked.

So I bought a standard manifold and TD06SL2 (the turbine is a bit smaller than TD06H) with a nissan turbine housing setup. this means internal gate.

I modified my dump pipe to suit, hooked up water cooling lines also and was happy with progress:

Nearly ready to go off to the dyno:

Some heatshields and sh*t:

That was last Thursday night. Found out we have some overboosting problems. So we set it up with buggerall ignition where necessary and pretty rich and came home with 243whp @ 6300rpm. An a calculated 450Nm from a touch over 3000rpm to 6000.

But f**k it I'm going to this trackday! Dad had Friday off to try and finish the car and I cam home from work and we ended up staying home the night (normally head down the day before an event at Wakefield). We were all loaded up by 1030 and ready to go.

Overheating, Boostcut issues aside I still knocked out a 1:10.8 and was happy with that. I wanted to go home with a 10 in the bag. More importantly I came home with the car in one piece and know we are only going forwards. There is probably an easy 2 seconds left in the car once I have the overheating and overboosting issues sorted.

I've already ordered some piping to make brake ducting so that should see an improvement in that department.

There are a few contributing factors to the overheating so we are going to tackle these before returning to the dyno, controlling the boost and dialling in some ignition for some more power. NOT THAT it needs it.

The car is still incredibly easy and nice to drive. It's very well balanced and doesn't sit around spinning the wheels or anything silly. It just gets down and goes. I'm very happy with the throttle response and way the turbo comes on. Basically it goes hard!

Get these issues sorted, drive it and watch the times tumble

Here is a picture of the new front bumper we fitted as part of the conversion.

All important Side pipe!

[e30guydownunder 2]

Alright So I'm back from the track and we have had a sit and a think about it all. Very happy with how the car is and how it performed first event out.

I'm aiming for a trackday October long weekend (first weekend). The job list is fair but modest.

Things that will happen:

Turbo setup removed. Wastegate Flapper Fixed, Manifold ported to match head

- Test, if boost is controllable - TUNE

- if boost uncontrolled still, add my external gate.

Diff will come out and my 4 Diff Plate centre with more preload will be going in, new bearings seals etc.

CV's will be stripped, reassembled with new grease and boots (assuming nothing looks particularly wrong)

Brake Ducts made and fitted

Front Splitter made and fitted to front bar - incorporating substancial radiator ducting

Maybe List

Throw the HKS cams back in

tidy the interior more - wiring is still a bit of a mess

CAN communication between Dash and ECU

[Lucan 196]

I like your style, serious motivation..boost hah

Reading these builds makes me want a track thrasher so bad!

Must, resist...

[e30guydownunder 2]

Thanks Mate.

It was a struggle towards the end there, but now that I have got it there and driven the thing I'm much happier! I have some uni work I am trying to sort out, but hopefully will get stuck into fixing up the few problems I have and make some progress towards getting some back to back laps!

The car is showing so much potential, I want to up the anty on the aero but I love the understated look currently. I'm definitely fitting a front splitter, but a Rear wing would get me some serious time at Eastern Creek with all the high speed corners.

Here are a few pics from the event I found on the net:

[e30guydownunder 2]

I have fixed the SR for good.

Back to old faithful M42......but now with proper boost.

Better pics and such when I have time, busy preparing it for the Mattara Hillclimb this October long weekend. I am running in the club day event on the Monday because all my mates are but anyway.

So Basic Specs:

BMW M42 (1.8L 4 Cylinder)

CP Pistons

ARP Rod Bolts, Main Studs, Oversize Headstuds

O-ringed Head and Block, Copper Headgasket

Cat Cams, VAC Motorsport Springs and Retainers

Custom Rear Sump

Garret GT3076R, 0.63 Rear Housing, Tial MVR 44 on custom Manifold

DTA S60 still running the show

Fuel Cell, 2 x 044's, 1600 Bosch Injectors and a bunch of other supporting mods.

I have changed to a Getrag G260 (325i trans) overdrive transmission and a 3.46 rear end, this is good for a touch over 200 in 4th and should mean I don't have to change to 5th at Wakefield.

There has been a whole pile of background developments but they are for later. Right now I am going to drive the wheels off this thing and put the development program on hold, I am well sick of wrenching.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Made it through the first event not without drama but I made it!

-coming home from scrut Thursday night got a flat tyre on the trailer (not so fun)

- Friday morning same wheel feel off trailer, broken stub axle!

- Monday morning rip exhaust off car trying to get off borrowed trailer. Got it patched up just in time for first run.

- Second run intercooler pipe comes off, hmmm did that on dyno, reassemble should be sweet.

- Third run, nope off it goes again.

- Fourth run all apples, rigged up some dodgy tie straps to the inlet.

Obviously this turbo setup was never going to be super awesome for a Hillclimb, add in that I had installed a 3.46 diff to suit Wakefield and Eastern Creek and it wasn't super pleasant. But I am pleased to have had a day out, simple easy to fix dramas and it came home straight and ready to go again, more than can be said for a number of cars that were competing also.

http://youtu.be/_js2ubNPhkc

Got some sweet pics too

Edited October 16, 2013 by e30guydownunder

[westy 614]

Nice work Chris.

Where are the pics taken? Looks warm....

[Apex 693]

Fantastic photo's and build, good to see you are out doing it to it!

[e30guydownunder 2]

Nice work Chris.

Where are the pics taken? Looks warm....

The Hillclimb was run through King Edward Park, Bar Beach is in the background. Newcastle, NSW. It was a hell of a nice day.

Fantastic photo's and build, good to see you are out doing it to it!

Cheers.

Edited October 16, 2013 by e30guydownunder