Work has begun on my return to mediocrity!

#1

After spending 2012 building a boat and being poor I am planning my return to racing. As of now the car is in pieces, motor and tranny are out of the car with the front and rear subframes to follow :ohmy: Parts have been ordered and are criss crossing the country en route to my porch. I’m finally going to complete all the projects I’ve had planned.

Since building the car I have basically just changed oil, brakes, and gone racing, but after my last race of 2011 the car was in desperate need of a lot of TLC.

Example my original 1987 clutch which actually finished the last race and has been moving my car around since.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1973979-Did-this-car-mover-under-its-own-power

My CA;s and tie rods were also getting old, and the stock rubber offset CA bushings that I installed probably in 07 were completely shot. 3rd gear on my tranny was also failing, it took several laps for it to warm up and stop grinding every downshift. I also found one of the ears on the transmission mounts had sheared off…no wonder i could never grab 2nd gear when I needed it. I’m picking up my new used tranny from Fred on Sunday. In my budget this time around is also a new set of tires which will be a first for me.

I’m shooting for May CMP but being realistic June RA is more likely.

BTW My wallet hates my race car.

Greg

P.S. bring me a beer when you see me cause chances are I can’t afford my own B)

#2

Awesome. It will be good to have you back. I’ll bring beer.

#3

Nice! See you in June, and i will have few extra brews, but my beer snob days are past, and I usually prefer Cheap American lagers in summertime.

#4

well Pops has put the pressure on and signed up for May CMP…:blink:

#5

Well three cheers for Pops! :laugh:

Will he be back too?

#6

Greg, welcome back! Get Switzer to chime-in, but the SE spec e30 group has been servwd well by the you and Dad at the “house of Moberg” spare parts emporium.

Any way we can help?

RP

#7

We will always miss that great truck you guys had tho.

#8

[quote=“Patton” post=71735]Greg, welcome back! Get Switzer to chime-in, but the SE spec e30 group has been servwd well by the you and Dad at the “house of Moberg” spare parts emporium.

Any way we can help?

RP[/quote]

I could actually use a driveshaft if anybody has one laying around, I was planning on buying a new rebuilt shaft but a good used one could save me a few bucks.

I’m also staring at my engine upside down on the motor stand pondering whether I should replace the rod bearings before I put it all back together. Thoughts?

Are the rear camber/toe adjusters really all that necessary? I’m going to have the rear subframe out to replace the TA bushings, but I had not planned on adding them because I’m really not a tinkerer. The rear subframe is pretty simple to remove so I could always make that a project for this winter, Thoughts??

One last question. It is my understanding after reading up on the annual tech procedures that NASA-SE is no longer doing annuals at the track so I need to have it done beforehand is that correct?

Scott, I miss that truck too, every day that it is 100+* in the paddock I dream of yesteryear when I was relaxing in the air conditioned confines of that truck. The operating costs were just ridiculous.

#9

Re. driveshaft. You’ll find one cheap from someone at bf.c parting out a car.

Re. adj rtabs. Assemble what you have and measure toe and camber. If you can live with what you have, keep it. There’s a number of adj solutions but folks have reported problems with each one so there’s no perfect solution. If I had to do it all over again, I might never have gone to adj rtabs.

Can get annual tech at the track but it’s expensive. No longer have to tech at each event tho.

Re. rod bearings. Pull #6 and look at it. If it appears ok, put it back together and drive on. If you see wear, replace them all. I’m cheap enough that I’d even re-use the rod bolts. Just feel the torque wrench carefully when torquing it back down. You’ll feel it “give” if the bolt is gone. Rod bolts seem to be good for 3-4 uses before they give.

If you replace the rod bearings you might as well buy new rod bolts. Replacing all those rod bearings one of the bolts will probably give on you.

If you replace rod bearings, you might as well replace main bearings too. If you don’t have a dial bore gauge that will do tenthou, at least use plastigage to ensure that any tolerance problems are reasonably small problems.

#10

[quote=“Ranger” post=71744]Re. driveshaft. You’ll find one cheap from someone at bf.c parting out a car.

Re. adj rtabs. Assemble what you have and measure toe and camber. If you can live with what you have, keep it. There’s a number of adj solutions but folks have reported problems with each one so there’s no perfect solution. If I had to do it all over again, I might never have gone to adj rtabs.

Can get annual tech at the track but it’s expensive. No longer have to tech at each event tho.

Re. rod bearings. Pull #6 and look at it. If it appears ok, put it back together and drive on. If you see wear, replace them all. I’m cheap enough that I’d even re-use the rod bolts. Just feel the torqu!e wrench carefully when torquing it back down. You’ll feel it “give” if the bolt is gone. Rod bolts seem to be good for 3-4 uses before they give.

If you replace the rod bearings you might as well buy new rod bolts. Replacing all those rod bearings one of the bolts will probably give on you.

If you replace rod bearings, you might as well replace main bearings too. If you don’t have a dial bore gauge that will do tenthou, at least use plastigage to ensure that any tolerance problems are reasonably small problems.[/quote]

That becomes a whole lot of might as well. Think I’ll just leave it alone for now, I don’t have any reason to expect I have a bearing problem. The head is being rebuilt so I think I’ll just bolt it all back together this time. I’ve got a couple blocks laying around so maybe I’ll cut my teeth and rebuild one of those in my spare time.

#11

Just left the machine shop and it turns out I have 4 bent exhaust valves, looks like I get to tear down another head tonight. I’m really starting to wonder how the damn thing was even running :ohmy:

#12

Got the engine and tranny installed back into the car this past weekend, got everything wired up and it fired after just a few adjustments.

Doing the mustang club event at CMP next weekend as a test, and I will be at RA in June B)

#13

Excellent. Welcome back

#14

[quote=“87isMan” post=72543]Got the engine and tranny installed back into the car this past weekend, got everything wired up and it fired after just a few adjustments.

Doing the mustang club event at CMP next weekend as a test, and I will be at RA in June B)[/quote]

Awesome.

#15

I got the car finished and back together about 3:30 Friday afternoon just in time to load it on the trailer and head to CMP for the mustang club DE. Got the car out on track for the first session Saturday and everything was awesome, car felt great but I didn’t push it very hard as I was heat cycling in my new tires. When I got back to the paddock my car had very loud noise coming from the valves. After letting it sit and cool I popped the valve cover and noticed one rocker eccentric had worked its way loose, I re-adjusted all the valves and the noise was gone. The car ran great the rest of the weekend, I skated around on old crappy RA1s but it was fun. Only issue I’ve got is a weird brake problem I can hopefully cure before RA. See my thread in the brake section to give your thoughts

It was great to get back on the track. My novice student was driving a 550hp 2012 shelby gt500 so I am thankful I survived the weekend to see everyone at RA in a few weeks.

Project Complete

Greg

#16

Spooky. That’s how a person gets hurt.