There are a couple of ways of handling this issue. And this is my approach:
I have a 325es that I bought from Glen Porter (a hopeful SpecE30 racer who’s turned since to SpecMiata)… The car was well maintained and was worth a few extra bucks to have such a nicely cared for and clean car to start with… So the motor and diff are good and the overall shape of the car mechanically is good enough for track days and the odd trip to work and long drives on the weekend.
As such my plan of approach has been to get the suspension stabilized and then worry about the safety gear - the very last thing on my list to tackle will be the Engine and Diff. Though I have already bought a Diff from Rob Inthout (RIDS) in San Fernando, he’s an ex-racer and BMW focused dealer in Differentials and Transmissions.
Victor Beraja is our race director and I will clear it with him first, but I plan to race at first with the 2.9 diff and ETA motor for no points but classified as SpecE30(fun) as there is no competitive advantage to the ETA motor. This is what they do in NorCal too. I’d like to do the same for others in my position and also for the guys with the 4 cylinder motor. At least as we grow the class in SoCal.
BTW we are getting prepared for a real push for new participants in SoCal, we have a web site http://socalspece30.com/ and I am going to put together a Google mailing list for us SoCal guys so we can organize. Our main discussion board is obviously this web site, but there are things we still need to discuss in a less public forum.
At this time, we have Frank, Chris, Garrett & Victor as SoCal members with completed cars… Devin, Dave (Frank’s brother), Allan (78kona posting here), Steffen (GottaRace, also posting here) and you and I are all building cars for the SoCal series.
I also have a list of very interested people: Jeremy S. and Geoff S. (Father - Son), Jesten T., Ken, Nick O. and Geoff T. from the BMW Club are all also very interested. I also met a guy with a great chance of building a car at the last LA autocross.
More outside, but looking in are Darren Y. (scared yet?) & Erik I. (another scary fast driver)
We are also working on other ways to bring new members into the SoCal series, Frank, Chris, Dave and I are all BMW Club members and our pool of interested BMW focused track junkies is extraordinary, we’ll be focusing on building interest from that core group of people… We are working on discounted races with the BMW Club (LA) to be able to race on Driver School weekends with BMW CCA Club Racing. This will hopefully generate interest from a crowd already sold on the marque and driving on race tracks.
We have also been invited (yes you too) to run with VARA in the modern era run group, we’re welcomed to run with them as they are a 13-13 rules set group and are willing to let us run as a group for maybe practice days or licensing purposes, or just as a way to get extra days on the track.
Send me you email information and I’ll add you to the google mailing list once I get around to putting it together.
Kieran
Regarding your engine, you can probably get away with pulling the head, having it freshened up and leave the bottom end alone. A lot of guys go this way on their builds. Also, have the machine shop check the specs on your camshaft and not assume it’s good…I learned that lession the hard way! If you have the head done, spend the $$ and replace all the rocker arms with new ones. The old ones have a propensity for breaking and since you have the head off, now is the time to replace them. I learned that lesson the hard way too!